One of One of 
Teenage Fanclub may not be the most prolific bands in the world
but they are defiantly one of the most consistent. Their second album for Merge
(following the fantastic Man-Made) offers 12 more slices of the melodious,
understated pop that has become their signature.
When Jon Spencer yelped "play the blues, punk!" back in 1994, the notion
seemed almost blasphemous in an American indie culture still trying to
sever ties with rock 'n' roll's past. But in a post-White Stripes/Black
Keys world, the blues have been deemed a safe haven for grown-up punks
who still like to keep it raw and real, but couldn't give two shits
about fleeting hipster fashions. And few are enjoying their second wind
quite like local bluesman catl. (a.k.a. ex-Pecola frontman Jamie
Fleming) and his skin-beating accomplice Johnny LaRue (formerly of
garage-rock marauders The Exploders) -- for album number two, the duo
have even added multi-instrumentalist/cheerleader Sarah K to better
approximate the experience of a joyous, and exceedingly sweaty,
Sunday-night juke-joint bender. But being the seasoned vets that they
are, catl. and crew know not to show their hand too early: With the
Lord for cowards... begins in congenial busker-blues mode (complete
with a foot-stompin' cover of Charley Patton's "Oh Death"), before
introducing some Stonesy swagger ("Church on Time") and Blues Explosive
funk ("Caroline") and bringing it on home with the slide-geetar grease
of "Workin' Man's Soul" -- the sort of paint-peeling closer that makes
you hope whatever venues catl. play next are up to spec on their
fire-code regulations. Eye Weekly ]]>
The old comedy adage goes that if it bends, it's funny, but if it
breaks, it's not. Tell that to Drive-By Truckers, who break everything
in sight yet still strike tragicomic gold every time. The Big To-Do,
their eighth full-length, features
another cast of walking-dead survivors struggling with their vices in a
Faulknerian landscape of rocked-up desperation. "The Fourth Night of My
Drinking" is the money shot, detailing an epic bender that frontman
Patterson Hood concludes "will be through with me before I'm through
with it." Spin Magazine 
Like "Ambling Alp", Odd Blood itself should appeal to a lot of
people: Yeasayer have made a potentially vanguard record using the full
range of possibilities of software-based music to create what once
would have been radio-friendly rock. The elastic "O.N.E." and the Tears
for Fears-ish "I Remember" are successful mid-80s throwbacks, achieving
the full potential hinted at on All Hour Cymbals and rivaling
that album's best material. Opener "The Children" also works by
tailoring their offbeat tendencies into a tightly packaged song. In
much of the first half of the album, Yeasayer demonstrate a rare
craftsmanship and consideration that's too often shoved under the rug
in modern indie music. Their lyrics may not say much of anything, but
their agile arrangements, sense of dynamics and pacing, and singer
Chris Keating's expressive vocals communicate plenty- Pitchfork.com
he songs on Pierced Arrows' first album, Descending Shadows,
sound so loose and intuitive that you might assume they were recorded
as the band was just learning how to play them. But what you're hearing
is the effortless ability of at least 75 years of collective
garage-punk experience, courtesy of the husband-and-wife team of Fred
and Toody Cole. The former leaders of Dead Moon, the Coles likely make
up this music while mowing the lawn in some backwoods town where no
one's even heard of blogs, because these tunes are timeless, and
unsullied by modern taste. Even as garage rock in the vein of Crazy
Horse, the dodgy tempo shifts of "Paranoia," crusty call-out choruses
of "On Our Way" and "This Is the Day" and paleolithic riffage of "Let
It Rain" are unlike anything even the most obscurantist record store
clerk could name-drop. Sure, Toody's singing makes Kim Gordon sound
like Karen Carpenter, and drummer Kelly Halliburton holds it all
together, but this is as real as rock 'n' roll gets. - Eye Weekly
Basia Bulat is a singer-songwriter who hails from London, Ontario. Her
debut album Oh, My Darling was produced by Howard Bilerman (Godspeed
You! Black Emperor, The Arcade Fire), and released on Rough Trade in
2007. The song "Little Waltz" from the album was used in a 2007
Australian Volkswagen Eos advertisement and drew some attention to her
work. The new album Hear Of My Own sees Howard Bilerman again at the
desk. The instrumentation on the album is a lot more varied than Oh, My
Darling. Basia claims "I think it is at times extremely sparse and
spacious, with big choirs singing, and then it gets really dense with
really spirited and rolling drums, and I think I even managed to pull
off a Johnny Cash-inspired country song." She plays autoharp, guitar,
piano, organ, pianoette, banjo, ukulele, bass and of course, sings.]]>
Limited deluxe CD/DVD edition including a bonus DVD containing a video
for every song on the album, each by a different director.. 2010 album
from the Baltimore duo. Recorded in upstate New York, in a converted
church called Dreamland with producer/engineer Chris Coady (who has
worked with TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Blonde Redhead), Teen
Dream is their third album and their Sub Pop debut. Teen Dream gives
voice to a full universe of unbridled imagination, and the
manifestation of the album has been a welcomed and all-consuming
obsession for Beach House the past nine to 12 months. 
