The Bats Free All the Monsters [Flying Nun; 2011] by J Arthur Bloom Rating: A new Bats album is like Christmas. Which is to say it’s infrequent, and like the conversations with family members you catch up with for the first time in 12 months, it plays out in a certain familiar, ritualized way, though not without genuine affection. Like family, The Bats are reliable, emerging from the Batcave every few years with a workmanlike long-player for fans of New Zealand’s late-1980s rock scene and Pavement obsessives who heard Stephen Malkmus was pretty hot on the band. This ...

In case you missed Pavement’s rare reunion performances in 2010, be sure to check out former front man Stephen Malkmus’ solo tour this February for some grimy, sludgy, yelping, indie rock and roll.

1994: Pavement - Stuff Up The Cracks by Winston O'Boogie">Dr. Winston O'Boogie on 01-11-2012 It must be some sort of divine stroke of comedy that made Malkums’ reflection on the cover of Pavement’s bootleg compilation Stuff up the Cracks looks exactly like Steve Perry (or maybe I’m just seeing things). There’s a hilarious contrast between the hyper-produced, nauseatingly glossy soft rock that an image of Perry conjures up and the truth of the snarlingly ugly music hidden within. This is Pavement unhinged, captured in a way even their celebrated lo-fi masterpiece Slanted and Enchanted couldn ...

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks are hitting the road for series of February dates. The tour will be in support of the Pavement frontman’s fifth solo release, 2011’s Beck-produced Mirror Traffic. See below for the full list of dates. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Tour Dates: 02/13 Salt Lake...

Was abseits von Alben und dem, was in den Mixen Schmelzen , Do(wner)-Fi und Moods XX landete, übrig blieb. Cat's Eyes - I Knew It Was Over Es war eines der ersten Lieder, die ich dieses Jahr hörte und blebt eins meiner Liebsten. Live in der Vatikankirche eingespielter Pop, der an die 60er erinnert, aber mit Orgel und Chor eine Trennung in spirituelle Dimensionen katapultiert. -------------------------- Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Record Shop Kein Album habe ich dieses Jahr dermaßen zu lieben versucht wie das Indiepop-Debüt von Help Stamp Out Loneliness. Doch so unwiderstehlich die Stimme der Sängerin, dauergeknickt wie ein ...

by Jesse Jarnow There's no real sport in arguing the semeticism of David Berman, who named his band the Silver Jews, and very publicly rediscovered Judaism himself after becoming sober around 2004. "Ain'tcha heard the news? Adam and Eve were Jews," he'd sung on 2005's Tanglewood Numbers. When the 15-year running outfit started to perform live for the first time in 2006, Berman brought them to Israel, where he was filmed at the Wailing Wall, wearing tefillin and weeping. One doesn't have to go hunting for it. Unlike Bob Dylan or Lou Reed or Neil ...

Plus que quelques jours à passer en 2011, et au moment où florissent les classements de fin d‘année, le tant attendu MRM top ten albums of the year se dévoile enfin… The Horrors, Noel Gallagher et les Arctic Monkeys en sont les grands vainqueurs… 2011 dans le rétroviseur part 1, c’est parti. A chaud, on pourra soutenir que 2011 aura accouché d’une belle cuvée musicale placée sous le signe de la confirmation. A part le phénomène Wu Lyf on aura vu percer peu de nouveaux groupes cette année mais on aura été ébloui par la confirmation d ...

