Photoo Credit: blogs.villagevoice.com

New York’s O’Death didn’t waste any time at the Empty Bottle last Saturday night. Like the Pogues and Gogol Bordello before them, O’Death’s music is steeped in traditional instrumentation and arrangements.

What sets O’Death apart, however, is that punk rock seems to naturally fit into what they define as “traditional music.” Take a solid rhythm section and throw in singer and guitarist Greg Jaime’s John Darnielle meets inebriated Neil Young vocals, and what you get is O’Death. Assuming that the band ripped through the venue fueled purely by adrenaline and whiskey is no mistake.

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In short: Wilco’s newest effort Wilco (The Album) is good, not great. It follows the honest-and-straightforward feel of 2007’s Sky Blue Sky as the band takes further steps away from the experimentation of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born. The album contains a few select tunes which are undeniably catchy and inspiring, while others feel like they are missing that certain edge and sense of urgency that made their previous records such a success.

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Long island natives Taking Back Sunday are no strangers to drama and line up changes (they have six former members in their 10 years as a band). So why should their latest release New Again be subject to anything different?

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Innovation and striving for new sonic territory are usually important factors for bands that have been around for over 25 years. But sometimes it’s as important to fall back on your strengths as illustrated on Sonic Youth’s new album The Eternal. The album doesn’t drastically stray from their melodic and accessible 2006 effort Rather Ripped, but instead Sonic Youth rev-up the distortion and intensity for one of 2009’s best rock releases yet.

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There was a was a time in indie rock’s past when an album like Kurt Vile’s Constant Hitmaker might have seemed exciting and refreshing. When the idea of a lone musician penning and recording music in his basement helped romanticize the notion that making a record need not be an expensive and exclusive endeavor.

If Constant Hitmaker had been produced when a pastiche of lo-fi indie rock ruled the day in the late 80′s and through a good portion of the 90′s, it might not feel quite as flat as it does in 2009. That’s not to say there aren’t strong moments, especially early on, but somewhere along the way the appeal fades. Unfortunately, lo-fi charm isn’t enough to make up for the lack of quality songwriting that hampers the second half of this effort.

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Los Angeles’s Black Math Horseman live somewhere between the world of 70’s leaning stoner rock and modern shoegazers while adding 80′s Goth and 90′s post-rock flourishes. It’s a combination that sounds difficult to sell, but the listener’s patience will undoubtedly be rewarded with the songs on the band’s Tee Pee Records debut Wyllt.

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If anyone was wondering when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs would finally release their first indie-pop-dance fusion album, It’s Blitz! should provide suitable closure. The band has adapted yet again, this time borrowing liberally from a multitude of genres across several decades, and they don’t seem at all timid about doing so.

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