Arab on Radar / Yahweh or the Highway / Skin Graft Arab on Radar are the musical equivalent of a pack of rabid vultures. They circle around you with a crazed look in their eyes, foam spewing from the corners of their mouths, as they wait for just the right moment to pounce. You hardly move an inch before they hit you -- a deliberate and vicious attack consisting of two guitars, vocals and drums, that will leave you paralyzed with fear and feeling as though you have been flung into some gigantic intergalactic dung heap, never to return to the surface...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Flophouse Jr. / Woodland / Flophouse The disc opens with "Field of Corn", one of those creepy backwoods numbers that sends shivers down the spine. With its shimmery steel and hollow banjo, you'd assume the song was recorded in an forgotten cemetery as autumn leaves fell to the ground; in fact, the entire album was actually recorded in a Vancouver apartment. This intimate recording setting lays a warm glow across the entire disc, invoking memories of coming around that last bend in the road on the way home...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		The Moore Brothers / Colossal Small / Amazing Grease While not necessarily the "next big thing", these two brothers from California, Thom and Greg, know how to craft a damn fine pop song. Reminding me of the Barnes brothers (of Of Montreal), the pair seem to have formed a perfectly symbiotic working relationship. In fact, the writing credits alternate between brothers, giving us a nice balance of both these songwriting talents. Greg’s songs are more epically whimsical and psychedelic...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Orquesta América / Sabor Profundo / Real Rhythm/COD Music Formed in the 1940s, Orquesta América was simply named after its musicians' homeland -- but for as great an icon as this band has become, they might well be the orchestra of América. The Orquesta América is made up of violins, piano, a flute and five drummers -- no brass, which one might automatically think of when considering Latino music. The founder of the traditional charanga band invented the chachacha, a salon dance that resembles the danzón, but is more rhythmic thanks to its melding with son style...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Dan Abrams / Stream / Mille Plateaux Therefore, one is faced with a real dilemma when listening to electronic music, especially the minimalist IDM subgenre exemplified by Stream. Creating this music requires a great degree of precision and technical knowledge. One is left to wonder whether it is possible for the artist to connect with his or her audience on an emotional level when they may lack a comparably high degree of intellectual involvement. The answer to this question, on Stream at least, is a resounding yes...more»
		Betty Blowtorch / Are You Man Enough? / Foodchain Picture a more ferocious L7, then add a bit of AC/DC, and you basically have the formula for Betty Blowtorch. They play aggressive, in-your-face, sleazy rock that's just raunchy enough to throw Tipper Gore into a full-on seizure. "I Wanna Be Your Sucker" and "Shut Up And Fuck" really need no explanation, lyrically speaking, and though the brazen style is a selling point, it's not like we haven't heard this before. It's the less predictable elements on Are You Man Enough? that set Betty Blowtorch apart...more»
		The Busy Signals / Pretend Hits / Sugar Free There's something utterly familiar, yet totally inexplicable, about Pretend Hits. Thirty seconds into the record, you might swear you've heard it all before: the stoner indie rock, the bedroom electronica, the white b-boy shuffle. The difference between the beguiling synthesis of the Busy Signals and the striving hipster buzz of Beck isn't the music, per se. Both artists de- and reconstruct the elements of pop and hip-hop, electro and movie soundtracks, in the search for the perfect set of turntables and a microphone...more»
		Darkest Hour / So Sedated, So Secure / Victory There's definitely an argument to be made that Darkest Hour has a current of fervent hardcore flowing through its musical veins. Besides the obvious -- a tribute to Raybeez on the back cover -- vocalist John Henry applies almost indecipherably maniacal growls, keeping the band from tipping over the edge into 100% power-metal territory. Likewise, the throttling of rhythm guitar is reminiscent of labelmates Snapcase or the scream fest that is Jihad...more»
