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200 Words Or Less

Daylight

The Difference Between Good and Bad Dreams
Run for Cover (2012)

Daylight is one of those pop punk bands that run in the same vein as Run for Cover label mates Basement and genre heavyweights Title Fight, characterized by upbeat melodies and catchy riffs while retaining a clean sound. The Difference Between Good and Bad Dreams is the band’s latest release and follows their acoustic EP. The four songs come to … Read more

White Lung

Sorry
Deranged (2012)

If you were a fan of White Lung's debut album, It's The Evil, for it's raw and straight forward approach, then you might be a little taken aback by the sophomore record, Sorry. They've re-evaluated their style of songwriting and have turned it into something more melodic and refined. It was all for the better though. Make no mistake, the … Read more

Cadence Weapon

Hope In Dirt City
Upper Class (2012)

Hope in Dirt City is the third release from Edmonton, Alberta’s Cadence Weapon. With a smooth flow and an ear for wordplay, Cadence Weapon creates a kind of thumping hip-hop, with big beats that are crafted using sounds that are not traditionally percussive. All that, of course, with a bit of 20-something ironic hipster to it and a focus on … Read more

Alcest

Les Voyages de l'Âme
Prophecy Productions (2012)

What I love most about French metaller Alcest's newest release Les Voyages de l'Âme (roughly, The Journeys of the Soul) is how it invites your impressions to shift and change as you listen to it. At first, I picked out mostly the folk elements, comparing it to Opeth, except much more melodic in nature. Then I started hearing the ever-so-slight … Read more

Royal Headache

Self Titled
Whats Your Rupture? (2012)

Royal Headache has been gathering some hype lately. Their self-titled record is a twelve track piece of high energy garage-punk, blazing past in twenty-six minutes. It’s clean; it’s crisp; yet, it’s also got a driving rhythm section and more than its share of aggression. While the genredrop isn’t necessarily difficult based on their sound, it feels unfair to pigeonhole them, … Read more

Video/DVD Review

Dinosaur Jr.

Live at 9:30 Club: In the Hands of the Fans
MVD Visual (2012)

In 1988 Dinosaur Jr. released their third record Bug. Despite it being lead singer/guitarists and band leader J.Mascis’ least favorite outing, it was their most successful album up to that point. While touring in support of it, tension between Mascis and bassist Lou Barlow, who had known each other since high school and played together in hardcore band Deep Wound … Read more

Fiona Apple

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Epic (2012)

Fiona Apple's brutal honesty can be summed up in one lyric: "Every single night's a fight with my brain." She keeps howling this on "Every Single Night," the introductory song to The Idler Wheel.. (there's more to that album title, but I'm not attempting to type that all out).Because she possesses this honesty and because she is able to express … Read more

Skyharbor

Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos
Basick (2012)

There aren't many ways that I can describe the emotions I get from Indian djentlemen Skyharbor's debut album, and part of the reason is that the cumbersomely titled Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos brings with it some incredibly polarizing feelings. On the one hand, it's one of the most pleasurable aural experiences I've had the pleasure to receive. On … Read more

From Ashes Rise

Rejoice The End / Rage Of Sanity
Southern Lord (2012)

Formed in Nashville, Tennessee during the mid-‘90s American crust punk swell, From Ashes Rise later relocated to their current base in Portland, Oregon, where alongside fellow scene forerunners His Hero Is Gone, Tragedy and Hellshock, they helped cast the prototype for modern-day “epic crust punk”—a big sound that, while still rooted in anarcho-minded lyricism, apocalyptic imagery and D-beat, displays a … Read more

Baroness

Yellow & Green
Relapse (2012)

When a band decides (yes, the band, not you and your fanboy mates) to make a little change in their musical approach and try out something new, a couple of things happen. Aforementioned fanboys get up in arms and take to the internet in droves or have the same conversation with different people over and over and over again about … Read more

Primal Rock Rebellion

Awoken Broken
Spinefarm Records (2012)

As far as supergroups go, I could probably count the number of successful ones on one hand. And, quite frankly, that's using as broad and weighted a definition of "successful" as a sufficiently drunk reading of the dictionary could possibly allow. That's because no one wants to hear a group of otherwise successful musicians get together and simply rehash the … Read more

The Pirate Ship Quintet

Rope for No-Hopers
Denovali (2012)

Five years after their first EP was released, English band The Pirate Ship Quintet have finally released their debut album, 2012's Rope for No-Hopers. But how well does it hold up in comparison to the modern post-rock scene?Right from the get-go, it sounds like they're trying to re-create that symphonic-based minimalist sound of the Montréal post-rock scene, mixed with just … Read more

Bird Sounds

New
Big Action (2012)

This is the first physical release from Bird Sounds and the four years it took them to put together a 7” has given them time to develop their sound. The songs on their digital EP, Girl Sounds (2008) were rougher and dirtier, while the New 7” has a tighter and more crisp sound and production. Musically, it’s something of a … Read more

200 Words Or Less

Lockerbie

Ólgusjór
Kapitän Platte (2012)

I'll admit, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this album quite as much as I did. Though it's not perfect, Lockerbie's 2011 release Ólgusjór is something that pretty much everyone will find something to like about.They have the same kitschy Icelandic appeal and post-rock sound of Sigur Rós combined with the accessibility and songwriting of Coldplay. There are tons of bright … Read more

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