August 9, 2010 at Great Scott in Allston, Massachusetts.

[Mexican Summer, 2010] words//stephanie cafarella Best Coast – Boyfriend Weed, boys and an increasingly famous orange tabby are indisputably the lyrical mainstays of Californian surf/garage-pop duo Best Coast’s debut full-length, appropriately titled, Crazy for You. The album consists of sunny, refreshingly simple lo-fi jams that sound as though they were stolen directly from the pages [...]

[Burning Mill Records, 2010] words//stephanie cafarella DOM – Jesus I don’t know whether it’s the painfully blatant and somewhat tasteless references to all things Americana or irony of the allusion to Jesus, or maybe both, but Worcester band, Dom really know how to draw attention. Whether that attention is positive or negative I’m not totally [...]

There was no shortage of toe tappin’ and seasonally inspired music at the Middle East Upstairs, this past Friday evening. With the intention of going solely to see my favorite band of the moment, and leaving with a newfound admiration for another, saying that I had a good time would be an understatement.

This is the beginning of a new era. Whether you are a lover of lo-fi or the DIY aesthetic, its time to move on, because Ariel Pink has moved on. The sound is not radically different, but anyone who has spent at least a few hours listening to old-era Ariel will notice a distinct difference. He has a band, and he’s been given a little bit of money, and he used it on a studio and an engineer or two. The world is a better place because of it. This album is a trove; gem-after-gem of pop-enthused, nostalgically-good songwriting. The only question remaining is if this should be considered the first real Ariel Pink album, and all his previous releases compilations or demos.

image & words//lou kishfy A live review of Chuck Pus at Providence’s Mars Gas Chamber on April 16, 2010. Brian Chippendale is the drummer for Lightning Bolt, a popular noise rock band from Providence, RI. His usual solo project is Black Pus, but on April 16, the Mars Gas Chamber in Providence experienced two sets [...]

Monday nights aren’t always the most hip. Though, on this particularly warm-weathered May 3rd, a glimmer of hope for my routine evening unveiled in the form of a show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, New York. Hosted by Bushwick based, Newtown Radio, the undeniably sweet bill included 5 Brooklyn based bands, each offering something totally different in regards to their sound.

“Cosmic”. It is impossible to describe this album without that word. Where previous FlyLo material may have felt grounded, this release does not. It’s as though we have escaped Los Angeles and entered into a new atmosphere. This is a new environment and there are new possibilities to be explored. Steven Ellison has traded in his old ride, and he has traded up. Not that his previous album, Los Angeles, could be accused of being bland; it just feels more singular after hearing the lush Cosmogramma.

image//will deitz words//holly aileen With my stomach full of my grandma’s Easter feast, I made my way over to the Middle East to see Sleigh Bells.  As I waited in line for the sold out show, I wasn’t entirely sure I was at the right place.  A lot of girls were dressed like me – in a [...]

Sean Nicholas Savage’s newest release, Movin Up In Society, is imaginative, prophetic, poetic, motivational, and impossibly positive in all the right, simple ways. Savage dismisses all the current trends of the current music ‘scene’ and delivers a record that encompasses the true origins of a great album.