		Lily Frost / Lunamarium / Nettwerk Lily Frost's sugary pop is just the kind of thing that makes the medicine go down. Lunamarium reminds me a bit of the first Cardigans CD; both albums are almost too sweet to digest in a single sitting, guilty pleasures of which you overpartake, and later regret. I'm particularly fond of Ms. Frost's cooing, purring, teasing voice, which is the perfect vehicle for this type of music. In a track like "Je m'en vais" -- sung in elegant, yet simple French, and sounding a bit like Kahimi Karie -- it's transfixing...more»
		Jack and the Beanstalk / Cowboys in Sweden / Parasol Thank God Jack and the Beanstalk printed the lyrics to "Baby" in the CD booklet, as I'd hate to simply paraphrase it. The song's chorus ("Hey baby, hey girl, hey baby girl") injects a strong sense of authority (i.e. "Hey!") and purpose to the single, regularly repeated verse ("Baby, baby, baby, bah-bah, b-b-baby"), and helps both song and group to provide valuable instruction and guidance to any artist aspiring to capture the primal urgency and fun of early Beatles and Chuck Berry records...more»
		Sad Like Crazy / Love Songs to Death / Ojet Attention pop pundits, clever cynics and ironically detached hipsters -- and for that matter, anyone out there who has ever thought, "If it's good enough for Janeane Garofalo, well then, it's good enough for me." I give you Sad Like Crazy!, which the aforementioned aging Gen. X icon declared to be "The greatest band name ever." If the mention of Ms. Garofalo conjures up an image of Ethan Hawke mouthing along to The Violent Femmes' "Add it Up" in some dingy grunge club, never fear...more»
		Stereobate / Selling Out in the Silent Era / Distance Formula Screaming anything from "Hear the bass, hear the bass!" to "This world / They found / They lost / Their sound!", Stereobate too often tries to make their words sound profound via excess repetition and loud music. However, with their vocal performance varying from Beastie Boys-style yelling to Devo's robotic anti-singing, it's clear that they have style. Their music, however, is not about the words. The majority of the songs on Selling Out in the Silent Era begin with a moderately-paced melody...more»
		The Strawberry Smell / Odorama / Rainbow Quartz Isn't one of the primary benefits of being French the fact that you get that fancy accent for free? These fellows must have a lot of other things going for them, because they've all but abandoned their native tongue in favor of the classic-American-popsters-with-fake-Brit-pop-accents approach. The really strange thing is that it works! These are terrific, fuzzy, harmonized pop songs, with little organ riffs, happy bass grooves and crunchy guitars...more»
		Luigee Trademarq / Bande Original / Rectangle This is three CDs of porn music, supposedly culled from a quartet of adult films (though I'm not a follower of porn flicks, particularly French ones, so this could simply be a grand joke that went over my head). Three CDs of porn music is, quite honestly, more than anyone can reasonably be expected to listen to; even the PR firm handling this disc didn't manage to do it, as they confidently advise radio DJs that Bande Original is "all clean" -- which, as anyone who has heard disc one's amusingly graphic hidden track will tell you, it most assuredly isn't...more»
		Various Artists / The Rough Guide to Klezmer / World Music Network Take ten minutes to read the CD booklet and you'll know enough to listen intelligently; you'll follow klezmer from its birth in eastern European Jewish settlements, where it was performed at weddings and celebrations by small local groups, and featured a hammer dulcimer and a violin. You'll learn how the rudimentary recording technology of the early twentieth century helped make the clarinet the "voice" of klezmer. And you'll discover how those recordings helped to preserve the klezmer sound through World War II...more»
		Viza-Noir / Self-Titled / Flameshovel It sometimes feels as if the trio is holding back. Mike O’Connell’s vocals often sound as if they're on the brink of degenerative chaos, but the instruments are almost too precise and controlled. One of the best and most satisfying things about math-rock is when it all just falls apart for a moment -- what I like to refer to as "the swarm", which ultimately dissipates and scatters. Viza-Noir never does that; they create tension, but they don’t build up to outright anxiety, and thus, we never feel any relief...more»