MP3: Wye Oak – “Civilian”
MP3: Wye Oak – “Warning”
MP3: Callers – “Life of Love”
MP3: Callers – “Heartbeat”
MP3: Gun Runner – “Sweet Tea”
MP3: Gun Runner – “Borderline”
When it comes to opening bands, it’s usually smart to keep expectations low — but on March 21 at the Casbah, getting there early paid off. Continue reading…
Video: Cut Copy – “Need You Now”
With their new album Zonoscope, Cut Copy have created one of 2011’s first genuinely exciting albums.
While unabashedly continuing down the same path of epic dance rock for which they’ve been known since 2001’s I Thought of Numbers, Cut Copy have also taken a step forward in terms of production and overall sound — thanks in part to producer Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter).
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart — who were named after an unpublished children’s story written by a friend of lead singer Kip Berman — return today with their second full-length, Belong. The record was produced by Flood and mixed by Alan Moulder of Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine fame, respectively.
Title track “Belong” opens the album with 12 seconds of unobtrusive musical pleasantry, followed by an eruption of hard distortion that will encourage immediate air-guitar strummage from anyone who suffered through their teens in the 1990s. Cue Berman’s sexy vocals and some I’m-bored-so-let’s-just-do-it lyrics (“If you’re mine / I don’t mind / we tried another / let’s try each other”) and you have the recipe for a PoBPaH grilled chicken sandwich (but clearly not a PoBPaH coq au vin).
There’s no musical rocket science here. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart simply make music that is easy to listen to: catchy guitar+keyboard melodies, four-by-four bass plucking and drum beating, guy/girl harmonies that make it easy to sing along with your significant other in the car, and lyrics that inspire self-inflicted, diminutive mysterioso (see the lyric “Held my breath / thought of death / and things I’d like to do ’til then” on “Girls of 1000 Dreams”). Continue reading…
Little Hurricane blew in and out of San Diego like the force of nature they’re named after. Over the coarse of a single year, the two-piece burst onto the scene, quickly became one of the city’s most promising acts, won Best New Artist at the San Diego Music Awards, then moved away to roam the country like nomads.
That whirlwind romance has made Little Hurricane feel like the band that got away, but now the just-released Homewrecker has arrived like a love letter out of the blue. The ominous “Trouble Ahead” kicks off the album with a Kim Thayil-inspired riff chugging beneath Anthony Catalano’s seething vocals, but it isn’t long before the Soundgarden influence defers to a more prominent muse.
The similarities between Little Hurricane and The White Stripes are easy to spot and hard to ignore. Both are male/female blues-rock duos, and Catalano’s voice has that same choked power that gives Jack White’s delivery its visceral heft. But throughout Homewrecker, yet another point of comparison becomes apparent in Celeste Spina’s backups, which are sung with a ghostly airiness — first on the call and response of “Crocodile Tears” and then on the slow-burning “Shortbread” — that bears a striking resemblance to Meg White. In Little Hurricane’s live sets, Spina’s voice is barely audible above the crack of her drums, but on record the Meg-iness is unmistakeable. Continue reading…
In a much-anticipated performance, Sub Pop dream poppers Papercuts played the Tin Can Ale House last Saturday. Continue reading…