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Majical Cloudz, 'Impersonator' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:04:34 +0000

"The cheesiest songs all end with a smile," sings Devon Welsh near the end of 'Impersonator,' Majical Cloudz's first album for Matador Records. Though the listener has, by this time, had nine songs to get a sense that no smile is coming while Welsh and collaborator Matthew Otto are in charge, he still clarifies by tacking "This won't end with a smile" onto the previous line with the effect of a slamming door.

Various Artists, 'After Dark 2′ – Album Review

Will Ryan — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:51:30 +0000

Whew. It’s hard not to feel like the last 18 months of activity related to the Italians Do It Better label has all been leading to this moment. So let’s recap. In late December of 2011, a two-hour, 36-track ambient and instrumental record called 'Themes For An Imaginary Film' and credited to Symmetry arrived semi-mysteriously on iTunes. There was b

Japanther, 'Eat Like Lisa, Act Like Bart' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:45:20 +0000

Your overall impression of Japanther likely depends on how you first experienced the duo. If you saw them live, opening for Lightning Bolt or No Age or later headlining one of their tours through all-ages DIY spaces and pop-up galleries, it’s their energy and fuzzed-out garage-punk charm that probably stuck with you. However, if you [...]

Saturday Looks Good to Me, 'One Kiss Ends It All' – Album Review

Stephanie Myers — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:45:40 +0000

Saturday Looks Good to Me’s forte used to be upbeat ditties that belied their often heartrending lyrics. While the contrast usually worked in their favor, their latest effort, ‘One Kiss Ends It All,’ finds the band focusing on the latter half of that equation, with music and melodies to match. Dipping their toes into lo-fi [...]

Dirty Beaches, 'Drifters/Love Is The Devil' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:50 +0000

On 2011’s 'Badlands,' Dirty Beaches frontman Alex Zhang Huntai was playing a character. He was acting the part of prototypical greaser on a dirt bike, spinning lone-wolf yarns over gritty abandoned-ashtray landscapes -- a mixture of tense Suicide-esque electronic repetition and cracked Lynch-ian dream molds. The results sounded like little else from the previous half-century, and even if Huntai didn't go far beyond that initial idea, the idea itself was so thoroughly realized -- as if existing in its own 1950s revisionist post-apocalypse -- that it hardly mattered.

Daft Punk, 'Random Access Memories' – Album Review

Ryan Reed — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:45:06 +0000

Wrapped up in the overblown, ubiquitous promotional cycle (SNL teasers, behind-the-scenes interviews, etc.) behind Daft Punk's latest album, it's easy to forget these EDM-pioneering robots are human after all. Other than their largely passable 'Tron' soundtrack, the French duo have only released three albums -- and one of them, 2007's 'Human After All,' was almost unanimously panned.

The National, 'Trouble Will Find Me' – Album Review

Michael Gallucci — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:30:34 +0000

The National pretty much summed up their aesthetic 10 years ago with the title of their second album, ‘Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers.’ No other blog-blessed indie band of the 21st century captures despair, melancholy and gloom in song quite like the Brooklyn-based quintet. Much of the gloom can be credited to singer Matt Berninger, whose grim baritone infuses the National’s songs with apocalyptic dread. Every heartbreak sounds like the literal end of the world when it comes from his lips.

Jenny Hval, 'Innocence Is Kinky' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:30 +0000

The first words on 'Innocence Is Kinky' are “That night / I watched people f---ing on my computer / Nobody can see me looking anyway.” The Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval’s second full-length under her own name is full of sexual and bodily imagery. It’s paired with a kind of lacerated, bruised mixture of noise, ambient music, punk rock and folk, along with a fractured, inverted songwriting sensibility that’s just as eager to violently push and pull at the listener’s expectations as it is to offer warm and vulnerable emotion, often stark and overwhelming. Given Hval's blunt line readings and the ever-changing song structures, it’s easy to let the music bounce off you as it comes. At the same time, it’s hard not to wonder what Hval is actually up to.

Franz Ferdinand Announce New Album: 'Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action'

Gina Vespa — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:42:31 +0000

Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand are readying the release of ‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action,’ due out on Aug. 27 via Domino. The 10-track album is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2009’s ‘Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.’ Frontman Alex Kapranos describes the forthcoming record as “the Intellect versus the Soul, played out by some dumb band.” Check [...]

Pure X, 'Crawling Up the Stairs' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:22:04 +0000

The most prominent emotion on 'Crawling Up the Stairs' is frustration. On the record’s second track, 'Someone Else,' vocalist Nate Grace growls out the line “You know I earned it / So, c’mon, and give me all your / love” like an unhinged lover shouting self-loathing into the dark. It’s one of most devastating and immediate moments in rock music this year. Grace’s voice roils into a teeth-gritted mess as the words seem to roar out of him from somewhere deep. By contrast, the music is cloudy, calm and isolated, causing the words to sound like they're being yelled into an uncaring void.

Small Black, 'Limits of Desire' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:41:39 +0000

With their tightly woven 2009 self-titled EP, Brooklyn’s Small Black rode in with a wave of hazy synth nostalgia-ists like Washed Out, Neon Indian and Memory Tapes. They followed it up a year later with a full-length called 'New Chain. The album made it clear that they were more leaders than followers in the then-booming field of bedroom-pop pioneers. There was an edge to their lyrics and a depth of emotion in their sound that made all those slinky hooks stick. Now, with even the echo of that initial boom behind us and the stigma surrounding the scene still lingering, where does Small Black go?

