There’s something about artists like Liz Durrett (MySpace) that I really, really dig. Like last year’s Hands Across The Void by Tiny Vipers, Durrett’s style of folk includes sensually soft vocals. The airiness in her voice fits well with her deep pitch, creating a mystical and dreamy sound. Read More »Liz Durrett: Outside Our Gates [Album Review]
Listening to Get On With It by Caves, I cannot help but be reminded of a hyped up young Seattle group called Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. While there are several differences in the music the two bands create, I get the impression that Caves are to Portland what NPSH is to Seattle–a local hype group a ton of people get excited about.
Read More »Caves: Get On With It [Album Review] 
Written by Fense
The Lovely Sparrows (MySpace) embark on an exciting journey with Bury The Cynics, and while they loose much of the excessive percussion I loved so much on their EP, they replace it with heightened production value and an array of additional instruments. Or, rather, the additional instruments are brought to the foreground and allowed to shine. Read More »The Lovely Sparrows: Bury The Cynics [Album Review]
Written by Fense
For some inane reason, listening to Soft Airplane by Chad VanGaalen reminds me of Michel Gondry’s follow up to one of my all-time favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. The movie in question is La Science des Rêves, better known here in the states as The Science of Sleep. Read More »Chad VanGaalen: Soft Airplane [Album Review]
Opening track “Record Store†could be the anthem of my life. Singer Frankie Medina continually repeats the phrase I’m in the record store / I’m in the record store. Sound like me? Yeah, I thought so. Repetition like this is customary on Pigs, the debut garage-y, punk-y rock album by The Dirty Hearts (MySpace). Read More »The Dirty Hearts: Pigs [Album Review]
Written by Fense
For those devastated by the demise of The Unicorns in 2004, the sadness was short-lived and out of The Unicorns’ carcass burst Islands and, close to a year and a half later, Return To Sea graced independent radio stations and iPods throughout the nation. Now, ex-Unicorns and current Islands mastermind Nick Thorburn has teamed up with fellow Canadian musician (and sometimes Islands guitarist) Jim Guthrie for a new, stripped down project titled Human Highways. Read More »Human Highway: Moody Motorcycle [Album Review]
Written by bob_vinyl
When I was 16, my parents took me on a trip out West. On that trip, we spent three days at the Grand Canyon. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the most striking thing I saw on that trip, not because it wasn’t amazing, but because it was just too much to take in at once. The beauty of the Grand Canyon was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, too much to be appreciated in three short days. Ever since, I’ve wanted to return to see it again and let it sink in. That’s kind of the way I feel about Tanya Tagaq‘s Auk~Blood. There’s so much going on and it’s so unlike everything else that I can’t quite get my head around it. And I want to return over and over.
Read More »Tanya Tagaq: Auk~Blood [Album Review] 
Folk-pop is the name of the game on the self titled debut of Bakers At Dawn. For the most part, the thirteen tracks contained within meet their mark; they’re melodic and pleasant—everything we know Swedish pop to encompass. Swedish pop is, at least in terms of its homogenous nature, kinda like 90s US alternative—it is easily recognizable as Swedish pop and the same is true for Swedish folk-pop. Read More »Bakers At Dawn: Bakers At Dawn [Album Review]
Written by Fense
Cracking the Digipak CD case on TK Webb’s (MySpace) Ancestor, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cover portrays giant wooden gates opening in the middle of either a desert dusk or dawn, and the sparse clouds are starkly white against the deep blue sky. The back shows a similar landscape—but without the doors—at night. In other words, the art is anthemic… Ancestor is anthemic! Read More »TK Webb & The Visions: Ancestor [Album Review]
Lead singer Jeffrey Keenan has the voice of a younger Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), if not the wild-eyed nature. His nature is his own and you can see it when he grabs the drum-sticks—that intensely focused look in his eyes. Feral Children have come to be a dominant name in Seattle thanks to these performances and their debut LP, Second To The Last Frontier, is finally ready for public consumption. Read More »Feral Children: Second To The Last Frontier [Album Review]
