From the moment “Blood Red Youth” eases its way in to open Art History – California Wives' debut album – some listeners will just have a flood of images come rushing at them all at once: John Hughes movie posters, sequences out of Christian Slater movies, scenes from Cure, Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins music videos circa 1992, Replacements music videos released between 1985 and 1990 and more. Listeners will be surprised at how vividly and vibrantly those images come rushing...

Sometimes attempting to draw a line through music history to connect the different points which ultimately combined to present the portrait of a new record can be difficult, but that is not a problem from which anyone who hears Night Loop – the new album by Harlan – will suffer. The ingredients responsible doe the flavor are easy to pick out: a couple of pounds of Eighties new wave mixed with a cup of Brit-Pop and a table spoon of...

There are just so many things that it's possible to assume about Mother Mother as one digs into their fourth album, The Sticks. Those who became familiar with the band courtesy of their delirious and hyperactive breakthrough album, 2011's Eureka, will immediately assume that Mother Mother has elected to follow the “make a dark record after the breakthrough to frighten off fair-weather fans” route which was so fashionable at the end of last century, but that's really not likely. The...

Those of a certain age may remember events a little differently but, forty years after they started, it has become difficult to recall what Heart should have been known or remembered for – outside of maybe a few songs like “Crazy on You,” “Barracuda,” “Love Alive” and “Heartless.” How did something like that get forgotten? Unfortunately for them, Heart broke through in Canada before they made it in the U.S. (in spite of being American) and they were regularly brushed...

Hey Junky!How youse doin' ya bastids? Me? I'm like a box o' fluffy ducks! I tracked down a buncha chronic, habit-formin' junk since las' time I was'ere, an' I wanna lay it on ya right now. Awright so here it is. Dis week, I nabbed a buncha great stuff thatcha gotta nab. Like I grabbed a buncha tunes from the new Amanda Palmer project! This stuff is great – I'm tellin' you – she ain't neva sounded betta, anna sound...