Ben Kweller Sha Sha Ato By: Eric Greenwood Now that he's old enough to have something substantive to say, Ben Kweller reinvents himself, somewhat deceptively, as a sarcastic slacker songwriter in the tradition of Stephen Malkmus and Rivers Cuomo. Kweller spent the late 1990's as the child prodigy star of the Texas trio, Radish, which, […]

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Future Bible Heroes Eternal Youth Instinct By: Eric Greenwood Even genius songwriters with buckets of talent to spare have their weak moments, and Future Bible Heroes has long been Stephin Merritt's flimsiest endeavor. I think it's because of his lack of control over the proceedings. Merritt shares the songwriting with his old pal Christopher Ewen […]

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Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights Matador By: Eric Greenwood From the first notes of Turn On The Bright Lights I knew that all of my preconceived notions about Interpol were wrong. I imagined a fey, new wave throwback similar to The Faint based on photographs of these guys in conjunction with all the heavy-handed […]

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Superdrag Last Call For Vitriol Arena Rock By: Eric Greenwood I saw Superdrag on Conan O'Brien the other night, and I couldn't believe how much they rocked. It was sweet relief witnessing such a raucous performance after having to listen to Al Franken wax unfunny with a bored Conan about the Bush administration's Iraq quandary. […]

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Mull Historical Society Loss Blanco Y Negro/xl/baggars Banquet By: Eric Greenwood Flirting with that ever-so-English world of whimsical pop, the Mull Historical Society dresses itself in a cloak of many colors, each one representing a different musical flavor. Like its Welsh counterpart, Super Furry Animals, Mull Historical Society relishes its offbeat fancy with an arsenal […]

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Enon High Society Touch And Go By: Eric Greenwood I found out that I'd been pronouncing Enon incorrectly when John Schmersal introduced his band at a live show recently. "Hi, we're 'E-nun'", he said- emphasis on the long 'e' with no attention paid to the second syllable whatsoever. I found his pronunciation puny and submissive. […]

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Shiner The Egg De Soto By: Eric Greenwood I met this guy at a party recently who absolutely freaked out because I had never heard of Shiner. Bands slip through the cracks. It happens. You can’t know about every good band all of the time; otherwise, life would be boring. But this guy really could […]

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