Score: ***** Check out a video of the whole, 33-minute video performance here: .. I got the idea to do a post on 311’s live show just randomly today — actually I have a pretty fond memory of seeing them at the 2000 Q101 Jamboree but typically don’t run across too many public accolades of … Read more“Video Review: 311 – Full Performance (Live from the KROQ Helpful Honda Sound Space)”
Score: 7/10 I should have known, the whole time: I was Tantalus. I looked at this new Jack White album, the title, the cover, the song titles, and thought, oh God, yup, the girl broke up with him. And then he cloaks the opener “Old Scratch Blues” in so much groove and coolness — splitting … Read more“DD Review: Jack White – No Name.”
Score: 1/10 Camera Obscura were kind of the darlings of the indie scene circa 2007, with their breakthrough LP Let’s Get out of This Country still standing as a classic in cutesy, steel-guitar-laden folk-pop. In fact, this LP helped them score a big deal with Merge Records, judging by the concurrent events. And that, I … Read more“DD Review: Camera Obscura – Look to the East, Look to the West.”
Score: 5.5/10 What started out in the 1980s as a half-demented pop foursome in Glasgow He**-bent on making your ears bleed with guitar feedback (infiltrated the mixes on infinitely catchy songs, curiously enough) is now just a duo, composed of original members and blood brothers William and Jim Reid. True to form, Glasgow Eyes is … Read more“DD Review: The Jesus and Mary Chain – Glasgow Eyes.”
Score: 10/10 One of the heartbreaking things to me about this new Black Keys release, Ohio Players, on which track one is entitled “This is Nowhere”; is that the Black Keys’ place of origin of Akron, Ohio is actually really beautiful. It’s located in Ohio’s Eastern half, among a copious litany of rolling hills and … Read more“DD Review: The Black Keys – Ohio Players.”
Score: 9/10 In my review of Pearl Jam’s 2020 “effort” Gigaton, I made the remark that not only did it fall well short of standard, but it represented a time to hit the panic button — that to repeat the present error of forced, contrived emotion and reductive song structures would be essentially to kill … Read more“DD Review: Pearl Jam – Dark Matter.”
Score: 10/10 According to Wikipedia, “A la sala” is a Spanish phrase that Khruangbing bassist/vocalist Laura Lee would employ in her youth when trying to gather everyone into the living room. From this, we may be left, in our more licentious moments, to induce this album to be somewhat of a “crossing the Rubicon” signpost … Read more“DD Review: Khruangbin – A La Sala.”
Score: 8/10 For probably close to a decade or so, this band Elephant Stone has been like a dream to me. They would consistently pipe in with these deep, textural, moody indie rock songs, in the vein of Broken Social Scene covering The Stone Roses (from whose song their name springs), and the music would … Read more“DD Review: Elephant Stone – Back into the Dream.”
Score: 8/10 Welcome to the “age of information” wherein my favorite band releases a new album and I get wind of it only 30 days later. I guess it’s a good thing that every three months or so in my Bandcamp perusals I make a little “Check Fire Note” marking next to all the genre … Read more“DD Review: Wilco – Cousin.”
Score: 8/10 American electro-pop diva Glasser (originally born in Boston) holds a special place in my heart as being an artist I discovered on CD at our local library, circa 2010. This drove includes the auspicious likes, as it were, of White Rabbits, Starlight Mints, White Denim and probably a bunch of other squirrel-ly indie … Read more“DD Review: Glasser – Crux.”