Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer and Brave Combo / All Wound Up / Rounder If Brave Combo's delightfully eclectic concoctions, which range from punk to polka, can make hardshelled teens and sour-pussed old farts alike have a good time, think what they can do to the kids in your life. Teamed with award-winning children's songwriters and performers Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Brave Combo has crafted an utterly delightful collection of kids' classics. Mixing originals with covers, All Wound Up spins catchy tunes for old and young alike...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Sixto / Self-Titled / Star Star Stereo Combining the energy of punk with morose melody, bands like Joy Division, Bauhaus and the Cure created kinetic, dark anthems which have resonated with audiences ever since. Even though those bands died (let's face it, the Cure were as good as gone a decade ago), the movement they created lives on in bands like Sixto. The nine tracks of this eponymous debut revel in minor key rock. Like their forebears, Sixto combines apathetic vocal delivery with a sourceless, subtle layer of agitation...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Theselah / No Sleep, More Fun / K.O.A. In one convenient package, Theselah combine the elegant longing of slo-core with raucous, arty songs from the noisier corners of indie rock. With today's rapid proliferation of styles and the gene-splicing recombination of multiple musical genres, it had to happen eventually. The New York quartet's second album begins with a delicate, haunting rumination on a departing lover and ends with a creepy lullaby about (perhaps) the same soured romance...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Fancie / A Negative Capability / Hush A Negative Capability showcases Elisabeth Wood's soft soprano. She sounds like Chan Marshall or Sinéad O'Connor, albeit without the force that O'Connor generally puts behind her phrasing. Wood's tone and tempo are always gentle and meditative, matching her lyrics. Thoughtful, witty and cerebral, she measures love and loss with a really long yardstick; the emotional events she's singing about may have happened to her -- at least some of them -- but she's managed to distance herself from them...more»
		Howe / Confluence / Thrill Jockey Cursed with the knowledge that there's very often an inverse relationship between the coolness of a CD cover and the coolness of the music on the CD, I wasn't expecting much from this one. However, once I realized that Howe is Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, things started looking up a bit. And then when I finally got around to actually listening to the thing...well let's just say that my faith in cool covers has been mightily restored. Alt-country isn't the right tag for this mostly quiet, pretty music, but Alt-something-or-other is...more»
		Tyler Keith and the Preacher's Kids / Romeo Hood / Black Dog Romeo Hood is Tyler Keith’s first solo effort (albeit backed by all four members of Blue Mountain, fellow Mississippians and masterminds of Black Dog Records) after departing from punk act The Neckbreakers. While songs like "Lost on a Lonesome Road" bring to mind a Smoky Mountain Gun Club, the sound fits in most comfortably with The Oblivians, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns and the Gibson Brothers crowd, only less country and more hillbilly...more»
		The Lucksmiths / Why That Doesn't Surprise Me / Drive-In The first track, "Music To Hold Hands To", didn't strike me as anything remarkable -- just an acoustic/folky pop number with decent lyrics. I was just about finished setting out my food when the second track, "Synchronised Sinking", cued up. The infectious strumming immediately caught my ear, so I put down the fork, picked up a poster mailer and began to play rockstar with it, strumming along for all I was worth. The song ended, but I hadn't had enough of it yet, so I hit the repeat button...more»
		Madcap / Stand Your Ground / Side One Dummy Go to the Side One Dummy website, and the first thing you'll see is a dictionary's definition of "punk", in which punks are said to have "unusual clothing, hairstyles and makeup". For purists who give their props to Mr Webster, Madcap's dress code -- mohawks, earrings, raggedy clothing -- might be the only thing that makes the Los Angeles band "punk". Yeah, they don't look too different from "generic" punkers, but still, they look odd enough. Your parents would stare...more»
		Ray Mason Band / When the Clown's Work is Over / Captivating The Ray Mason Band's songs clock in at a radio-friendly three minutes apiece. Too bad we'll never hear Mason on the radio. Maybe thirty or so years ago, when Mason first began churning out the tunes, we'd have been able to catch one of his finely-crafted songs drifting over the airwaves...but in the words of fellow oldtimer Bob Dylan, "Things have changed." The fact that Mason is around fifty years old makes it easy to place him with the likes of Dylan, Neil Young or David Bowie...more»
		Me First and the Gimme Gimmes / Blow in the Wind / Fat Wreck Chords This time around, MF&TGG have set their sights on -- broadly speaking -- pop songs of the sixties. Coming after Are a Drag, the band's raging take on Broadway showtunes, the theme is almost disappointingly vague. Indeed, the album begins with a straightforward ninety-second run through Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" that seems a little bland. Don't panic; there's better stuff coming. "Sloop John B" borrows the intro and rhythm from "Teenage Lobotomy"...more»
		P.G. Six / Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites / Amish After an introduction that melds prog-rock and woodwindy Celtic folk, Gubler slips part-way into Ian Anderson mode for "When I Was a Young Man". Mind you, it's probably wiser to make a broad reference to British folk-rock of the late sixties and early seventies; Jethro Tull took that style and carried it to the sort of drug-addled extremes favored by beardy-weirdies of the day. "When I Was a Young Man" avoids such excesses, and adds an intriguing edge to the folk format via the braying howl of an electric guitar...more»
		Wagon Christ / Musipal / Ninja Tune Unfortunately, while Musipal is good, it's just not as good as...well, as good as it should be -- which is rather puzzling, as all of Vibert’s trademark elements are in place. It's easy to spot his creative use of cut-and-paste sampling ("The Premise"), moody and twinkling layers of synths ("Tomach") and raspy vocodered vocals sliding over disfigured beats and breaks ("It Is Always Now, All of It Is Now)...but somehow, these elements never manage to gel...more»