The Kickdrums – Just A Game

The Kickdrums Just A Game (2009)

These guys have pulled of what RJD2 could not. They have gone from awesome producers to awesome indie singers. Where as RJD2 dropped any sounds of his previous efforts, The Kickdrums have incorporated their previous sound and melded it perfectly with their singing. This change isn’t a surprise since they have always made beats that were more melancholy than menacing. The songs here would fit in perfectly on any hipster’s iPod or even on the radio. It’s all catchy and the singing fits the music perfectly. A wonderful album to listen to with the significant other on a lazy Sunday.

The Bran Flakes-I Have Hands

The Bran Flakes I Have Hands:

Sounds like a series of surreal commercials during the Saturday morning cartoons. Funky loops dressed up with flute solos give way to childish sing songing and back again. Its funny and interesting, but the schizophrenic nature of this album wears thin about half way through.

Rating:10/15 sugar syrup fairies

Cat Power-Jukebox

Cat Power Jukebox:

A perfect display of Chan Marshall’s uncanny ability to take any piece of music and make it boring.

Rating: 3/15 Interesting as a glass of warm milk points

Holywater – Tranquility

Holywater Tranquility:

A bunch of dudes woke up and went “Let’s out wuss Aereogramme.” They succeeded in that.

Rating: 2/10 effeminate men whining

The Bad Plus-For All I Care

The Bad Plus For All I Care:

A lame thin voiced vocalist, who can barely carry a tune fronts a band playing jazzed up versions of Nirvana and Bee Gees tunes. Its as bad as it sounds.

Rating: 8/15 Midlife Crisis’

Japanther-Skuffed Up My Huffy

Japanther Skuffed Up My Huffy:

If you strip away the indier than thou recording quality and the multi layered slacker vocals, you basically have Relient K.

Rating: 3/15 thinly veiled pop punk bands

Grouper – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill

Grouper Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill:

This is what Mazzy Star hanging out with Jesu would sound like, yet somehow more boring. The girl can sing, but the album just drones on and not in a good way.

Rating: 9/15 Quaaludes

Tahiti Boy and The Palmtree Family-EP

Tahiti Boy and The Palmtree Family EP:

This album hasn’t been released yet, but after listening to thirty seconds of the song 1973 I feel qualified to bash any and all output this band, its members, and scene affiliates may ever produce. Nothing, and I mean nothing pisses me of more than grown men making twee pop with string and woodwind sections. If they were making this kind of music for a children’s television show, I’d still be put off, but this music is meant for consumption by other adults. Adult men and women see this band live then go home together. The human condition and the world which we experience provide nearly endless interesting subject matter to be explored. If you experience the world around you and the ideas that the human mind is capable of, and come out of that process wanting to write cutesy songs about little birdies and flowers set to music videos with dancing puppets, then you are an insult to the human race’s artistic capabilities. Sesame Street contains more challenging ideas than this bullshit band. If you like this band you are wrong, and I advise you to stop listening to them, because the next step has to be diaper fetishism.

0/15 Redeeming artistic qualities

Blue Sky Black Death- Slow Burning Lights

Blue Sky Black Death Slow Burning Lights:

One of the best production crews out there joins forces with Coco Rosie sounding vocalist to produce an interesting listen. The beats and production are top notch, the lyrics are strong, but the singers voice isn’t my cup of tea(ed. note: Sounds like some one broke her jaw then made her sing.).

Rating: 12/15 unexpected collaborations

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart-selftitled

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Selftitled:

Props on making the same indie-rock record every indie band has made since the mid-1980s.

Rating: 8/15 Hot hipster chicks with awful Diamond Dogs haircuts