(This post can also be found on my blog: http://wp.me/pjWoO-i9 )

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Scout’s Ashen Keilyn has a voice that is instantly recognizable. It’s earnest and inviting despite that, in this track, it’s singing of heartache and pain. Of “So Close” Ashen says,

“It’s a song I wrote after one of many arguments. The line ‘So I’m stuck down here with my heart in a splint / getting so close to calling it quits’…well that’s exactly how I felt at the time.”

(Check this post out on my blog: http://wp.me/sjWoO-1115 )

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Watching your favorite band break up is tough to do. It’s like being a kid and having to decide if you are going to live with your mom or your dad after your parents get divorced. I’m still in the phase where I’m holding out hope that Sonic Youth isn’t going to disband, but rumors of this coming Summer’s Lollapalooza performance being the bands last are going around, and sooner or later we are all going to have to face the inevitable together.

In the meantime, Thurston Moore has released…

(Originally appeared on my blog at http://wp.me/pjWoO-hA)

Taking the garage punk aesthetic to unexpected places and mixing it with an early rock and roll sensibility for melodic pop hooks, Terry Malts succeeds in making fun, catchy noise with the occasional biting social commentary. It’s all apropos of punk rock.

The first thing that immediately struck me is how much the singer’s voice sounds like that of Joey Ramone’s, and I should apologize because once you start to hear it that way it will be impossible to hear it any other way. The comparison was something that my mind would not…

(Originally posted on Tympanogram on February 22, 2012)

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Women (L to R: Chris Reimer, Michael Wallace, Matt Flegel, Patrick Flegel)

The Calgary Herald has reported that Chris Reimer, guitarist for Women has died. As of right now there is no information, as you can read in the short article, beyond that he has passed away in his sleep.

Bands like Women don’t come around too often. They were brash, defiantly experimental and if you ever had the chance to catch them live you would know that they were a phenomenally gifted band with a unique sound and vision. In…

(Find this on my blog here: http://wp.me/pjWoO-hq)

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Out here, on the West Coast that is, the weather is always sunny. No matter what anyone tells you. There is no rain, no clouds, no smog, just sunshine and music festivals. As for music festivals, I’m positive that you, dear reader, have already taken the time to get excited about the Coachella lineup. As the hours went by and the publicity grew, so did others’ resentment at ticket prices and how the lineup seems to be the same every year. That all seems like eons ago, in internet time.

Coachella is…

(Check my blog for more actual posts: http://wp.me/pjWoO-hn)

Following the trajectory of the musical output of Liars is an interesting undertaking, and certainly not for the faint of heart or those without patience. They tended towards the more experimental with their earlier work, opting for a more focused sound on their self-titled 2007 release, and 2010's Sisterworld found them bringing back a bit more of the craziness.

Great news everyone! It looks like the surreal, dada, experimental, highly cryptic, noisy, general all hell breaking loose is coming back. The band has started a tumblr site that seems to be leaving…

(Check this post on my blog as well: http://quartertonality.com/2012/02/29/album-review-of-montreal-paralytic-stalks/)

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Kevin Barnes has always been one to experiment. From album to album significant changes in of Montreal’s sound and approach are apparent, which is what makes of Montreal one of the most exciting bands creating music today. They are an incredibly prolific act, putting out albums and EPs regularly, rarely skipping a year.

One can hear significant departures in sound between 2006’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and 2008’s Skeletal Lamping. The next album False Priest, from 2010, saw Barnes backing off a bit on excessive…

(Originally appeard on Tympanogram.com on December 27, 2011 and my own blog at Quartertonality.com )

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Back in May I introduced you to a band out of Scotland that goes by the name Andrew Lindsay and the Coat Hooks. They had just released their fantastic The Whittling EP, that would easily end up on my year end list for Favorite EPs of 2011 had I made one. Well they are back with a truncated name (now they are simply known as Coat Hooks) and a new track, “Popcorn Blues.”

This track is right in line with those found…

(originally posted to my blog: http://wp.me/pjWoO-fQ )
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Churches is the new recording project of Caleb Nichols, the frontman of Oakland's Grand Lake, former bassist of Port O'Brien, and touring member of WATERS and Release The Sunbird. On his first single, 'SAVE ME', Nichols teams up with WATERS frontman Van Pierszalowski and Rogue Wave drummer Pat Spurgeon. Oslo-based WATERS guitarist Nikolai Haukeland also plays. The result is two and a half minutes of melancholic, fuzzed-out power-pop, with obvious nods to heroes Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr. and contemporaries such as Wye…

(This post can also be found on my blog: http://wp.me/pjWoO-fE)

Sometimes it just feels great to have some loud music blasting into your ears. It's better if the sonic assault isn't something that is relentless, rather persistent but giving and taking in all the right places. This band has a knack for knowing how to take things back a bit, build up the momentum and charge ahead again at full speed. This album is appropriately titled in that the loudness and sheer power of the guitars only seems to get progressively louder, leaving the listener feeling like they were punched…