Cuarteto de Nueva Zelanda liderados por Mark Turner( Little Pictures), que cita como influencias a Modern Lovers, The Clean y Pavement. Queda clara la huella de estos últimos al escuchar sus canciones, temas que nos transportan a los inicios de Stepehen Malkmus y compañía. Han editado un Ep y un par de singles hasta la fecha, los cuales se pueden descargar gratuitamente a través de Lil Chief Records I'm a Conservative.mp3 I'm a Conservative.vídeo

Yuck are a young London-based foursome — singer-guitarist Daniel Blumberg, guitarist Max Bloom, bassist Mariko Doi, and drummer Jonny Rogoff — who appear to be a magically seamless genetic splice of Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr., Pavement, the Vaselines, Sonic Youth, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Yo La Tengo, Nirvana, Elliott Smith, My Bloody Valentine, Sebadoh, Superchunk, Lush, Built to Spill (and a pinch of Beat Happening, among others). Basically, they sound like '80s babies who grew up to be '90s alt-rock youth, though they're actually '90s alt-rock babies who grew up to be 2000s youth. What's even more curious is ...

Let's Keep It Rolling.... #40 Russian Circles Empros Sargent House Records [2011] The Russian Circles fourth LP, Empros, pushed the pedal back down for an instrumental sonic visceral noise attack that combined big metal rock and slick layered grooves. Empros may be a bit different from what you typically listen to but it is a great piece of work and Russian Circles best record to date! Russian Circles: Empros [Fire Note Review 10/26/11] #39 tUnE-yArDs w h o k i l l 4AD Records [2011] tUnE-yArDs, aka Merrill Garbus, sophomore record whokill crossed genres, defied expectations and ...

Everywhere you looked this year there was an absurd or chaotic or turbulent situation that made absolutely no sense whatsoever — people all over the world seemed so fed up that they were willing to make shit up on their own, on the spot, damn the consequences. And here at home, who knew what to make of the pop-culture universe — how were musical provocateurs like Kanye West or Lady Gaga supposed to shock anybody when a craven disgraced troll like Newt Gingrich was getting away with posing like a distinguished statesman? Music has been scrambling to keep up with the delirious ...

It’s not Pavement. Squealing feedbacks do not equal Pavement. There, it’s out of the way. Marble Valley, a sort of superband of slacking superheroes lead by Pavement‘s drummer, Steve West and a certain David “Not the funny dude from ESPN” … Continue reading →

Geçtiğimiz sene Babylon’da ve Rock’n Coke festivali’nde muhteşem bir performans sergileyen grup sahneye, üç kişiden sekiz kişiye kadar değişen sürprizli bir kadro ile çıkan FM Belfast 8 Aralık’ta Babylon’da! Grup, Lóa Hlín Hjálmtýsdóttir, Árni Rúnar Hlöðversson, Árni Vilhjálmsson ve efsanevi Mum grubunun kurucularından olan Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason’dan oluşuyor.. 2005 yılında kurulan grup, ilk çıkışını 2006 yılında Iceland Airwaves Festival’indeki canlı performanslarıyla yakaladı. Elektropop ve indietronica türlerini İzlandaya özel o kuzeysi dokunuşuyla yorumlayan grup, kendi plak şirketleri World Champion Records’u ise 2008’de kurdu. İlk albümleri ‘’How to Make Friends’’‘i 2008 yılında ...

Touching down in Holland equipped with the ashamedly meagre grasp of Dutch of your typical drug tourist feels none too good. Having thumbed two phrases into the iPhone for safe keeping, neither would turn out to be in any way useful were any altercation to arise: they happened to be the gratuitous 'spreekt u Engels', and something about ordering a beer. Unable to pronounce either correctly, one coincidentally proves to be entirely incorrect and incomprehensible. A festival celebrating Canadian independent music produce in the unerringly picturesque, canal-infested Dutch haven that is Utrecht may seem somewhat bizarre, although there's a ...

It's next to impossible to talk about any new Stephen Malkmus album without relating it in some way or another to his monumental 1990's work with slacker icons Pavement. Malkmus returns, backed once again by The Jicks, on August 23rd with a new album Mirror Traffic. At it's core, there is some great stuff on the new record. It opens with "Tigers", a tune built around a solid lick. "Tune Grief" is an entertaining playful romp. "Spazz" is just that, a frenetic and spastic free form guitar number that keeps you on your toes. The lead single ...