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Photo by Colin McLaughlin [I] admit it. Even after many years of music writing, I still have no sense of whether or not an album, or single, or artist’s commercial products are good or bad. Take producer/artist Flying Lotus. Those fish-slap beats, clunky bits of proto-industrial noise, and
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Photos by Carrie Johnston The Black Angels’ spin on 60’s psych-rock is nothing short of monumental. Jim Morrisson died too soon, but thank goodness people like Alex Maas are alive now to channel his voice and break through the haunting spectrum of sound that The Doors (Pink Floyd, Jefferson
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Photos by Carrie Johnston In his fourteen-year career as a rapper, Sage Francis has garnered fans through clever navigation of language around topics ranging from personal anguish and societal distrust, to being awkward around girls. His DIY approach has kept those fans loyal since making his first recordings out of
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Photos by Carrie Johnston [A] prominent downtown venue on a warm Saturday attracts all species of night crawlers. Due to this, nothing exclusive or particular about VietNam playing at Dante’s on such a night struck me. The noncommittal crowd was thin to begin with, then fattened when VietNam started,
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[A]fter six years of working on film scores in Los Angeles, Michael Gerner has returned to VietNam… where he can steep his creative imagination in banh mi, water marionette shows, and endless rivers of Tiger Beer. Since he’s returned to VietNam, he has birthed an album called An
On An On didn’t hold back, opening their solid set with “The Hunter” a song that demonstrates why they generated so much attention at SXSW: layerd vocals to haunting effect, pulsing bass, and slashed guitar combine for dream pop magic. What separates their sound from other dancy bands is
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Photos by inger klekacz [T]wo Minneapolis bands swept through Portland the other night, packing the Wonder Ballroom and sending us back out to combat the gloomy weather with an army of groovy jams. First up were Night Moves; a trio of curly-haired boys (and the odd flat-haired blonde man)
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Photos by Carrie Johnston [M]att Costa is the musical equivalent of a contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy. He makes good kids smile and bad kids cringe. Now, it’s perfectly natural for couples to get cuddly, even make-out-y at a concert, but the critical mass of either (attempted) ballroom dancing,
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Halfway through “Festival,” a track that initially waves gently to and fro, Jónsi crescendos an “ooooooooh” then lets it fade away. At Boston University’s Agganis Arena, that slipping towards stillness was sung past the point of absurdity. Surely there must have been a peddled effect that extended the note,
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Portland is chronically nostalgic. For which decade? Apparently, all of them. [P]ortlandia creators Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen once made the claim that “the 90’s dream is alive” here, but the well-preserved architecture also suggests a tight bond with the 20’s. On the other hand, the surplus
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Breaking most of the decorum for an opening band, Federator N° 1 stormed The Paradise with such Afrobeat power you almost forgot that it was St. Patrick’s day in Boston. They made full use of the lighting rig (no), asked for an additional song after their 45 minutes (no-no)
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Humble for a band that was in consideration for the Mercury Prize, Django Django effused sincere thanks for playing Boston. Their kaleidoscopic visuals were a treat for an otherwise dimly lit stage, and offered haunting accompaniment that echoed the band’s shadowy video for “Hand of Man” (complete with over-sized