The Dropscience Experimenting With Contrast Happy Couples Never Last By: Eric Greenwood What a pretentious bunch of nonsense. Uninspiring rock of the "post" kind featuring members of members of"who cares (probably bad emo bands)? Overlong and predictable songs with atrocious vocals that emote over top of watered down, fourth generation Fugazi and June Of 44 […]

[Read more →]

The Ladderback Introductions To Departure Bifocal Media By: Eric Greenwood The Ladderback, a trio from Raleigh, North Carolina, employs tried and true ingredients in its aggro-punk attack on this- its fierce and focused second album. For a trio The Ladderback certainly creates an inordinate amount of noise- the overdubs notwithstanding. The guitars blast in short […]

[Read more →]

New Order Get Ready London By: Eric Greenwood I've been awaiting the new New Order with an equal amount of trepidation, apathy, and excitement ever since the re-grouping rumors surfaced a few years ago. Would the band lampoon itself, sounding horribly dated after an eight-year hiatus, or would it return to the tension that has […]

[Read more →]

The White Stripes White Blood Cells Sympathy For The Record Industry By: Eric Greenwood Believe the hype. I kept reading so many glowing and ingratiating reviews of this band that I just instinctively put up my guard. Weeks went by and I still hadn’t heard The White Stripes. I felt like a leper. I couldn’t […]

[Read more →]

Computer Cougar Rough Notes On High Stress Gern Blandsten By: Eric Greenwood Don't be fooled by any "featuring ex-members of" flyers for Computer Cougar, despite the fact that this New Jersey quartet does, in fact, feature former members of both Rorschach and Born Against. The band takes its cues from early British art-punk and late […]

[Read more →]

Stereolab Sound-Dust Elektra By: Eric Greenwood Morphing through another phase in its equally dilettantish and brilliant musical career, Stereolab returns on its ninth album with a proclivity for 1970's schmaltz, among other things. The squawking jazz bursts of its last album, Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, have all but disappeared […]

[Read more →]

Wolfie Tall Dark Hill March By: Eric Greenwood Wolfie bounces through its frivolous pop with three chords and an endless supply of second-hand hooks. Guitarist Joe Ziemba sounds like your typical early-90's indie rock nerd, gurgling the snot between his forced falsetto and a bratty affectation. Luckily, he has Amanda Lyons' virginal voice to pick […]

[Read more →]