I Made Love To My Girlfriend While Listening To Father John Misty’s Baby-Makin’ Record I Love You, Honeybear: A Critique and One-sided Dialogue
Included in the packaging for the physical LP of Father John Misty’s sophomore follow up, I Love You, Honeybear, is a thin pamphlet titled, “Exercises for Listening.” It’s an extensive instruction manual for…
Album Review: Mount Eerie – Sauna: Pop Press Pick
Phil Elverum is the James Joyce of Anacortes, Washington. Although any one of his works may not equate to the singular force of Ulysses, his cohesive and monolithic body of work as a…
Show Preview: Sharon Van Etten at Mohawk this Saturday
Sharon Van Etten returns to Austin Saturday night (October 18) when she plays Mohawk to what will most likely be a packed house. A favorite amongst Austin residents, Van Etten released Are We…
Album Review: Sharon Van Etten – Are We There (Pop Press Pick)
An ethereal haunting. A beautiful ache. Broken love and scars that smile. Life is no black and white analysis, but is made up of a complex series of contradictory feelings all competing to…
Album Review: RF Shannon – Hunting Songs (Pop Press Pick)
RF Shannon must’ve been born at some pre-dawn hour—those long, slow hours where minutes tick away like lingering drips from a leaky faucet. The Texas air is thick and humid. The roar of…
Album Review: Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
Contrary to belief, you DO make friends with salad. If Bart Simpson grew up to form a band, no one could better compare than Mac DeMarco. Both children of the 90’s with a knack for…
Album Review: The Men – Tomorrow’s Hits (Pop Press Pick)
Unlike other varieties of bears, polar bears are nomadic, moving from food source to food source, forsaking territory in favor of satiating their appetite. The Men are like that, and they still aren’t…
Album Review: Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witness (Pop Press Pick)
I had no idea that the points of reference for Burn Your Fire For No Witness, the new album from Angel Olsen, would be Patsy Cline and Leonard Cohen. Simply put: I had no…
Album Review: Damien Jurado – Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son (Pop Press Pick)
Damien Jurado’s new album Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son, out earlier this month on Secretly Canadian, is a complex folk fever dream of an album—mysterious, dense, magical. I have fallen desperately…
Album Review: Jess Williamson – Native State (Pop Press Pick)
Austin songstress Jess Williamson has been saving up Native State for a while, and the results are rewarding. Be assured: this is not a record of pop gems; this is not an attempt…
Album Review: Arcade Fire – Reflektor (Pop Press Pick)
Arcade Fire’s fourth full-length album Reflektor is a marvelous achievement. Working for the first time with former LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy, the band has created a complex album, stylistically diverse yet…
Album Review: Cass McCombs – Big Wheel and Others
Cass McCombs has created music that ranges from odd, reverb laden rock, PREfection’s “Subtraction” and “Equinox,” to somber folk, A’s “Gee It’s Good To Be Back Home,” to ethereal pop, Wit’s End’s “County Line.” Most recently,…
Album Review: Brazos – Saltwater (Pop Press Pick)
A period of inexplicably silent years separates Brazos’s adored 2009 release Phosphorescent Blues and their new album Saltwater, out today on Dead Oceans. Not only years but also geographical distance separates the Brazos…
Album Review: Majical Cloudz – Impersonator (Pop Press Pick)
Here’s the thing about Majical Cloudz’ new album Impersonator — I can’t figure out what makes is so irresistibly good. And it very much is. More often than not, my brain over analyzes what makes…
Album Review: The National – Trouble Will Find Me
The National’s High Violet was a near perfect assemblage of songs that utilized a distinct and arresting sonic palette of instrumentation that simultaneously sounded enormous while nearly vanishing into the darkness from whence it came….
Ten (More) Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now
We were honored when Nerve magazine recently asked me to compose a list of five albums for their recurring guest column “Five Albums You Should Be Listening To Right Now;” the results are…
Album Review: Mikal Cronin – MCII (Pop Press Pick)
We were greatly impressed by the balance of melody and noise on The Babies’ 2012 album Our House On The Hill, and other bands such as The Men and King Tuff have experimented with…
Album Review: The Flaming Lips – The Terror (Pop Press Pick)
Growing towards the sunlight from their experimental roots, The Flaming Lips’ career sprouted and flowered on the raw nutrients of joy, silliness, and quirky fun. Songs like “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt….
Album Review: Kurt Vile – Wakin On A Pretty Daze (Pop Press Pick)
Kurt Vile’s last effort Smoke Ring for my Halo received universal acclaim and was hailed as one of the best albums of the year. His newest album Wakin On A Pretty Daze expands…
Album Review: Phosphorescent – Muchacho (Pop Press Pick)
The sun peeks over the desert horizon with soft yellow blinks and floods a tiny Mexican bar where a disheveled drunk sways, shirttails untucked, shuffling on a concrete floor, mumbling a mournful and…
Album Review: The Men – New Moon (Pop Press Pick)
“Won’t you slip on by my side, and drive through the countryside?” Nick Chiericozzi asks in the first line of “Open the Door.” The easy pace and acoustic guitars that open New Moon…
Album Review: Youth Lagoon – Wondrous Bughouse (Pop Press Pick)
This is the feeling of weightlessness. Youth Lagoon possesses some intangible quality that sends the soul soaring, that permeates the chambers of the heart through auditory channels, evoking airy wisps of memories. Indeed,…
Album Review: Autre Ne Veut – Anxiety (Pop Press Pick)
When I first heard Autre Ne Veut’s single “Play by Play” I was hooked. I listened to it on repeat all week and constantly insisted that friends listen to it. Now that the…
Album Review: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Push the Sky Away
I must confess that while Nick Cave is someone whose music I’ve been familiar with over the years, I can’t speak with confidence about the quality or merits of any of his latter…
Album Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – II
Unknown Mortal Orchestra has released one of the best albums of the year so far in II, released tomorrow on the stalwart Jagjaguwar label. As someone who enjoys listening to divergent and sometimes…
Album Review: Local Natives – Hummingbird
On Hummingbird, Local Natives match their already developed abilities to construct propulsive, explosive indie-rock with a sense of restraint and the sublimely beautiful to produce one of the year’s finest albums so far….
Album Review: Foxygen – We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
All the promise reflected in Foxygen’s overdue debut full-length Take the Kids Off Broadway has been fully realized on their sophomore effort, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, which…
Album Review: Yo La Tengo – Fade
It’s like Big Star never stopped making music. Sure, it is a far more current and contemporary imagining of the essential, under-appreciated rock heroes, but the spirit is there. After all, it was…
EP Review: Lazyeyes – Lazyeyes EP
The recording quality, mixing, and production of “Nostalgia” the opener on Brooklyn quartet Lazyeyes’ self-titled, debut EP immediately arrests the listener. It’s so captivating in fact, that it took me another listen to…
Album Review: Memory Tapes – Grace/Confusion
Memory Tapes, the recording project of Dayve Hawk, releases its third album, Grace/Confusion, today on Carpark Records. Hawk sharpens his skills even further on this album, effortlessly blending and moving between vastly divergent…
