Cave In / Jupiter / Hydra Head I have been waiting for this record. Not because I had ever heard of Cave In, a four-piece who hail from Maryland; I hadn't. I've been waiting for this record because I wanted something huge, something intense, something just absolutely killer to rave about to anyone within earshot. There is no feeling like watching your friends' eyes grow and jaws drop as you play them something new and bold, and this album will let you enjoy that feeling over and over...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Silver Scooter / Goodbye EP / Peek-A-Boo This smattering of tunes comes in a little slim, offering only four cuts -- three originals and one cover. However, as with the band's two full-length releases, each track is so delightful and finely tuned that the brevity hardly matters. Though only a few years old, Silver Scooter found its groove early on. Tracks on the band's earlier releases, Orleans Parish and The Other Palm Springs, demonstrated a comfortable rhythm in which each instrument fit perfectly...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		The Twin Atlas / The Philadelphia Parking Authority Must Die / Tappersize The Philadelphia Parking Authority Must Die is a gorgeously multi-tiered homage to classic pop. Throughout the album's 26 songs, Byrne and Zaleski weave quixotic tales of urban disillusion, loneliness and heartbreak, augmented with smatterings of shimmering guitars, plucky banjos and heaping stacks of melody. A decidedly lo-fi album, TPPAMD's scratchiness serves only to enhance the moody dissonance and subtle nature of the songs...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Clinic / Internal Wrangler / Domino How might one describe the sound? It's like existential, drugged-out spy-movie music, with twisted (sometimes to the point of gibberish) vocals. Imagine The Pixies playing with The Velvet Underground, as produced by Joe Meek. Mix Add N to (X) with The Beta Band and you are starting to get the idea, if you understand that both of those bands pale in comparison to Clinic; it's like comparing vomit to champagne...more»
		Richard Devine / Lipswitch / Schematic One one hand, pieces like "Scatter Fold 28" epitomize the cold, mechanical side of electronic music. Devine's work is stylistically similar to the hard, metallic rhythms favored by Photek, though his songs are far more detailed. Each burble, blip and clang connects to an even smaller piece of the song, which in turn branches further, like a sketch of some complex neural net. It's the sort of thing robots dance to; humans don't have enough joints...more»
		Various Artists / Disarming Violence / Fastmusic By hiring some heavy hitters in the punk music world, Fastmusic and Pax have devised an ingenious way to attract today's short-attention-span youth and knock a particularly sensitive point home. Included on this compilation are the likes of Dag Nasty, NOFX, The Sharpshooters, Blanks 77 and Agnostic Front. Thankfully, each of these stalwarts delivers a strong number that typifies the band’s sound and isn’t some half-ass throw away song that didn’t go on the last record...more»
		Kreidler / Kreidler / Mute Kreidler, one of the key members of the new wave of Germany's electronica groups, has revisited their hometown's pioneering past for sound inspiration. Their self-titled third release builds on the work of previous, but has explored new musical directions. The result: they've come up with some winning tracks. The overall mood is thoughtful, cool, distant and uncanny, but the ambient sounds are more polished than their '70s roots...more»
		Man of the Year / The Future is Not Now / Tiny Beat/Loveless Man of the Year used to go by Lolly (a well known name in Portland pop circles). This is their debut under the new moniker. It's shoe-gazer-like, boy-girl-boy pop of the lush-yet-highly-sophisticated variety. The opening, "Silver Dollar", is just edgy enough, with its assertive guitars and vocals, to dispel notions of anything too sweet. "Hovercraft" hammers home the point. Like the boldness of "Silver Dollar", its subtlety and restraint serve to distance MOTY from their candy-loving peers...more»
		Mollycuddle / Paved With Good Intentions / Guilt Ridden Pop Critics usually lumped them among neighboring emo rock bands, but Mollycuddle were more accurately a fusion of all the best musical trends that emo, indie pop and indie rock have offered over the past decade. "Got Good Skin of Skyscraper", the first track from this fine farewell disc, is a good example, as it pairs a classic Sargey/Superchunky melody against Sara Aase's Tullycrafty vocals, and receives a closing jolt of extra power from fellow singer Tommy Kim's Braid-like interjections...more»
		Pepe Deluxé / Super Sound / Emperor Norton Pepe Deluxé aren't really doing anything you haven't heard before. They're three guys with some keyboards, samplers and turntables, and they use their tools in fairly predictable ways. The fact that they're Finnish doesn't really make much of a difference -- they're not throwing Värttinä samples around -- but at least they're not another bunch of tracksuit-wearing Frenchmen. So it's not what they do that's important, so much as the fact that they do it quite well....more»