Four years ago I claimed that I would come back to Austin for South by Southwest every year until I die, and so far I’ve kept that promise. Continue reading…
Category Archives: reviews
Review: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with The Whigs; March 13, 2010; House Of Blues, San Diego
A couple of years ago, staring down the barrel of my approaching thirties and in peak quarter-life crisis mode, I came up with the obvious solution to my ennui — I bought a motorcycle. Even though my riding phase lasted less than a year, it was awesome, and 90% of the sonic fuel blasting freedom and badassery into my helmet was none other than Athens, Georgia’s The Whigs. When I heard these dudes were in town to support fellow joyride soundtrackers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, I threw on my Zeke Death Alley biker shirt and my finest tattered jeans and headed down to House of Blues to rock it out. Continue reading…
Review: MAN/MIRACLE – THE SHAPE OF THINGS
On their LP, THE SHAPE OF THINGS, MAN/MIRACLE have done away with minuscule letters and churned out a solid thirty minutes of all-caps, genre-hopping power pop.
The first half of the album is catchy as hell. The lo-fi, major-key island hook and afrobeat of album opener “ABOVE THE SALON” sounds like Vampire Weekend playing inside a sealed U-Haul trailer.
“HOT SPRAWL” and “UP” maintain that energy, with toms like a locomotive driving hollering, energetic sing-alongs (provided you don’t mind making up words to approximate the mostly unintelligible lyrics). Continue reading…
Review: Quasi with Explode Into Colors; March 14, 2010; Casbah, San Diego
Nobody really likes seeing opening bands. Unless the band in question is someone you already know and/or like, sitting through an opening act is usually something people do to be polite or because they got to the show too early. Openers can be awful, boring, or, at worst, awfully boring. In their slot as opener for indie rock heroes Quasi, fellow Portlanders Explode Into Colors could have been just another in that mediocre tradition. Instead, the unassuming trio upstaged Quasi. Continue reading
Review: The Clientele with The Wooden Birds; March 4, 2010; Casbah, San Diego
The Thursday night crowd that came to see The Clientele at the Casbah was bubbling. Half of them had just come from a successful SoundDiego launch party; the other half were presumably just happy to be celebrating the unofficial start of the weekend with syrupy pop exported from England. It was a fun crowd to be a part of, and especially fun to hear the chatter peppered by the English accents of a few of The Clientele’s San Diego British expat fans. Continue reading…