REVIEWS

Neil Young + Promise of The Real The Monsanto Years (Reprise/Warner) Can we all just agree to stop picking on Neil Young for a couple minutes, readers? Granted, the singer has left himself open for lots of critical abuse over the years (the most recent event that nobody wants to talk about is Pono), but there’s a time and place for everything and trying to rip apart The Monsanto Years on the basis of past errors isn’t it. So is...

NEEDS s/t (File Under: Music) It’s funny how, while the sound of an album might not seem particularly interesting upon a listener’s first exposure to it, it’s possible for something to spontaneously change, shift the focus of the music ever-so-slightly and suddenly make it totally captivating.Such a thing happened for me the first time I heard NEEDS’ self-titled debut; when I put it on, I was less than thrilled to discover that almost none of the usual trappings which qualify...

Over the last few years, several artists have managed to successfully resuscitate the theatrics of old vaudeville and revival productions (see The Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer’s solo work – to name just the biggest of big names) and actually made the form interesting again. It’s been really cool to watch and, with that success at hand, it almost seemed inevitable that interest would shift to another fading style of music, and someone would try to start reviving it too....

Artist: Black Lips Album: Arabia Mountain Label: Vice Records Every two years when Black Lips re-surface, each new recording is slightly more polished than the last, each managing to sound as though it cost nothing make. Sometimes it costs a lot to sound cheap, and with in-demand producer Mark Ronson helming their new opus, the trashy garage sound synonymous with the Lips was in question. However the result is perfect with Ronson’s diverse musical taste fueling the integrity of their...

ARTIST: The Decemberists – DATE: 03-07-07 REVIEW BY: Clara Druzgalski ALBUM: The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook (DVD) LABEL: Kill Rock Stars   The Decemberists are headed up. They recently signed to Capitol Records for their fourth studio album The Crane Wife, have been touring to promote it with sold out shows, and have somehow managed to get their name on the Coachella poster printed larger than Sonic Youth’s. I have no idea how that happened, but it just goes...

ARTIST: Neko Case VENUE: The Henry Fonda, Los Angeles DATE: 02-27-07 REVIEW BY: Aaron Autrand PHOTO: Timothy Norris There’s something to be said for the amount of pull an artist has with their peers. In the instance of Neko Case, there’s a hell of a lot of it. On her recent tour, she played with Eric Bachman of Crooked Fingers and supported Merle Haggard, and will play with Emmylou Harris in March. In rock terms, those last two would compare...

ARTIST: Los Campesinos! – DATE: 01-17-10 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets LABEL: Arts & Crafts/Wichita Now Playing: ‘Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)’ from Sticking Fingers Into Sockets by Los Campesinos! If The Vaselines had been slightly more accomplished on their instruments, if Arctic Monkeys didn’t take themselves so seriously, if The Fratellis had a better sense of humor, well, none of them could have been Los Campesinos – a band smart enough to...

ARTIST: Joan Jett – DATE: 08-08-08 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Sinner LABEL: Blackheart Now Playing: ‘Riddles’ from Sinner For her first album of new material since 1994’s Pure and Simple, Joan Jett has elected to go back to basics with Sinner. ‘Back to basics,’ in this case, means playing to the singer’s strengths: heavy handed guitar riffs and Jett’s own signature mezzo soprano growling vocals take stage center over The Blackhearts’ hard-driving rhythms that, this time, have a...

ARTIST: Sonic Youth DATE: 12-08-06 REVIEW BY: Jon Pruett ALBUM: Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities LABEL: Geffen Pretty strange that just as Sonic Youth’s time at Geffen comes to an end, they also are riding strong on the energy of two back to back great albums (Sonic Nurse and Rather Ripped). The Sonic Youth devotee might chime in right here and say that they’ve yet to release a bad album, and while that is technically true, they haven’t been this...

ARTIST: Pela DATE: 12-04-06 WRITER: Aaron Autrand It’s one of the more annoying things about writing about music. An album crosses your desk in a little cardboard sleeve or a jewel case with no cover. It’s a band you’ve never heard of, one of twenty or so in the stack you have to listen to that day. Each CD gets about three minutes, usually enough to tell if it warrants another listen or will just go in a box and...