At 27 minutes, Fall Be Kind is short enough to invite another
play once "I Think I Can" fades out, which means a return to that
striking second half of "Graze". When a band tries something that
shouldn't work and brings it off, it's a sign of confidence. Animal
Collective's focus and general disinterest in looking over their
shoulders obviously makes what they're doing that much more appealing.
But the most interesting thing about them at this point may be that,
despite all the great music they've been making the past few years,
it's not hard to imagine them failing. They've honed their craft and
become very good at what they do, but there still seems to be a desire
to go to unfamiliar realms, and it's possible that wherever they head
next will turn out to be place they don't inhabit as easily. There's
still a sense of gamble with Animal Collective, nothing is fixed-- and
that's exactly what makes them an especially exciting band. for full review go www.pitchforkmedia.com ]]>
Before putting the idea of a 3xCD set aside, Drummer Kid Millions told
an interviewer the project was "the stone tablets of Onieda." Given how
hard it is to nail the band down to one sound, figuring out what those
tablets could be remained a mystery. The good news: Between beat-heavy
studio workouts, some of their loosest instrumental jams, and their
most liberal use of "O"-related puns in song titles, Oneida were
considerate enough to build it all around lean, no-frills rock on par
with the best of their earlier work. Rated O contains the band's wildest experiments while still covering most of their previous sonic tentpoles. Oneida are the only band running that I could tell a listener with a
straight face, yes, it's worth three discs, and it's worth your time. - Jason Crock (Pitchfork) For the full review visit http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13215-rated-o/ ]]>
Of their three post-reunion albums so far, The Sound the Speed the Light sounds
the most industrious, the most like another day at the office. There's
nothing surprising here, and some songs are so signature-styled you
might wonder if you've heard them before. But when it comes to office
work, Burma's day beats most bands' years. So the lack of surprise also
means a lack of flaws, and a lot of energy and power. When these guys
punch the clock, they take the phrase literally. Pitchfork]]>
On the unexpectedly terrific There Is No Enemy, it becomes immediately clear what had been missing, and sure enough, it was invisible: While Enemy technically sounds just like every Built to Spill record since Keep It Like a Secret-- the pinwheeling guitar fantasias, the ambling tempos, and the wayward vocal lines are all here--
it is buoyed by a fresh sense of emotional stakes, an urgency that puts
wind back in the band's sails. For the first time in almost 10 years,
it seems that Martsch might actually have something he wants to say.Pitchforkmedia]]>
Toronto's favourite gay church-folk collective is in usual form on
Origin:Orphan, their first on Arts&Crafts (in Canada) and their
fifth studio record overall. Shying away from their indie-pop mechanics
to revel in world-music experimentation, Joel Gibb's tenorous
harmonization soars above the fray on "Ratify The New" and "Walk On,"
featuring a guitar part that sounds ripped off from U2. While their sex
talk has faded (there are no golden showers here), the standout track
remains the slow burning "Do I Belong?," in which the band channel Max
Webster synth sleaze while experiencing an existential crisis. Though
the breezy "In The NA" remains the "Doot Doot Plot" of Origin:Orphan,
music is no longer Gibb's sole boyfriend -- he's doing lyricism on the
side. Eye Weekly]]>
The garage-rock bandgasm that is The Almighty Defenders finds the King
Khan And The BBQ Show and the Black Lips in a gospel-inspired
collaboration resulting from the Lips fleeing India and ending up at
Khan's Berlin flat. Their self-titled debut is pretty much just what
you'd expect: distortedly ecstatic call-and-response vocals, 1950s song
structures and the lowest in lo-fi recording. While the music isn't
nearly as memorable as what King Khan, Mark Sultan or the Black Lips
are capable of on their own, there's an infectious vibe of wasted
camaraderie that makes you want to down a bunch of tequila shots and
praise the gods of garage in the best way possible: starting a band of
your own. The Almighty Defenders should go over well with the bands'
current congregations. but I doubt we'll see many new converts -Eye Weekly
I could easily rustle up praise for every track
on the album; notwithstanding a title that says too much weed at best
and religious cult at worst, Infinite Light is solid. And its
overall quality owes more than a small debt to the fact that Webber and Wells
have the good taste and modesty to keep it at 10 songs (supporting my long-held
conviction, anyway, that if rock bands want to pack more than 10 tracks or 40
minutes of material on an LP, they should have to petition a court first). That
said, if these guys happen to have any more casually gorgeous songs like these
just lying around, I'd love to hear them.-- Amy
Granzin, Pitchfork ]]>