At first, this writer must admit that he, in fact, decidedly did not open his heart to the new album from The Men, titled, perhaps not unexpectedly “Open Your Heart.” more ›

Scottish trio The Twilight Sad are known for their sublimely depressing sound-swashes on albums like 2007's acclaimed Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, so it's no surprise their February-released third album, No One Can Ever Know is something of a bummer. more ›

EP3 is Secret Colours' follow up to their 2010 self-titled album, and it continues to display the bands fondness of sounds rooted in '90s shoe-gaze, '60s British invasion, and early 70’s english metal. more ›

What are they putting in the PBR in Williamsburg that is causing young musicians to return to early Talking Heads albums for inspiration? Whatever it is, Suckers are drinking it by the gallon, and it’s working in their favor. more ›

Warm Ghost is a Brooklyn-based duo that is hard to pigeonhole. The band, consisting of Paul Duncan and Oliver Chapoy, have been classified in a plethora of hip indie sub-genres: synth-wave, avant-pop, chill-wave experimental indie, dream-pop, avant-garde electronica, and electro-pop. This encyclopedia worth of classifications is the result of an unorthodox sound that blends elements of all the aforementioned genres together into their unstipulated, temperamental LP, Narrows. more ›

It's been eight years since folk-country singer Gillian Welch and her musical partner David Rawlings put out an album. Is the newly-released The Harrow And The Harvest worth the wait? more ›

Over the course of two albums—the self-released Live Over The Rainbo, and its glossier studio twin Lux—the micro-scene supergroup has mixed garage-rock swagger and a ferociously disciplined sense of songwriting. Disappears combine sing-shouting, Krautrock’s hypnotically repetitive rhythms, and proto-punk’s snarling guitar tones to create tunes so packed with jams it’s easy to forget they often barely cross the three-minute mark. Indeed, if brevity is the soul of wit, then Disappears must be some smart motherfuckers. Guider, the band’s third effort overall and second album for Kranky Records, is only half-an-hour long. But Disappears’ creative leap forward on Guider accomplishes so much in so little time that anything else longer would be needless self-indulgence. more ›

In which we take a listen to two recently released records in Chicago's fertile underground hip-hop scene. First up is the long-awaited official full-length debut of former Cash Money man Mikkey Halsted, titled The Dark Room. Second, and last, is Rockie Fresh, who dropped his second mixtape, The Otherside, in the middle of December. more ›

As far as album titles go, This is Fancy must be The Streets on Fire’s idea of a joke. After all, one listen of the Chicago group’s full-length debut reveals that their brand of new-wave and post-punk inspired rock -- featuring the requisite buzzy guitars, slinky basslines, double-time drum beats and crooning, yet still excitable vocal work -- is as straightforward as it gets. There aren’t any alternate time signatures or digressions into free jazz that might suggest any kind of experimental bent. And yet, the quartet lay down a stronger, if not exactly mind-blowing, foundation of tunes than a similar-sounding band, The Horrors, did on their debut. more ›

One-upping all other comers with the "hey, guess what we're releasing RIGHT NOW" game is the Jack White / Brendan Benson-led Detroit combo The Raconteurs. The group announced today's release of their new album Consolers Of The Lonely exactly one week ago, and the album is available both digitally and is physically -- both CDs and vinyl versions -- in stores. We have no idea how a) they kept the whole thing quiet this long and b) how they wrangled the physical distribution so quickly. This is just another example of a band attempting yet another new approach to counter the failing business model plaguing the music industry at large. more ›