Sometimes a band can take sounding retro too far and venture into straight replication of previously chartered ground. Unfortunately for Yeasayer, and their sophomore effort, Odd Blood, what they achieve sounds like an 80’s new-wave cover band attempting to write originals of their own. What results is a collection of stale and regurgitated sounding songs that don’t compel multiple plays.
By Andrew Kahn \ comments
I highlighted Minneapolis’s Fuck Knights awhile back and described their very lo-fi/lo-tech approach to playing and recording their garage rock anthems. All those months ago showed the Knights stripped down sound to be both a product of their influences and their economic reality.
By Ross Meyerson \ 4 comments
Chapel Hill’s indie rock stalwarts Superchunk have felt more like an institution than a working band for the last, oh, decade or so. The Merge label started by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance keeps busy releasing records by bigger and bigger names – Spoon, M Ward, Conor Oberst – as well as scooping up reuniting icons Dinosaur Jr. and American Music Club. Drummer Jon Wurster seems to be a semi-permanent fixture in the Mountain Goats these days. Of course McCaughan has been progressively more prolific with his once side-project and now main focus, Portastatic.
It felt, increasingly, as if the seeds were sown for Superchunk the band to be put to rest. Then a funny thing happened: Superchunk began playing benefit one off shows such as 2007’s Metro show and a few new songs started popping up in their sets. And, lo and behold, an EP of new (or at least newish) songs, Leaves In The Gutter, was released, and then followed soon after by the Crossed Wires 7″ single. With these new releases, a foundation was perhaps being built for a full fledged Superchunk re-awakening.
By Ross Meyerson \ comments
Of all the exclusive Record Store Day 2009 releases, the 7” featuring the Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs covering Madonna and The Black Keys tackling a Captain Beefheart track maybe the most fascinating of the bunch as each band adapts the cover songs to their own brand of rock and roll.
By Richard Giraldi \ 1 comment
Windy City Rock
Radio Free Chicago
Can You See The Sunset From The Southside
Think Pink Radio
Fake Shore Drive
Thax Douglas Poetry
Underground Bee
[redthreat]
Time Out Chicago
love shack, baby
Outside The Loop Radio
The Deli Chicago