At the height of performance an audience is stripped from its surroundings and given an original experience that cannot be dup/replicated, some display of culture to grasp onto for only as long as a set will carry before being released back into the comfort of the everyday. This is our experience with Spaghetti Western String […]
Pictured: John Nielsen. You can almost smell the hoagies from here.
John Nielsen is one of a seemingly endless stream of local artists who delve deep into their own psyche to write thoughtful, quiet, and beautiful pieces of art. Bon Iver, Jon Sunde, and now Nielsen all live in the introspective space of late night […]
Pictured above: Mystery Jets aren’t exactly NOT sketchy.
Mystery Jets is a band from ole Brittania that draws on The 80’s, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and cool, big hair. Their new album, 21 is equal parts haunting reverb and rockin’ party music. It’s really very hard to explain.
They’re a “prog” […]
Pictured Above: Born Ruffians, subtle and refined.
Born Ruffians are a group of troubled youths from Toronto. They sing happy songs with reckless abandon. Their music is part post-punk, part folk, and part happy guy singing about his life.
Where Born Ruffians really succeed is in writing short, concise pop songs with just enough […]
Forget about objectivity for this one. Full disclosure: I love the Megafaun guys. Brad and Phil used to babysit me. Ok, that’s out of the way.
This album is a destroyer. Six songs, thirty-nine minutes. Of all the elements on Bury The Square, the pacing is what kills me the most. It’s a journey. Everybody knows […]
I have one criteria that pushes a show from good to great; if I leave feeling inspired to be creative. There is something in the human spirit that is spurred to creativity by the creativity of others. A perfect movie, a book that you flip over and start again after the last page, or something […]
Pictured: Mystery Palace aren’t Justin Timberlakes stylists, but they could be.
I saw Mystery Palace for the second time ever a couple of weeks ago, and was completely dumbstruck. I’m not usually a big fan of skinny-ass white guys playing electronica, but this was different. Their sheer mastery of every aspect […]
Pictured: Thao Nguyen going about tooth brushing all wrong.
Sometimes you get behind the meanings of songs without knowing what they are. It’s just a feeling that the voice sounds important, but for some reason you can’t quite pick up on the words. It’s sort of like the ‘funny numbers,’ game that politicians play when they […]
Pictured: The high school drama team slaughter of 2007.
The four members of Minneapolis band The Battle Royale are most likely younger, and most definitely exponentially hipper than you are. Don’t take it personally, they’re not trying to show you up. They were simply put on this Earth to be uber-cool.
Their new album, Wake Up, Thunderbabe, […]
Pictured: Mark Ronson knows your songs better than they know themselves, not unlike music jesus.
Mark Ronson is the producer behind British wunderkinds/absolute fuck-ups, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse. When he isn’t ruining young girls lives with booze and drugs (to be fair, I think Ronson only hits the booze.) He’s saucing […]
Pictured: Nada Surf are writing music artfully, tearing up carpet uneventfully.
I don’t know how Nada Surf does it, but they keep writing records that I love. It’s so weird, because I know exactly what their next song is going to sound like, but it still manages to sound fresh, and beautiful, and more teenagery than I’ve […]
Pictured: No wombats were harmed during the writing of this review. Peer Validated can not be held responsible for what happened to this wombat after the photo was taken.
Most likely not a high-note in John Darnielle’s career, he joined a Christian Reggae group called ‘Irie, INRI’ in 2002, and then was kicked out after telling […]
Pictured: I really don’t know. There wasn’t a lot to choose from.
I’d like to think that there isn’t a thought process for writing songs like I Love You Sailor’s, but that a small group of unrehearsed friends just sits down and begins playing them. They all smile and turn their heads toward one another, nodding […]
Pictured: Those are very specifically not the hands of a bear.
Bear Hands just made a debut EP that sounds like Brooklyn youth. The Golden EP is a wasteland of grimy Hot Rod Circuit-esque post-punk and slightly disorienting indie-rock. Guitars are covered in dirty distortion and kept in pace with abusively heavy drums and dance beat choruses. Dylan […]
Pictured: Parent-teacher conference?
The music on No Kids’ album, Come Into My House, is a new guilty pleasure of mine. I cringe at the height of their R&B hooks and sometimes-too-sweet vocals, but they’re the same hooks and vocals that hover over ridiculous, toe-tapping beats and exhausting layers of catchy keyboard parts. Simply put, Come Into […]