Slipknot All Hope Is Gone
Roadrunner
Four albums in (five, if you're an eBay-stalking obsessive), Slipknot is having an identity crisis. Frontman Corey Taylor's side project, Stone...
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By Phil Freeman
Published: September 04, 2008
The Game LAX
Geffen
Rappers and producers who appear on the Game's third album, LAX, include...everybody. There's Kanye West, Scott Storch, Travis Barker, Keisha...
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By Ben Westhoff
Published: September 04, 2008
Lil' Slugger/The Good Old Fashioned Sinners Untitled Split CD
Self-released
If there's one thing that can be said for Lil' Slugger, it's that these guys don't sound quite like anyone else. The closest cousin to Slugger's...
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By Tom Murphy
Published: September 04, 2008
Jeff Finlin Ballad of a Plain Man
Bent Wheel Records
Things seemed to be looking up for Jeff Finlin. The Fort Collins singer-songwriter, the subject of a worshipful 5280 profile by Pulitzer winner...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: September 04, 2008
Mini Reviews
Capricorns, River, Bear Your Bones (Rise Above). Londoners Nathan Bennett and Kevin Williams know their math as well as any guitarists working...
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Published: September 04, 2008
David Byrne & Brian Eno
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, released in 1981 (and recently reissued), was an attempt by David Byrne and Brian Eno to forge new territory via...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 28, 2008
The Hold Steady Stay Positive
Vagrant
"Me and my friends are like the drums on 'Lust for Life,'" sings Craig Finn, opening Stay Positive with what is almost certainly the perfect...
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By Nicholas Hall
Published: August 28, 2008
teamAWESOME! The Burnt Siena Album
Self-released
For a band that performs live music with such fun-loving, reckless abandon, teamAWESOME! always seems to put out well-recorded, tightly played...
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By Tom Murphy
Published: August 28, 2008
Fiancé Please, Ambitious, Please
Self-released
Bands with designs on commercial success often remove anything resembling a personality from their work in an attempt to broaden their appeal. So...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 28, 2008
Mini Reviews
Peter Bradley Adams, Leavetaking (Sarathan Records). Peter Bradley Adams's second solo effort finds the former Eastmountainsouth frontman...
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Published: August 28, 2008
The Verve Forth
On Your Own
After 1997's Urban Hymns proved to be a breakthrough for the Verve, frontman Richard Ashcroft went solo prematurely — and he was punished...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 21, 2008
Conor Oberst Conor Oberst
Merge Records
While it might be tempting to overanalyze why this record is released under the given name of Omaha's favorite sad son instead of his customary...
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By Eryc Eyl
Published: August 21, 2008
Action Friend Action Friend
Pelvic Thrust
With enough breakneck shifts in tone, style and pacing to confuse and confound anyone looking for more conventional songwriting, Action Friend's...
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By Tom Murphy
Published: August 21, 2008
The World Romantic One Hundred Million Lights
The World Romantic LLC
One of a band's biggest challenges is finding its own sound, and the World Romantic has done it. But the players are so locked into this style...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 21, 2008
Mini Reviews
The Dandy Warhols, ...Earth to the Dandy Warhols... (Beat Records). Every other album or so, