Live from the Rose Garden, where the 5-10 Memphis Grizzlies take on the 12-5 Portland Trail Blazers. The Grizzlies really aren’t as good as their record would indicate, racking up meaningless wins against the Clippers, Timberwolves, Kings, Washington Nationals, and the San Jose Earthquakes. I’m pretty positive those last two teams don’t even play in […]
Rob Simonsen
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Feast of Scales
Wildbirds & Peacedrums (& Vocals)
There is nothing better on this cold planet of ours than the singing of
Wildbirds & Peacedrums.
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Girls Can Tell
Vivian Girls Keep it Simple and Spectacular
The trouble-free world of the Vivian Girls.
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Sultan of Sorrow
The Marital Misery of the Wedding Present
The Wedding Present stays sad (and relevant).
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Say it Twice
Man Man Bring the Chaos Chaos
Man Man. Honus Honus. Freakshow Freakshow.
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The Golden God of Twee
Welcome Back, Mr. Wilson
Twee it up with former June Brides mastermind, Phil Wilson.
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Them! You! Dancing!
Los Campesinos! Loves! Exclamation! Points!
Indie pop—and, more specifically, twee pop (you know, saccharine-sweet unrequited love meets Byrds-like jangle guitars)—used to be an exclusive genre, loved by die-hard fans intent on tracking down every Sarah Records 7-inch ever released. The idea of being a casual twee fan—a dabbler, if you will—is mostly a product of this decade, thanks to the […]
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Queen of the Universe
Robyn: No Longer a Swedish Britney
Parallel universes exist. If you need proof, just take a quick look at Robyn, former teenybopper turned pop starlet, AKA the Swedish answer to Britney Spears. The two girls somehow came from nearly the same beginning, yet couldn’t have turned into such polar opposites if they tried. Robyn first hit the States in 1997 with […]
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Sing for Me
Bodies of Water Lift the Noise
On their debut album, Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink, it takes Los Angeles-based Bodies of Water approximately 45 seconds to reach their thesis statement: “You do not need to own guitars/You do not need a set of drums/All you need is your throat and mine/To lift noise up to God.” Now, that’s not […]
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Cold Shiver
Beach House, Meet Your New Friend, Reverb
Don’t tell Beach House anything about sophomore slumps: They are not having it. The Baltimore duo, comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist/everything-else-man Alex Scally, recently released their second full-length album, entitled Devotion. The general consensus among most major music outlets is twofold: that the recording easily eclipses their spectacular self-titled debut, and that the […]
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Big in Japan
Shonen Knife and 26 Years of Twee
With a mix of Ramones-esque three-chord pop fury, girl-group sweetness, bubblegum hooks, and childlike innocence, Shonen Knife were once primed to make it big. The ’90s saw them touring with Nirvana, releasing albums (Let’s Knife and Rock Animals) on two different major labels, getting airtime on MTV, and playing Lollapalooza. For this to happen to […]