reviewnalage

the warlocks - Surgery: Bobby Hecksher, one of 60 or so former members of the BJM, now fronts his own 3-ring circus. Settling on a staff of seven, the Warlocks latest (3rd full length overall, I believe) delivers a staunch dose of shoegazey rock, which gets better as it gets louder, and is finding heavy rotation in my voit.

portastatic - Bright Ideas: With 3 releases since the last superchunk album, it seems as if Mac is focusing all his energies solely on this longtime side project. The result is less acoustic than previous efforts with full band arrangements all courtesy of Mac. It serves to tide me over until the next increasingly unlikely Chunk disc.

silver jews - Tanglewood Numbers: Usually perceived as merely a Pavement side project, this is actually David Berman a full time band for David Berman. In fact, Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich were notably absent on the Jooos last release, Bright Flight. They are back for this one however along side an unknown female, and serve to change up Berman's rather monotinous baritoOOOOone. Perhaps the best Jews disc yet, but still painfully mediocre.

101ers - Elgin Avenue Breakdown (Revisited): Re-issue of Joe Strummer's pre Clash work. Half studio and half live material which, not surprisingly, sounds markedly like early Clash.

mount eerie - No Flashlight: The new nomicker for Phil Elverum, previously referred to as The Microphones. Sounds just like previuos Microphrophones material - difficult, minimal & sparse.

a hawk and a hacksaw - Darkness at Noon: Second full-length from former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer and current multi-instrumentalist, Jeremy Barnes. Another strange audio scape, sounding akin to a soundtrack for something in New Orleans or from a long time ago that's broken or dead.

-jammed, neph-