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...

ARTIST: Pavement DATE: 12-04-06 REVIEW BY: Casey Lombardo ALBUM: Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition LABEL: Matador Records Now Playing: “Grounded” from Wowee Zowee Ah, sweet Wowee Zowee. The difficult third album. The one that true blue Pavement-philes derive the greatest pleasure in championing: it’s neither the definitive classic (Slanted & Enchanted) as deemed by establishment rock journos nor the beloved-by-girlfriends, 120 Minutes mainstay (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain). No, with its mixture of kaleidoscopic songwriting...

No one wants their rock stars to be clean cut, apart from all the Buddy Holly fanatics out there. Musicians are heroes that we can live through vicariously—swilling whisky every night, nonchalantly hooking up with random groupies in towns big and small, making showering an optional activity—surveying them alternately with jealousy and disgust. The same can be said for the music they put out. Gritty, boozy and blustery are all adjectives critics love to apply to any blues-inflected rock that...

Ah, sweet Wowee Zowee. The difficult third album. The one that true blue Pavement-philes derive the greatest pleasure in championing: it’s neither the definitive classic (Slanted & Enchanted) as deemed by establishment rock journos nor the beloved-by-girlfriends, 120 Minutes mainstay (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain). No, with its mixture of kaleidoscopic songwriting and generously baked jams, Wowee was destined to be embraced by a rare breed of snobbish rock fan, blaring from only the loneliest of dorm rooms in 1995 and...

The Cold War Kid’s debut full-length album Robbers & Cowards out on Downtown Recordings is more or less a compilation of songs found on previously released EPs. Singer Nathan Willett’s amazing vocal pitch and dexterity is probably the first thing you’ll notice as you make your way through this record. The second track on the album, “Hang Me Up to Dry,” will undoubtedly paralyze you with its overwhelmingly hooky bass line and vocal melody followed by the funky surf guitar...

In the weeks before the 2006 CMJ Music Conference, the annual music industry event which takes place in Manhattan every year, I have done possibly more research and preparation than I have for any other industry event in my life. Why? Well, I have decided that I want to “maximize my experience.” I have listened to clips of bands I never want to hear ever again, I have investigated MySpace pages, I have RSVP’d to promo reps and typed things...

Billed as a cultural exposé of sorts, encompassing the realms of music, art and fashion—the Be the Riottt festival, which took place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in November, was never going to live up to its far-reaching intent, but it did put together a line-up that was pretty amazing. The top draw acts were a crazy mixture of the hip and the hip-hop: The Rapture, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Explosions in the Sky as well as The Clipse, Sage...