The BellRays / Grand Fury / UpperCut Sounding like the Stooges fronted by a punked-up Tina Turner, the BellRays come roaring out of the garage with a white-hot sophomore album. There's no slump going on here, kids, and no gimmickry either. You can tell from the cover art -- a flame-shrouded blue hand, middle digit raised -- that this is going to be one of the down-and-dirtiest, most satisfying rawk records you've heard in a long time...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Japanic / The Social Disease / Plethorazine Japanic's latest offering not only continues their fabulous blending of no-wave, keyboard frenzied madness, but stakes out new territory with a bit of honest-to-goodness soul shaking and a highly revamped focus on well-developed choruses. Simply translated, they'll leave you scratchin' for more as your body twists and contorts itself in true rock 'n' roll fashion, dirty and uncontrollable with a casual Motown affectation...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Mahogany / The Dream of a Modern Day / Burnt Hair With The Dream of a Modern Day, Mahogany have cast themselves as the leaders of a shoegazer/drone pop revival, and for that we should all rejoice. Mahogany impresario Andrew Prinz might just be the Kevin Shields of his generation, pulling strands of wispy melodies and impossibly beautiful noise out of thin air...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Michael Bisio and Eyvind Kang / MBEK[tm] / Meniscus There are only so many kinds of sounds that even the most accomplished player can coax out of a bass or a violin. After you've heard a couple dozen non-traditional players scrape and tap and grind their axes, you know more or less what the timbral possibilities of the instruments are. Once you're at that point, you can start listening past the "novel" sounds and get deeper into the harmonic, rhythmic and structural aspects of the music...more»
		Collections of Colonies of Bees / Crouton / Overcoat/Convent I gather that the majority of Rance is improvised. While the glut of Tortoise wanna-bes has made improvisation something of a dirty word, I urge you to give Rance a chance. The music, a mixture of banjo, guitar, pedal steel, piano, occasional electronics and various percussion, is extremely involved and pleasingly organic -- far from the clinical vibe of third generation post rock...more»
		The Flat Earth Society / S/T / Scorpion Rather than the typical verse-chorus-scream-chorus-end, the band treats its fans to actual compositions. By adding breaks, crescendoes and slinky bass interludes to their songs, the band gives the feeling that they're actually going through a transformation over the course of 120 seconds rather than simply showing a snapshot of a single idea. Of course, solid song structures mean nothing without the chops to execute them...more»
		Mates of State / My Solo Project / Omnibus My Solo Project is so bubbly, so happy, so up that on first hearing, you're sure you'd invite Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel back to your house for a beer the minute you met them. They seem ecstatically in love with life and each other, and their music instantly conveys this, from the opening track, in which Kori's sister Kelly sings the theme song from Cheers, to the last song. MOS even loves happy TV, it seems, and that just adds to their likeability...more»
		Phantom Drummer / A Crash Course in Aviation / Smokeylung Phantom Drummer sounds a great deal like Godspeed You Black Emperor -- which is a good thing, specially since I was scared to review this CD. There's a picture of the Phantom Drummer (Pat Spurgeon), I assume, on the back of the CD case. In the picture, he's got some truly horrific make-up on, and he just looks very scary. So the music is a most pleasant surprise, and you can consider this a glowing review...more»
		Various Artists / The Rough Guide to Cumbia / World Music Network this focused collection starts off old school, digging up the completely addictive tunes that defined Colombia's signature song style during the 1950s and 1960s. Artists such as Alberto Pacheco recorded songs in the la puya, or folkloric dance music, tradition. Against a rhythm track of simple drums and bass, Pacheco's accordion shares the spotlight with the joyous vocals...more»
		Howard Zinn / Heroes and Martyrs / Alternative Tentacles People come to conclusions far too quickly, and they do it far too often. That seems to be the main point of Howard Zinn's writings, and of the two powerful, exciting, and remarkably loose lectures included on Heroes and Martyrs. In contrast to Noam Chomsky, who throws out atrocities left and right to strengthen two basic points, Howard Zinn is a bit more casual in approach...more»