Ty Segall Teases New Album 'Sleeper' in Commercial [Video]

Gina Vespa — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:36:30 +0000

Ty Segall has announced the release of a new album, ‘Sleeper,’ and rather than do so via a boring press release, the ambitious San Francisco-based garage rocker has unveiled a brief "commercial" to promote the forthcoming set. The 30-second clip (watch above) finds Segall dozing off around the house, on the ground and even in a tree — which is ironic, considering he seems far too busy to ever sleep.

Anamanaguchi, 'Endless Fantasy' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:25:13 +0000

A band described as "chiptune" or "8-bit" is liable to lose potential listeners not qualified to handle such vocabulary, and Anamanaguchi's biggest hurdle is, essentially, opportunity. Even if you get past a name that reads "you'll never properly pronounce me," research into their genre leads to an technological explanation of chiptune that's not easy to grasp without a strong computer or music background. But, for most listeners, simply knowing that sound chips from old Nintendo and Gameboy consoles are employed is enough to explain the soundscape that frames 'Endless Fantasy.'

MS MR, 'Secondhand Rapture' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:32:17 +0000

MS MR’s long-awaited debut LP, ‘Secondhand Rapture,’ arrives with success seeming certain. By opening with five songs that should already be familiar to listeners, the duo stacks the deck in their favor, assuring goodwill from the audience by the time the first five tracks — their four-song EP and first single — finish their run. [...]

New Music Releases – June 2013

Diffuser.fm Staff — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:06:58 +0000

It's finally time to list the new music releases of June 2013, and that means one thing and one thing only: Summer is nigh! June's crop of new albums includes many that are bound to sound great blaring from your jeep as you cruise to the beach with a backseat full of friends, as well as some records better suited for chilly nights and quiet moments at home. Some, like the new one from Icelandic curious Sigur Ros, fall into neither category, and hey, that's cool, too.

Wampire, 'Curiosity' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:10 +0000

A couple years back, Wampire were the first band on at a small show in Eagle Rock, Calif., that featured No Joy and Woods. For those that arrived early, Wampire made an impact, though less for what they played than for how they played it. The room was dark, save for colorful lights provided by the band, and as a fog machine pumped out an excessive amount of fog, Wampire performed a significant portion of the set while dancing around with the audience.

Wild Nothing, 'Empty Estate EP' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:37:28 +0000

With two critically acclaimed, fundamentally very different albums to this credit, Wild Nothing mastermind Jack Tatum has quickly followed up last year's 'Nocturne' with another release virtually long enough to be an LP. Again, Tatum has shifted gears, and the 'Empty Estate EP' is, at its core, very different than its predecessors.

While the EP format may lead some to assume these songs are spares left off of 'Nocturne' for reasons of theme or tone or -- gasp -- quality, Tatum actually made that album over 10 days last November following a period of heavy touring that left the songwriter, as he says in a press release, "feeling a lot of things."

Kisses, 'Kids in L.A.' – Album Review

Philip Cosores — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:00:16 +0000

Where Kisses started to go wrong in recording their sophomore release is hard to pinpoint, but the phrase "disappear here" probably played a major role. The duo of Jesse Kival and Zinzi Edmundson displayed plenty of talent on their 2010 debut, 'The Heart of the Nightlife,' but somewhere between then and now, the duo made decisions in both creative direction and overarching musical philosophy that suggest questionable taste. As a result, the ideas at the very core of 'Kids In L.A.' are not only problematic, but frustrating to hear.

Vampire Weekend – 'Modern Vampires of the City' – Album Review

Ryan Reed — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00:11 +0000

As you probably already know, the guys in Vampire Weekend graduated from Columbia. They aren't poor. With their dapper, upper-crust fashion sense, it often looks like they just walked off the set of 'The Royal Tenenbaums.' And -- just in case you missed out while reading all the beard-stroking think-pieces about their position as indie-rock high-brow trend-setters -- they've also released two excellent LPs of springy, sophisticated pop. On their self-titled debut, frontman Ezra Keonig asked what's bound to be his tombstone punchline, "Who gives a f--- about an Oxford comma?" In retrospect, it sounds like pre-emptive self-defense. Vampire Weekend write great music -- who gives a f--- about their backstory?

Savages, 'Silence Yourself' – Album Review

Will Ryan — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:14:22 +0000

Savages make an immediate impression. That's true from their name to the glowering, haunted faces on the cover of their debut LP, ‘Silence Yourself,’ to their contortionist gothic post-punk sound to vocalist Jenny Beth’s savage (yup) dismantling of 21st century identity politics.

They’re an outfit that neatly fits the timeless four-piece rock ’n’ roll band mold -- each member playing a vital and identifiable role (forget post-punk, let’s talk Led Zeppelin and the Stooges) -- yet are in no way indebted to it. It’s not surprising the press has made sure to play up the band’s peripheral elements rather than the music itself. They’re an undeniably magnetic bunch, and their confrontational energy is apparent even before the music starts.