Having recently produced the track “Black Out on White Night” for Sage Francis‘ heavily acclaimed new album Human The Death Dance, Minneapolis talent Big Cats! proves that you don’t need the fashionable nonsense in order to create some strict beats. That track in particular underscores Francis’ unique flow while singer Jolie Holland does her [...]
[by Dom Davis]
2007 has thus far provided no shortage of foot stomping, hand clapping songs akin to that of how you might imagine a tribal gather sounding. The realm of this intense urgency is beautifully captured by Frog Eyes on their recent Tears of the Valedictorian. Similar to form, Brooklyn’s Yeasayer proved an unexpectedly commanding [...]
Following an extended stint with the Swedish six piece Edson, Pelle Carlberg continues to branch out with his own lively pop ballads. While much of his upcoming album In A Nutshell focuses on bit of dreary wit, tracks such as “Clever Girls” and “I Love You, You Imbicile” insert a playful theme that gives [...]
Forming in 2004 the trio of Twinkranes (aka T. Krane, The Rooster and Dr. Raymond Crane) spent its first two years together establishing the band’s musical focus and creating a number of visual pieces which would later accompany the group’s live performances in the form of an electronic slide show. After playing a list [...]
[by Dom Davis]
Minneapolis’ Brothers Quetico find old soul in quid bro quo, their debut full length that somehow slipped under the radar fall of last year. In true punk tradition, the Brothers cover 9 songs in 25 minutes, traversing a grizzly terrain of grandly intelligible progressions and sentimental vocal harmonies that recalls a similar restless [...]
Je Suis France takes surrounds itself with as much myth and humor as the acts many might suggest it sounds like. The group’s off kilter experimentalist Ween-ish melodies roll hand in hand with its peculiar history. With the group’s Mind Zappa release it attempted to construct renditions of Frank Zappa songs that the band had [...]
It’s been a couple years since the stigmatic shadow that trails Eminem’s legacy was once relevant and white MCs are still creating some of the most interesting and undeniabley talented lyrical webs in the game. It’s not the color, but the introduction to the art that is what’s important however and in the case [...]
There’s some strange romanticism I have with strong female leads and in the Amy LeVere story “Killing Him” I find myself helplessly falling for the passionate murderer. “Killing him didn’t make the love go away.” Can I say that I’ve never felt anything similar? Not really, in times gone by I’ve wondered [...]
“Rats” is such a lowly song for the better part of its running time, slowly chiming in with lyrics that further exasperating its already ready to burst tempo, “You’ve got me on my knees again.” The song comes to a head with an unusual psychedelic mixed bag of wavy distortion and feedback treats that seem [...]
Jack Peñate plays with a careless party-like energy that made the masses love ska, not to fret though as Peñate lacks the trumpet-funk combination that lead to the downfall of ska and its three revivals. His songs, while easily grasped, and are written with such an innocence. “Got My Favourite…” is simply about his [...]
There’s a rule of thumb that isn’t necessarily always true, but for those who have official biographies is often true: if said biography begins with a key to the pronunciation of your name you’ve probably lived a fairly interesting life. Like I said, not always but often true, and in the case of Andra Suchy [...]
In all fairness - who hasn’t had KRS One lay down lyrics for a few songs for their largely unknown album? Hands? Psalm One? Not so much? I it would be fair to say that Chicago-based producer Copperpot might have very well pulled a coup with his sophomore release WYLA? in that it looks just [...]
When Chris invited me to do a couple guest posts for Culture Bully I agreed with one caveat: that I could write about the two Ohio bands that have been dominating my soundsystem for the past month, Coffinberry and Two Cow Garage. My roots in the Midwest are pretty deep. Outside of a few months [...]
A few things you should know about Coffinberry:
1. The band’s name is taken from a historic Cleveland figure. I can’t tell you who Mr. Coffinberry was, or what he did, but his name is on a street, park, and school in the western suburb of Fairview Park.
2. Though the band formed in [...]
Local Minneapolis quartet The Trimmed Hedges attempt to capture a number of genres throughout the band’s first full length release The Seas Elected, released locally through The Missing Stamp Collective. While the release has a general compliance towards diversity (see: banjo & slap bass) the band finds its strongest moments through the use of [...]
So…would you? Cause it is, kind of. Last May I asked “whether or not stoner rock can flow seamlessly into a melodic pop-guitar crunch;” the answer which was obvious at the time was yes, indeed, and the perpetrators of this unusual output are none other than Delaware’s two-piece The Sky Drops. The [...]
The MySpace Roundup: A place for some of my new best friends and their bands to get noticed! This time around I am pleased to introduce you to Philadelphia’s most bad assiest keytar-welding son of a gun Mose Giganticus, Dallas indie-MC Pikahsso and Minneapolis’ answer to the age old question “can young adults [...]
Only Crime’s lineup alone begs for attention; it includes Russ Rankin (Good Riddance), Bill Stevenson (The Descendents/All/Black Flag), Aaron Dalbec (Bane/Converge), Zach Blair (Hagfish/Gwar) and Doni Blair (Hagfish). The music is somewhat expected from this mash of musician, it’s grinding at times, occasionally it sounds brash and hasty, but even at its most consumable [...]
Willard Grant Conspiracy is a group that has, over the course of course of ten years, released eleven albums of live and studio material - with Let It Roll being its latest. The band’s only permanent member and vocalist Robert Fisher sounds like a roots-Nick Cave with a voice deeply based in coffee and [...]
Pitchfork recently included Fujiya & Miyagi as apart of its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2006, ranking the band somewhere within the realm of awesome-though-not-concisely-spectacular with a placement at #39 on the list. The group’s unimposing presence plays to the retro-pop crowd without even once attempting to lure mainstream listeners in by [...]
