The Explosion / Flash Flash Flash / Jade Tree These Bostonians apply perfect doses of youthful vigor, vulgarity and viciously addictive vocal sound bites, making this CD the perfect combo of anti-establishment terror and mature, malleable chunks of melody that have me raising my fists with punk pride. The Explosion proudly displays its Clash influences on its jean jacket sleeve while the positive ruminations of the Sex Pistols brew precariously within...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		The John Doe Thing / Freedom Is... / spinART Freedom is... gives us the strongest Doe in years, vital and rocking and pretty pissed-off. He still hasn't cut the X cord, though; on "Ever After", he shares vocal duties with none other than ex/X-wife Exene Cervenkova. But there are surprisingly vital, engaging tunes here: "Someday / No Day" has the right amount of tuneful furor to fit perfectly into a summer movie soundtrack, and "Telephone by the Bed" is the sort of driving rock tune you instinctively turn up when you stumble across it on the car radio...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Bangs / Sweet Revenge / Kill Rock Stars Bangs starts things off with a blazing quickie, "Fast Easy Love". Clocking in at about 45 seconds, it's a great introduction to all the important facets of the Bangs sound: crunchy guitar, great singing, fun lyrics, fast drums. The CD's title track, "Sweet Revenge", heads for Ramones territory: a sing-along chorus driven by chunky power chords. The lyrics to "Train Wreck" feature the word "hot-stuff", which is all that really needs to be said about that one...more»
		Jeff Buckley / Mystery White Boy / Columbia Aside from those lucky enough to have seen him perform live and people (like me) who have scoured far and wide for Buckley bootlegs, most have missed out on the power of Buckley's live performances. Buckley was not better or worse on stage than he was on record. It was not a case of "you have to see him live to really enjoy him". Rather, Buckley was altogether different live. It seemed like Buckley and his band -- not their guitars -- were plugged into the amps...more»
		Various Artists / Harpsichord 2000 / S.H.A.D.O. If your first thought was "Ooh, boy, Momus!", you're dead-on: Momus' analogue baroque tune "Jeff Koons", which is included here (and which is one of his better efforts), apparently inspired the compilation. Don't panic, though -- this isn't an hour of second-string artists aping Momus. I don't think even Momus could take that. No, the artists here have employed the harpsichord in a variety of potentially intriguing ways...more»
		Isobella / Akasha / Clairecords Short of drinking a double dose of Nyquil and rolling on a felt-covered waterbed, nothing will match the swaddling sensations found here. While most shoegazer music gets by on the concept of joy through repetition, this quartet achieves the same trance-like qualities through variations on their melodic themes. This is especially effective on tracks like "Carbon Affair", which uses a gentle synthesizer line to cuddle up to the ears...more»
		Various Artists / Mute: A Hush Records Sampler / Hush Despite Hush's artists having earned comparisons to Paul Simon (Chad Crouch) and the Cowboy Junkies (Corrina Repp), it's not the words you tend to remember (not even in a Ben Barnett break-up song), but the emotions that their songs shake through you. On Mute, this ranges from the absolutely ecstatic (Boy Crazy's "Wistful" and E Vax's "Playground") to music which could have made an Ingmar Bergman western go through the roof (Tracker's beautifully moody "Nova")...more»
		Pole / 3 / Matador Your first experience with 3 will probably seem like sensory deprivation -- particularly if your perceptions haven't been informed by 1 or 2, Pole's previous, equally-creatively-named forays into minimalism. The music is at once stark and trippy -- the soundtrack to an herbal excursion spent browsing in Ikea -- but it has also inherited dub's organic aspects. There's a palpable "squishiness" to compositions like "Strand", in which highly detailed melodies linger, ghost-like, in the nether reaches of the sound mix...more»
		Radiogram / Unbetween / Transsiberian Music Company Unbetween has just the right combination of folk, country and rock elements, with electric and acoustic guitars, lap steel guitar, stand up and electric basses, accordion, trumpet, violin and male and female vocals creating a sad, rich haze of world-weary splendor. I'm reminded of The Delgados, but with a folkier, less orchestral focus. From the first fiddle notes on "Always Crawl" it's clear that it's going to be a long, lonely crawl back home...more»
		Royal Trux / Pound for Pound / Drag City To celebrate their fifteenth year together, Herrema, Hagerty et al have released Pound for Pound. From the second that Neil Hagerty's guitar enters the first track, "Call Out the Lions," it's clear what the listener is in for -- basically, roots rock, but squeezed through a filter constructed from the last twenty five years' worth of punk and post-punk. The band even manages to sound quite fetchingly like T. Rex on "Platinum Tips," a catchy tune with killer guitar licks and, as always, classically growly Herrema vocals...more»