Summer Cannibals
Show Us Your Mind
New Moss Records (2015)
I know I’d already read the band’s bio, but I think I would have guessed Pacific Northwest anyway. There’s just something dreary and with a bi to’ sunshine about Summer Cannibals. Just like their name, it’s a mix of positive and desperate, with a genre tag somewhere in the vein of grunge-pop.It’s the Portland, OR band’s second full-length and the songs are all built around pop structures that are then deconstructed via choppy pessimism. The songs are catchy in the right places, with positive vibes and visions of sugarplums in our heads, but they really walk a darker path whenever that musical refrain isn’t on repeat. “Summer” is the most evident of this, even dropping in some “ah-ah-ah’s.” Instead of jangly guitar, it’s always a grunge-style riff-base that makes it chunkier and less, well, sunny, though it comes closest on this track. In “Something New” there is a manic energy at play, but it has a dark touch that counters the energy. The final song, “TV,” is a solid example of where the band steps away from convention. It’s a riffy ballad-type song but instead of building the momentum or drama, it plods and chops, morose lyrical delivery atop more … Read more
The Rutabega
Shiny Destination
Triple Eye Industries (2015)
After a 2013 full length album that marked the band’s first full-length as a self-described “Carp Rock Power Duo,” a … Read more
Matana Roberts
COIN COIN Chapter Three: River Run Thee
Constellation (2015)
The meaning of the word “personal” does not even begin to describe what the COIN COIN works must signify for … Read more
Western Settings
Yes It Is
La Escalera (2015)
When listening to a band you’ve never heard of, it’s a lot easier to make all those “sounds like” comments. … Read more
Dustin Kensrue
Carry The Fire
Staple Records/Vagrant Records (2015)
The basic tenets of theology and philosophy concern discerning right from wrong, good from evil. There will never be any … Read more
