Nicola Conte / Bossa Per Due / Eighteenth Street Lounge Because he's not working with samples, Conte's compositions seem looser and more spontaneous, full of the punchy energy of live percussion and the varied textures of the strings. Admittedly, a lot of artists attempt to capture this energy and fall short, but Conte succeeds on pure sprezzatura. It's far easier to picture him conducting an orchestra, energetically pushing his musicians toward John Barryesque orchestral grandeur, than to imagine him sitting in a dark, foul-smelling basement tinkering with a laptop...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Jimmy Eat World / Bleed American / Dreamworks Bleed American immediately makes it clear that the band is back, stronger than ever, and actively seeking the success that until now has remained just beyond their grasp. They've signed to the ever-vigilant Dreamworks Records, whose aggressive promotional campaign just might break JeW in a radio/video market that's sorely in need of fresh blood. To suggest that Bleed American is radio-ready is, to say the least, an understatement...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Toothpick Elbow / Best Wishes / Spiritone Best Wishes, Toothpick Elbow’s first release as a formal band (rather than Todd Westover’s solo side project), is dripping with psychedelic influences. There are long stretches throughout the album where you have to remind yourself that this is not a David Bowie record. Fortunately, the album doesn’t begin and end with Bowie; his is just one of the many wellsprings from which they draw. The genius of Best Wishes lies in the crazy-quilting of the band's influences -- glam, psych, folk and good old rock...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Alex Woodard / Nowhere Near Here / Woodshack Music Woodard's sound is nothing new. It's the guitar-bass-drum combination that's been used, with minor variations, since dinosaurs and Buddy Holly roamed the Earth. On Nowhere Near Here, however, you'll find an artist who is in the early stages of mastering this formula -- and who may one day follow in the illustrious footsteps of others who have come before him. "Levitate", for example, would not sound out of place on an early Bruce Springsteen album...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Calexico / Even My Sure Things Fall Through / Touch & Go With Even My Sure Things Fall Through, Calexico takes the hit-or-miss world of EPs and fires off a must-have disc for fans and newcomers alike. While most bands put out a smidgen of material to satisfy the loyalists in between albums, the song-writing duo of Joey Burns and John Convertino create a sprawling landscape of music that tops out at a near LP-length 48 minutes, including three videos to play on your computer...more»
		Chitlin' Fooks / Self-Titled / Parasol If you've ever thought Bettie Serveert's Carol Van Dyk, with her bristling blonde mane and twinkling eyes full of southern hospitality, would find better company in Robert Altman's Nashville than as a onetime Matador mainstay, your prayers have been answered. Joining hands with Sukilove pretty-boy Pascal Deweze and an assorted montage of "lowland all-stars", Van Dyk has given us Chitlin' Fooks -- a sundry collection of country and western numbers echoing the likes of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn...more»
		Andrew Coleman / Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt / Thrill Jockey On his first full-length release under his own name, Coleman touches on the paths blazed by the aforementioned artists, but thoroughly infuses his compositions with his own style. The opening track, "Too Early By Far", takes a percolating sixteenth-note pattern and marries it to a languid, free piano solo. The rhythmic end is filled out by curious sounds that act as drummer bombs do in jazz -- that is, they accent key moments and push things forward rather than providing a cyclic pattern...more»
		The Elevator Division / Movement / Department On this first outing with their re-tooled (and reduced) lineup, The Elevator Division recalls the really early work of Toad The Wet Sprocket (remember them?), blended with a bit of Death Cab For Cutie and the tiniest smidgen of Radiohead's Pablo Honey. If you listen very closely you'll also hear a bit of The Cure on "Asleep At The Wheel" and "Burning Bright". One of the strongest tracks is Movement's brilliant opener, "Mute", with soaring vocals reminiscent of Tears For Fears...more»
		Fictional / Fictitious [+] / Metropolis One of Fictional's first songs was a cover of the Pet Shop Boys' "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)". Fictitious [+]'s first track is "The System", which is not actually a cover, but sounds so much like "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" that it may as well be it. The distorted, echoing vocals, the accent (the vocalist, Gerrit Thomas, is German, but his English is the BritEnglish of movie villains), the slick urban sound and the heavy synth all conspire to make Fictional's homage to PSB sound more like a deep obeisance...more»
		Ted Leo/Pharmacists / The Tyranny of Distance / Lookout! Even though I approached this record with an indescribably blasé attitude, after a few listens I began to really appreciate Leo’s musicianship and songwriting, which is catchy yet thoughtful and personal without being megalomaniacal or pitiful. While Leo still claims to subscribe to punk philosophy, the pure pop of Tyranny of Distance sticks out like a third thumb in the Lookout Records lineup, which is famous for poppy punks like Screeching Weasel...more»
		Neurmison / My Mother Thinks It's Weird / Rebis, Inc. As the title implies, your mother will probably think it's weird, too. First impressions alone will have her calling your therapist to increase the Prozac dose: the ominous Teutonicness of the band's name; the Marilyn Mansonesque visage on the cover; the players' names (The Grey, Heartless, Long Gone Sean, Miss Carriage); the inner sleeve notes and the band's serpent-cradling-a-cross logo will combine to give mom a conniption fit...more»
		Various Artists / Global Dance / World Music Network This disc is sort of a novelty in the Rough Guide series; rather than focusing on a specific country or well-established genre, it takes the rather ill-defined "global dance scene" as its starting point. The "glue" here is supposed to be that in the last decade or so, DJs from all over the world have begun mixing local styles of music with international flavors (Italian batucada, UK Asian Underground, Bollywood soundtracks), thereby creating localized versions of the "new universal language" of dance music...more»
		Various Artists / Jah Warrior Showcase Vol. 2 / Jah Warrior The most impressive thing about this reggae and dub compilation is the extreme versatility of the dub mixes. In order to provide a defined point of reference for each dub, the original reggae tune immediately precedes its dub counterpart. After renowned DJ Prezident Brown's smoothly flowing number, "Nothing Beats a Failure But a Try" pumps out heavy vibes and a smooth beat, the dub rhythm blasts into the upper atmosphere with even more positive energy...more»
		Various Artists / The Rough Guide to the Music of Jamaica / World Music Network The Rough Guide to the Music of Jamaica is the rare volume in this wonderful series that tackles a country whose culture has spread through the world, and through the world's most popular performers. As such, it should shed light not only on Jamaican music, but on the series itself, and how "roughly" or succinctly these guides capture the spirit of a country's music. Let's address the second question first. The producers make a great effort to find overlooked gems...more»
		Vote Robot / In Meorm NA / Scratch Vote Robot approaches electronic music like most middle-of-the-road political candidates approach running for office. They're a couple of old-fashioned guys at heart. You'll find no laptops, sequencers, drum machines or other cutting-edge tech toys in their musical arsenal; In Meorm NA works its magic with the fruits of a circa-1983 Radio Shack shopping spree. Turntables, tape loops, analog keyboards and mixing boards are their building blocks...more»