(Originally appeared on my blog:http://quartertonality.com/2011/04/20/album-review-sloan-the-double-cross/ )

Halifax natives Sloan are celebrating their 20th year as a band with an album full of hook laden power pop perfection. As usual the album title serves as a double meaning. Double cross meaning 2 xs, the Roman numeral for twenty, or perhaps it’s a reference to something more disquieting? It’s the former, not the latter.

It seems that every time one reads about Sloan it’s the same thing: something along the lines of “4 songwriters with distinctive voices and styles”. That is usually followed by a reference to The Beatles, such as…

(Originally appeared on my blog: http://quartertonality.com/2011/04/19/album-review-colourmusic-my-______-is-pink/

and on groovemine.com: http://www.groovemine.com/rantsraves_review_colourmusic_my-blank-is-pink )

Go ahead: admit the first thing that popped into your head when you read the title. Yeah, that’s what I thought, sicko. Well that’s not how this reviewer read it at all. I read it as “My blank is Pink” because I am classy and sophisticated and a terrific liar.

Perhaps the provocative title, or non-provocative title as the case may be, serves as the point of entry for the album. Upon reading the title the listener is probably lead to expect something confrontational, something that challenges and pushes…

This post was originally published at Tympanogram.com on April 15, 2011: http://tympanogram.com/music/mp-intoducing-jerseyband/

Jerseyband is a unique group. They play a style of music that they have dubbed “lungcore” – a hard-edged version of prog-metal fronted by a horn section. The amalgam of jazz elements with metal make complete sense in their hands, and they have happily produced six full length albums of fun, tricky and hard hitting music over the course of their decade of existence. I have personally been a fan of their music since 2006 when a friend let me borrow their 2003 album Little Bag…

(Originally appeared on my blog here: http://quartertonality.com/2011/04/04/album-review-dag-for-dag-boo/ which includes 2 tracks to listen to)

I used to own a cassette when I was a kid. Well, I owned several. Having grown up in the 80’s means I went through a lot of cassettes. Blank tapes became canvases that I recorded memories onto. They contained the songs I listened to as I passed the days riding my bike around in the rain. Store bought tapes that were found to be sub-par, having only that one song that was worth listening to, were easily converted to mixtapes with a simple strip of…

(Originally appeared on my blog at: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/29/album-review-radiohead-the-king-of-limbs/)

We can always count on Radiohead to change the game from album to album. Because of this I feel that their latest album, “The King of Limbs”, deserves something beyond the usual track by track review. Everything that Radiohead does, musical or otherwise, is subject to an extraordinary level of scrutiny such that few, if any, other musical acts in existence today have to contend with. Not many would know how to cope, let alone be able to utilize all of that scrutiny; turning it into something productive. This is one…

(Originally appeared on my blog, which features a video to watch, and a few audio tracks to listen to: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/23/ep-review-grand-lake-leaves-ellipse/)

Grand Lake are following up last years exacting, skilled and expansive album “Blood Sea Dream” with an EP that plays their hand a little closer to their chest. “Leaves Ellipse” features intimate, homespun, heartfelt melodies brought to life with the stripped down sound of acoustic guitar with clear arrangements. There is less of a focus on lead lines and the layered material that drove most of “Blood Sea Dream”.

The tunes are just as…

(originally appeared on my blog: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/16/album-review-yuck-yuck/)

Finally, after all the hype of indie culture coming to the mainstream, with Arcade Fire winning the Album of the Year Grammy and every band everywhere looking for a unique sound, we get an album that gives us exactly what we need. Yuck has delivered an album that has garnered a lot of attention for its fresh sound that, ironically, is captured by going back to sounding like the music of the 1990's.
 
It is funny to think that we can actually refer to this music accurately by saying that it sounds reminiscent to…

(Originally appeared on my blog, here: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/15/ep-review-of-montreal-the-controllersphere/)

This EP picks up exactly where “False Priest” left off. I mean that in the most literal way possible. This release can be viewed as an addendum to their last full length offering that was released not 7 months ago. “thecontrollersphere" is 5 full tracks worth of Kevin Barnes trying out some of his more daring ideas, heading off in directions that aren’t explored in previous albums and possibly giving us a look at what is to come. This seems to be the way that of Montreal likes to…

(originally appeared on my blog: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/11/album-review-queens-of-the-stone-age-queens-of-the-stone-age-re-issue/)

Re-issues are a touchy subject to some. Who decides whether or not an album is deserving of a 2nd look? Does an album have to be a runaway hit and become hard to find in order for it to be deemed re-issue worthy or is it more that later success in a band’s career may assist earlier recordings in being resurrected from obscurity? In the case of Queens of the Stone Age it is more so the latter than the former.

Josh Homme, the lead singer, guitarist and mastermind behind Queens of the Stone…

(Originally appeared on my blog: http://quartertonality.com/2011/03/10/album-review-the-two-koreas-science-island/)

Sometimes a straight forward rock album is exactly what the doctor ordered. Noisy, sloppy, balls to the wall rock has the power to erase any traces of trend-mongering buzzbands that exist only to grab a quick piece of the action. The Two Koreas don’t seem to be interested in any of the current trends and instead are slicing right through the middle of it all with pure rock verve. Literate lyrics shouted atop a noisy, energetic garage rock band.
Every song is forthright in its earnestness, and pushes forward with such aggression that…