Having earned the favor of Europe, the U.S, and even Ryan Adams, Michigan-based folksters Frontier Ruckus brought their music to Founders Brewery on Saturday, August 23rd. It was a packed house that night, full of people singing along to old favorites and plenty of new ones from the band’s latest release, Deadmalls & Nightfalls.
Aside [...]
The Mynabirds
What We Lose In The Fire, We Gain In The Flood
Saddle Creek, 2010
Rating: 9.6
The thing about Saddle Creek that’s so commendable is how much they’ve brewed together a sound so thoroughly experimental and, at once, thoroughly old-school. From Bright Eyes to Cursive and Orenda Fink, Saddle Creek releases often sound like old records we [...]
Baby Dee
A Book of Songs for Anne Marie
Drag City, 2010 (first released 2004)
Rating: 7.9
Love or hate her, Baby Dee has always made exactly the kind of music she’s wanted to make. Plucking her harp and bouncing fingers across the piano with reckless abandon, Dee’s music, sometimes beautiful and usually bizarre, may not always be pleasant [...]
Bill Tucker
Mythological Creatures
1980 Records
Rating: 8.1
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Chicago songwriter Bill Tucker has been making handmade albums for several years now. While his music could easily be described as folk, it’s also throughly punk. From the D-I-Y production and politically charged lyrics to the raw speed and anger with which he strums acoustic [...]
Neon Trees
Habits
Murcury Records, 2010
Rating: 9.0
While Michigan music lovers are still waking up to frost on their windshields, one band is giving us hope that summer is on its way by providing the perfect summer soundtrack.
Provo, Utah’s Neon Trees has created a sound that combines Bono style vocals and 80’s synthesizer drum beats. A sound [...]
Zach Vinson
Cracked Open
Independent, 2009
Rating: 8.0
So Much to Blame (Zach Vinson) from Zach Vinson on Vimeo.
In late 2006, a barely 20 year old Zach Vinson released his first solo album, Why All The Armor, under the moniker Aching Wings. It was recorded in Zach’s church, bedroom, and other locations far from the often confining walls of [...]
CocoRosie
Grey Oceans
Sub Pop, 2010
Rating: 9.6
CocoRosie is one of those bands that you shouldn’t analyze too much. Their songs are bizarre and messy, but oddly intoxicating. They’ve made music with traditional instruments before and at other times have composed with kids toys and found audio clips. Their live shows have featured everything from beatboxers to tap [...]
Nathan Kalish
Delicate Veins
Caveman Records, 2010
Rating: 8.5
On Delicate Veins, Nathan Kalish steps away from his work with The Wildfire to make his first solo album. Where Desert Love and Waterbirds were flat out rock albums with a punk undercurrent, Veins is much more mellow. Moreover, his country-western influences are especially strong here. The overall sound [...]
Ribbons Of Song
Pocket Dream
Independent Release, 2010
Rating: 8.7
This is a difficult album to review, in part because it’s more of a straightforward effort than most of the other work Ribbons of Song frontman Ben Scott-Brandt has done. Years ago, he was part of the chamber-folk outfit Bunkbed Nights. This was a band that gathered a [...]
When Man Is Full He Falls Asle…
Epstein Y El Conjunto
When Man is Full He Falls Asleep
Asthmatic Kitty, 2010
Rating: 9.6
For the last ten years Robert Carlos Lange (aka Epstein y El Conjunto) has been making gritty, brilliant electronica music. Problem is that you couldn’t find it outside of Japan. Fortunately for us, the A+ label Asthmatic [...]