2008, Self-Released
In the first 60 seconds of The Going and the Gone, listeners might think they’ve put on Built to Spill, or maybe the Wallflowers, or maybe early Wilco.
Category Archives: reviews
Review: The Kills; May 19, 2008 at The Casbah; San Diego
A fever descended upon the sold-out Casbah as the Kills took the stage, seducing the crowd with their unique blend of blues, punk, and sex. The band drew mainly from their new album Midnight Boom, tearing into renditions of “U.R.A. Fever,†“Tape Song,†and “Sour Cherry,†but still touched upon old favorites like “Fried My Little Brains,†“Wait,†and “Love Is A Deserter.â€
Backed only by a drum machine, Alison “VV” Mosshart and Jamie “Hotel” Hince shared vocal duties, with Hotel playing the lion’s share of guitar. The songs dripped with danger and excitement, such as on “No Wow,†where the pair used their palpable on-stage chemistry to carry the song from its ominous, simmering beginning to an explosive conclusion that was equal parts sexual tension and musical release.
Alan Wilkis – Babies Dream Big
2008, Wilcassettes
Alan Wilkis‘ obvious range of influences translates into a kind of unexpected and accessible pop music that is consistently entertaining, with enough variety to avoid sounding derivative.
HotChaCha – Rifle, I Knew You When You Were Just A Pistol
2008, Exit Stencil Records
HotChaCha is a group from Cleveland that according to MySpace is comprised of women who are “each 18, married, wear red shoes, are blonde and slim.”
Album Review: Scarlett Johansson – Anywhere I Lay My Head
I must admit that, like many, I approached the concept of a Scarlett Johansson album of Tom Waits covers as one might approach a dollar bill dangling from a shark’s mouth. I wanted to disregard it, pretend it didn’t exist, scoff at anyone so foolish as to go near it expecting anything but an unhappy ending.
But in the secret recesses of my mind, I quietly hoped that, despite the odds, the album could actually be good and not tarnish the name of Mr. Waits—my favorite musical artist and one of the most important contributors to the great sloshing pool of noise we call music. Having finally listened to the album in all its uneven glory, I can say that the actual product is more complicated than either of my divergent expectations could have anticipated.
It’s clear from the instrumental first track that ScarJo is not the one running this show. That credit belongs to David Sitek, the album’s producer (better known as the guitarist for TV On The Radio and producer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Sitek infuses the album with that sleepy, sexy, post-modern urban ambiance that fans of TVOTR know quite well. But while TVOTR singer Tunde Adebimpe can turn a detached vocal delivery into a sharpened weapon, Johansson’s disembodied vocals sound more asleep-at-the-wheel than calm-and-cool, and it is this detachment that plagues the entire album, frequently dragging it through the mud just when it tries to soar.