wednesday reviews

tenement halls - Knitting Needles & Bicycle Bells: Rock *A* Teens frontman's new band. This has an entirely different sound than the Teens, but something's still off, much like it was with the Teens.

blood on the wall - Awesomer: Real basic (in a good way), heavy drudge. It'd be called grunge if we were in 1993. I think the new term might be 'stoner rock' or something ridiculous like that. Kind of reminds me of Goo or Dirty-era Sonic Youth a little, but the tracks are shorter. 'Mary Susan' is a stand-out track.

calvin johnson - Before the Dream Faded: Standard issue Calvin Johnson, the baritonal madman behind much of the K records ouvre.

acid house kings - Sing Along With the Acid House Kings: This sounds just like the pleasant enoughness of Kings of Convenience, but with a female singer in the fold. Kind of like listening to a muscle relaxer.

amorphous androgynous - Alice in Ultraland: FSOL switched to their alter ego at some point after they released their last album, The Isness. Why the name change? I can only guess that they realized they weren't pushing the 'future sound' anymore as evidenced by this Primal Scream-ish retro affair rife with that pyschedelic guitar lingering around from the overblown Isness nonsense. This album starts off promisingly enough, but then plummits to the Isness's depths of psychedelic pomp and circumstance by way of assinine vocals. Not a total surprise - after all Dead Cities kind of signalled the beginning of the end years ago.

arab strap - The Last Romance: A break up album, if ever there was one. Here we see a bit heavier side of Malcolm who is not even the least bit subtle about this love on the outs.

boards of canada - The Campfire Headphase: At least the Boards have managed to pick up FSOL's slack. This is pure ambient goodness, a bit less rigid than Geodaddi. Kind of like listening to a cloud, or squeezing the Charmin.

-figured out (almost)-