Peter Gabriel: Scratch My Back

By JBev
February 8th, 2010

On Scratch My Back, his first album in 8 years, Peter Gabriel aims to shed light on outstanding songs from both rock warhorses (Paul Simon, David Bowie, Neil Young) and from an alternative lineup that reads like a college radio programmer’s wet dream (Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields).

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Album Review

Los Campesinos! Romance is Boring

By JBev
February 4th, 2010

Never has an album title been more misleading than that of the third full-length in just three years from the Welsh band Los Campesinos! Even though lead singer Gareth Campesinos! may claim that Romance Is Boring, he then goes on, at staggering length and detail, about romance, and he makes it sound like the most exciting thing on earth.

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Album Review

Beach House: Teen Dream

By JBev
February 1st, 2010

The best part of doing these reviews is discovering new music that excites and fascinates me, and then getting the chance to pass the word along.

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Crazy '80s

When the Power Station Banged a Gong, Teenage Fans Banged Along

By JBev
January 28th, 2010

Anybody who knew me as a 13-year-old kid in the summer of 1985 had to be mighty sick of this song. I played the hell out of this thing. I bought the cassette and never listened to another song on it, just kept cueing up “Get It On (Bang a Gong)” and air-drumming through the whole thing.

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Album Review

Spoon: Transference

By JBev
January 26th, 2010

With their popularity at an all-time high following the pop sheen and shiny horns added to their last album, you might have expected Spoon to continue down that road to popularity with a full-on blast of arena rock to court the masses. But, then again, Britt Daniel and his buddies from Austin didn’t get to their perch of indie-rock preeminence by doing what was expected of them.

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Album Review

Vampire Weekend: Contra

By JBev
January 20th, 2010

OK, folks, we’ve got the leader in the clubhouse for Album of the Year for 2010. I know it’s only January, but I have a feeling someone is really going to have to step up their game to knock Vampire Weekend’s Contra off its perch.

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Album Review

Eels: End Times

By JBev
January 10th, 2010

Certain songs rise to the occasion with unsparing honesty and melodies so bittersweet you can taste the anguish. But, alas, the majority comes off as the whining of a guy who thinks he’s the only person to ever shed a tear.

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Everything In Its Right Place:
Ranking Every Radiohead Album Cut

By JBev
January 8th, 2010

When they arrived on the scene with “Creep”, they seemed destined for the one-hit wonder bins. But in the almost two decades since that auspicious debut, Radiohead has ascended to an untouchable status in the rock world, although calling their music “rock” doesn’t come close to covering the innovative and provocative boundary-pushing they’ve perfected.

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