Prince 3121 Universal By: Eric Greenwood Prince's last great, forward thinking, and groundbreaking record was in 1988, and Prince posed nude for the cover. He had the world eating out of his hand, awaiting his every move. At the time, Lovesexy seemed like a bit of a letdown, having been burdened with following the brilliance […]

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Mogwai Mr. Beast Matador By: Eric Greenwood Mogwai's crash course in post-rock noise is a blistering jolt even to the most jaded of ears. On its fifth album, Mr. Beast, the band sounds singularly focused on re-discovering its dynamic roots, adding subtle flourishes along the way to avoid any self-referential mockery, and the result is […]

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Talking Heads Talking Heads Brick Rhino By: Eric Greenwood The more time that passes the larger the legacy of the Talking Heads looms. This band of RISD art school geeks changed the face of pop music forever. And not just musically, either. The Talking Heads revolutionized the music video format even before MTV's inception, making […]

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The Sounds Dying To Say This To You New Line Records By: Eric Greenwood The Hives are to The Rolling Stones as The Sounds are to Blondie- not exactly replicas, but the level of influence is perfectly obvious in less substantive ways. The Sounds dress themselves like new wave punks, too, which means calculatedly tough […]

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Stereolab Fab Four Suture Too Pure By: Eric Greenwood Every time Stereolab releases an album, the same arguments and justifications are bandied about, all of which revolve around the complaint that each new Stereolab album sounds exactly like the last one. It's an ignorant assertion, but it's easy to understand why it's become an issue […]

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David Gilmour On An Island Sony By: Eric Greenwood Following the reverently elegiac reunion of Pink Floyd with Roger Waters at last summer's Live 8 benefit, (which incidentally sparked an increase in Pink Floyd's album sales by 3000%!), guitarist David Gilmour has released his third solo record, On an Island. It's been 22 years since […]

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Voxtrot Raised By Wolves Cult Hero Records By: Michael Jones You can certainly add Voxtrot to that ever-growing list of intriguing Texas bands. This quintet from Austin defies easy categorization. Its press release throws about all sorts of comparisons, and most of them seem fair enough: Gang of Four, The Smiths, early R.E.M., and Belle […]

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