Daughters
Hell Songs
Label: Hydra headRelease Date:08/08/2006

In 2003 I heard four songs at speeds I hadn’t thought humanly possible. Four songs by a band called Daughters, from somewhere in the fabled mists of New England. I had heard their predecessor; As the Sun Sets are heralded by many, undoubtedly. These were kids [...]

Verse
From Anger and Rage
Label: RivalryRelease Date:08/01/2006

Rhode Island’s Verse have been one of my favorite current hardcore bands for a while now, but it was only in the past year or so that I really began to appreciate their debute LP, 2004’s Rebuild. In 2003 the five-piece released a stellar EP [...]

End of a Year
Sincerely
Label: RevelationRelease Date:07/18/2006

This is not the face of punk rock in 2006.
No, punk rock would never, could never, and does not ever want to sound like this upstate NY band.
Instead of taking the proven formulas of hardcore ad punk and melding them as so many have done, [...]

Two amazing albums coming out on the same day on the same label. August 22 will be a good day for Saddle Creek Records, and here is why:

A Drum & an Open Window
Don’t Pick the Fruit If You Don’t Know Where the Roots Are Going
Label: Oh MapRelease Date:07/11/2006

You know when you pick up a cd packaged in a brown paper lunch bag with the art of a painted tree looking like it was done by a 2nd [...]

John Doe
For the Best of Us
Label: Yep RocRelease Date:07/25/2006

When I first popped this cd in I realized I was going for a ride with a high energy, hard driven form of music, the kind that seemed like a frantic release of adolescent power via musical instruments, more suitably named “Punk [...]

Aloe Blacc
Shinning Through
Label: Stones ThrowRelease Date:07/25/2006

On his debut as a solo artist, Aloe Blacc treads into dangerous grounds. He covers classic records such as Sam Cooke’s “Change Gon’ Come.” He even attempts to redo John Legend’s runaway hit of 2005, “Ordinary People.” I have to admit that he has done [...]

CSS
Cansei de Ser Sexy
Label: Sub PopRelease Date:07/11/2006

In Hong Sang Soo’s Oh Soo-jung, a tired but still tender younger girl soothes her feckless lover, on sabbatical from his wife and sobriety, “How about if I be your girlfriend only when you’re drunk?”. Shame and cowardice override any lingering exuberance of [...]

You know when you’ve listened to a band for a long time and then you go see them live and think, “Man, these guys look absolutely NOTHING like I’ve pictured them!”? Well, Of Montreal is in no way an example of those bands. Kevin Barnes, the front man and brain of Of Montreal, is, just [...]

Screaming Females
Baby Teeth
Label: Self ReleasedRelease Date:2006

I am very picky about female singers, and I realize that it is completely unfair. I will excuse many bands with male lead singers who are not very talented because I like the music, but if I hear a lady singing and don’t think she [...]