the SXSW Express hits town, nodding vigorously to Beach Slang, Heat, Priests, Bleached and more Austin-bound bands.  also something clean(!) from Sleaford Mods (though they had to be wrestled to the ground to elicit it) Beach Slang — Roadrunner  /  Heat — Pretty in Pink  /  Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — Clean Slate  /  Priests — Suck  /  Soviet Soviet — Endless Beauty  /  Bleached — Flipside  […]

No Men, No Joy, No Thank You.  all the contrarian indie bands are present and accounted for.  there’s even a languid Tim Darcy instrumental for all of you who’ve had a hard week.  (all of us, that is.) Dutch Uncles — Baskin’  /  No Men — Too Bad  /  The Courtneys — Frankie  /  No Joy — Califone  /  Dead Leaf Echo […]

late winter malaise rolls on with Rolling Blackouts C.F., Dutch Uncles, The Octopus Project, and other stuff that makes spring & summer barely perceptible.  plus an oldie from Stiff Records — just cuz Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever — French Press  /  Dutch Uncles — Big Balloon  /  The Octopus Project — Wrong Gong  /  Beachheads — Monologues  /  Any Trouble — To Be a King  /  […]

good Valentine’s Day?  good.  here’s some more candy.  new Wire, old Wipers — plus PINS, PWR BTTM, Cayetana, Bleached, Beach Slang, Beachheads and more. Wire — Short Elevated Period  /  PINS featuring Iggy Pop — Aggrophobe  /  Mothertapes — Do Make Say  /  Beach Slang — Wembley  /  Wipers — Over the Edge  /  Basement — Promise Everything  /  Beachheads — Give Me Som Love  /  Alex Lahey — Wes Anderson (edit)  /  […]

show 37 seeks solace in a spate of ACLU benefit albums, wants some of what The Courtneys are having, and ultimately finds Kate Tempest even more pessimistic than we’d thought possible. Kate Tempest — Europe is Lost (edit)  /  Keeps — Translucent Girl  /  The Pains of Being Pure at Heart — Easy to Be Loved  /  Constant […]

show 36 lends its voice to the refugee crisis, but ultimately doesn’t take itself seriously enough to steer straight after that… or end error-free. Sleater-Kinney — Surface Envy (live)  /  Hurry — Love Vigilantes  /  Strange Relations — Disorder  /  Guided by Voices — Hiking Skin  /  Tinariwen — Assawt  /  Cuddle Magic — Slow Rider  /  Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood — Morning After  /  Richard Edwards — Disappeared Planets […]

show 35 is all about new-ness, with all-too-timely releases from Japandroids, Cloud Nothings, Heat, Priests, Teen Vice, Camp Cope and a buncha other stuff that sounds good at the desk, better in the car, and best at the beach.  even in January Japandroids — Near to the Wild Heart of Life  /  Heat — City Limits  /  Drab Majesty — Dot in the Sky  / […]

show 34 starts in a shoegaze-y way, then feels a bit bad for itself, before finding its snark, then bouncing its head in bemusement.  why not, indeed.   Slowdive — Star Roving  /  Elbow — All Disco  /  of Montreal — Stag to the Stable  /  The Orwells — Black Francis (edit)  /  Praise — Makes No Sense  /  Uranium Club — Opus  /  Pillar Point — Heart it Races  / […]

show 33 cannot be brought down by fake news.  it offers only testimonials from Sleaford Mods, Kim Gordon, Chavez, Japandroids and and and and and and Japandroids — No Known Drink or Drug  /  Elbow — Magnificent (She Says)  /  Sinai Vessel — Ramekin  /  Sleaford Mods — B.H.S.  /  Mick Harvey — Contact  /  Ariel Pink & Weyes Blood — Tears on Fire  /  Elliott Smith — I […]

the new year brings a fortune cookie of hope that might just sing loud enough to drown out abject fear, as conveyed through the strains of The Pop Group, Uranium Club, Faux Ferocious, another Tweedy and more more more…   Faux Ferocious — Feeding Frenzy (edit)  /  Uranium Club — Who Made the Man?  /  The Pop Group — City of Eyes […]