Tag Archives: iys

Crazy for You doesn’t feel forced or contrived, but more genuinely lackadaisical. The Best Coast album is a nice blend of shoegazey sixties girl pop more akin to Vivian Girls or Dum Dum Girls than, say, She & Him. Frontwoman Bethany Cosentino has damn near perfect old-school rocker pipes with sneer to match, but the tracks tend to run together. All of the tracks on the first side are enjoyable in their own right, they’re just somewhat indistinguishable from one another. I do really love the stand-out songs, but they’re all stuck at the end of the disc. On the whole, it’s an enjoyable summertime listen, but be forewarned, these tracks are growers. There’s no real wow factor, even though there easily could have been. This girl is more the type to gradually wear down your resistance and win you over rather than sweep you off your feet. Give the album the chance to do so. Read full review at inyourspeakers.com

Best Coast – I Want To

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You can stream the entire album here.

Bruce Springsteen is, without question, the hip old-school rocker of the moment. Everybody loves the guy, and with that love comes the unfortunate side effect of hundreds of ham-fisted and half-assed attempts to rip off the guy’s music and persona, or at the very least to toss out the requisite namecheck in an interview. Fortunately The Gaslight Anthem’s music can be described as anything but half-assed, and in many respects, it could be said that the Jersey foursome are well adept at using their whole asses. Indeed, their previous album, 2008’s The ’59 Sound, offered listeners the best Bruce-inspired tunes this side of The Hold Steady, in the process catapulting the band to veritable superstar status. To say that American Slang arrives with bloated and unreasonably high expectations that have little possibility of being matched in this world, or any other, is a bit of an understatement. And disappointed I was when I queued up the record’s title track, a meek opener by Gaslight’s lofty standards. But when “Stay Lucky” and “Bring It On” roll around the corner, any fears of The Gaslight Anthem growing old, tired, and lazy quickly evaporate. Both tunes are bruising, straightforward rockers bleeding with the kind of desperate optimism and nostalgia that made “Old White Lincoln” and “Red In The Morning” such fan-favorites. Read full review at inyourspeakers.com

The Gaslight Anthem – We Did It When We Were Young

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To quote the venerable MrFukhed’s musing on Rafter’s YouTube video for “Paper,” “i bet theres gonna be a bunch of indie fucks swingin from the balls of this group.” As a dyed-in-the-wool indie fuck, I can attest to the categorical truth of this statement. Although Rafter Roberts has been releasing albums for almost five years, there really couldn’t be a better jumping off point into the world of Rafter than Animal Feelings. Working backwards through his catalogue ought to increase your appreciation of his earlier, more difficult material. Rafter has always had his finger to the pulse of pop, keeping even his most experimental tendencies grounded. His latest effort is a testament to that fact. Nothing sets toes to tapping like a quality pop song. Right from the start “No Fucking Around” comes straight down the middle. Literally, Rafter is flat out telling us there will be no fucking around with sampling snippets of improvised chaos and piecing together of randomized over-thoughts (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Previously Rafter made music for the mind, now he’s making it explicitly for the hips. Read Full Review at inyourspeakers.com

Rafter -No Fucking Around

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Rafter – Timeless Form, Formless Time

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Rafter – Fruit (Baths Remix)

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Imagine this: Nightmare on Elm Street is real, you just fell asleep, and now you’re in the boiler room of a creepy sleep away camp building where a bunch of teenagers were murdered last year. You’re with a gang of rockabilly motorcyclists and a friendly cannibal and you just heard a strange noise nearby. You walk towards what could either be an inevitable doom or your salvation from this nightmare….Ok, so what’s the soundtrack? Answer: Before Today. If the album’s track titles (“Fright Night (Nevermore),” “Beverly Kills,” “Butt-House Blondies,” etc.) sound kitsch it’s because Ariel Pink’s whole album is wrapped in an endearing blanket of horror flick nostalgia. Before Today is like an acid-wracked, psychedelic music version of the ‘80s B-horror movies your film freak friends worship. Continue reading at inyourspeakers.com

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round And Round

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