White Reaper
The World's Best American Band
Polyvinyl (2017)
You’d think that a band that titled their album The World’s Best American Band may be getting ahead of themselves. But not every band is White Reaper. They might have just done it.The second album from the Louisville, Kentucky natives somehow takes elements of ear-pleasing 70’s hard rock a-la Van Halen and a very coked-up Aerosmith, but imbues a punk … Read more
White Reaper
White Reaper EP
Polyvinyl (2014)
White Reaper is a cool-named trio who are rubber-burning their way out of the Louisville, KY DIY scene. There’s a dude named Tony Esposito who sings and plays the guitar, and twin brothers Nick and Sam Wilkerson who play drums and bass respectively. Their self-titled debut EP will appeal to fans of Wavves, Japandroids, and Jay Reatard. Hate to drop … Read more
White Suns
Psychic Drift
Flenser (2017)
White Suns, the New York based noise trio, has been slowly descending on the path of deconstruction. Founded in 2006, the band has released a series of albums, presenting an experimental rock perspective and subsequently deconstructing it to its most basic core. The highlight of this process was Totem, a record where at times it felt like the experimental aspect … Read more
White Ward
Futility Report
Debemur Morti Productions (2017)
Hailing from Odessa, Ukraine, White Ward exist within the post-black metal scene, stirring experimental means to enhance the core of the genre, and push it forwards. Initially founded in 2012, the band has released a series of EPs and demos, taking five long years for their first complete work, Futility Report, to come into light. Being released through White Ward's … Read more
White Willow
Future Hopes
Lasers Edge Records (2017)
They call it prog-rock, art-rock, jazz-rock, they call it tedious and pretentious, they call it heady, too-much, reserved as the best time to get a drink at the bar or shop the merch table….White Willow’s record Future Hopes assists in refuting that argument.I like when a musician takes an idea to its very end, and when it’s done right, time … Read more
Who Calls So Loud
Who Calls So Loud
Protagonist Music (2009)
Who Calls So Loud features ex-members of Funeral Diner and Portraits of Past, but that's not the only reason you should listen to their self-titled release. Their label, Protagonist Music, is well known for its incredible acts such as In First Person, Pyramids, Osceola, and Suis La Lune. The band plays emotional hardcore that breathes with quieter ambient sections. Heed … Read more
Wholehearted
Reclaim
Volatile (2008)
What do we have here? You mean there are actually some youths from that godforsaken cheese covered land of Favre that actually don't want to play 2002-era metalcore or "Yo Motherfucker" bro hardcore? This is almost worth a trip to Wisconsin to check these kids out. Luckily, Wholehearted live close enough to the Mississippi that play here in Minnesota almost … Read more
Why?
Alopecia
Anticon (2008)
I'm still trying to fully wrap my head around this album. Why? hails from Oakland, California and puts an interesting hip-hop touch to their predominantly indie rock sound. Frontman Yoni Wolf is one of the founders of Anticon Records, and was also one-third of the late electronica/hip-hop group cLOUDDEAD, where he shared duties with rapper Doseone and DJ Odd Nosdam. … Read more
Wife
Standard Nature
Profound Lore (2016)
WIFE is the solo electronic project of James Kelly, who is probably best known as the mainman of (unfortunately disbanded) insane, post-black metal band Altar of Plagues. WIFE started out with the release of the Stoic EP, an excellent specimen of the experimental electronic path, which Kelly would follow on his debut full-length, What's Between, released through Tri Angle Records. … Read more
Wilco
A Ghost is Born
Nonesuch (2004)
Ok, for a pretty big review like this I'm just going to get right to it. With Wilco's fifth studio release, A Ghost is Born, the band is placed at something of a crossroads. They have just come off something of a masterpiece in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and now must find a way to either carry the torch of that … Read more
Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
Nonesuch (2007)
Although Sky Blue Sky is their sixth full-length studio record, it wasn't long ago that I hadn't actually heard of Wilco, and thus their stellar reputation was something I hadn't quite expected. The album's superbly striking artwork told me to expect some frosty post-rock atmospherics, but I was pleasantly underwhelmed by the clear-headed (but not quite sunny) alt-rock that didn't … Read more
Wilco
Wilco (The Album)
Nonesuch (2009)
By now, everyone should know the story of Wilco: Chicago alt-country pioneers-turned-alt-rock gurus record the most ambitious record of their career, their record label turns it down, it sits in limbo while the public consumes leaked copies on the web, another record label owned by the same entertainment giant as their previous one snatches it up, and suddenly it's one … Read more
Wild Beasts
Present Tense
Domino (2014)
Wild Beasts are a curious entity and their singular approach to “indie” is one that has seem them take on more electronic feel as their career has progressed and with Present Tense those elements come to the fore while allowing the band to retain their unique sound and emotion. Present Tense is the British bands’ fourth full length and for … Read more
Wild Pink
Yolk in the Fur
Tiny Engines (2018)
Any band's second album is cause for concern. It can go two ways - a retread of the first, a brand new direction, or something entirely forgettable. Yolk in the Fur is none of those. In every way, it's the sound of a New York-based Wild Pink accumulating mass, becoming something bigger than they seemingly ever intended, reaching beyond what … Read more
Wildhoney
Seventeen Forever
Photobooth Records (2014)
Demonstrating on their 2013 self-titled EP that they may be the modern group that best replicates the sound of classic, British shoegaze bands (particularly, Isn’t Anything-era My Bloody Valentine), Baltimore five-piece Wildhoney returned with 2014’s three-track Seventeen Forever. Showing off new vocalist Lauren Shusterich as well as more confident songwriting, the EP kicks off with the calming “Seventeen.” Guitarists Joe … Read more
William DuVall
One Alone
DVL (2019)
In the 13 years that William DuVall has fronted Alice In Chains, sharing vocal duties with Jerry Cantrell he has left an indelible mark on the band’s music making AIC a band to still be reckoned with, even 35 years after their inception. Their newest album Rainier Fog being proof positive of the strength of that legacy.Throughout his career in … Read more
William Elliott Whitmore
Field Songs
Anti (2011)
William Elliott Whitmore’s Anti debut, Animals in the Dark, was something of an outlier in his discography—the bigger label release introduced more instrumentation and a more global lyrical scope than much of his earlier work. While an excellent album, it isn’t fully indicative of Whitmore’s strengths, and with Field Songs, he returns to his son of the soil theme, built … Read more
William Elliott Whitmore
I'm With You
Bloodshot (2020)
When William Elliott Whitmore signed to Bloodshot, I thought it was a natural fit. I like Whitmore; I like the label. Win/win. But I also wondered how an artist I think of as more on the folk/bluegrass side fit with a label I think of as Americana/alt-country. Similar, for sure, but not quite there. These are silly semantics to worry … Read more
