My introduction to Bored Nothing came last year on a little compilation put together by Bleeding Knees Club. “Snacks” was the third track on the comp, featuring Bleeding Knees Club and several of their musician friends. That track appears on Bored Nothing’s new self-titled LP. Read More »Bored Nothing to Release Self-Titled LP on April 9
Low, the husband and wife duo of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, have been making beautiful music together for 20… Read More »Low: The Invisible Way (Album Review)
Last year everyone seemed to rave about The Men‘s third LP, Open Your Heart. Makes sense. It’s a damn fine record. And, following the likes of Ty Segall, they’ve returned almost instantly with a follow-up. It’s called New Moon, and it’s absolutely beautiful.
Read More »The Men: New Moon (Album Review) 
Along the Oregon coast protrudes a giant, monolith called Haystack Rock. Standing 235-feet tall, it is the easily the most defining item in Cannon Beach, giving the seaside town a short drive south from Astoria its fame. I know the Cannon Beach (and surrounding) area quite well from my childhood, having spent several week-long summer vacations along the northern Oregon coast in the late ’80s. Read More »Cannon Beach: Concrete, People And Things (Album Review)
Oh February is the latest by Portland multi-lingual folk band Y La Bamba; it’s a six-song EP filled with harmonic female-fronted, male-backed vocals. Intricate as usual, Oh February has high influence from front-woman Luz Elena Mendoza’s Latin heritage paired with she and her bandmates’ indie-folk background. Read More »Y La Bamba: Oh February (Album Review)
Australia’s Lost Animal is a conundrum. It’s a conundrum because I find it very difficult to describe. Preface: I’ve been enjoying the sounds of Ex Tropical since November. Far enough back that I attempted to put the album on my Top 50 LPs of 2012 list, despite noting its release date in my coverage of their superb video for “Say No To Thugs”. Read More »Lost Animal: Ex Tropical (Album Review)
Jeff Walls’ Campfires is prepared to drop its debut LP Tomorrow, Tomorrow on February 19 via Fire Talk Records. I knew I recognized the name; in my collection is his 7″ for “Stormy Late Fall” on Mexican Summer. Read More »Campfires: Fortune Teller
You can tell a lot from an album cover; at least, I like to think so. Take Yay by Berlin artist Crystal Shipsss. A little girl stands by a swing. She cannot be more than 3 or 4. Covering her head completely is a nightmarish, skeletal face. Read More »Crystal Shipsss: Yay (Album Review)
Everyone seems to be talking about Parquet Courts lately, so I thought I’d throw my name into the hat and say: Me too! And here’s the conundrum. The album came out in August on Dull Tools, but it comes out (again!?) on January 15 via What’s Your Rupture? Records. So do we classify it as a 2012 album or a 2013? Given the year-end lists have been compiled and the fact that I really, really dig Light Up Gold, I’m saying 2013. Read More »Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold (Album Review)
Eccentric folk-pop comes in many forms. After all, you couldn’t label it “eccentric” if all sounded alike. The Ocean Floor is suited toward the term thanks to orchestration that occasionally hints of the avante garde styling of Nat Baldwin, harmony vocals that could be straight from Ah Holly Fam’ly (also from Portland), and percussion that borders both lightly twee and hypnotically heavy. Read More »The Ocean Floor: My Shelf (Video)
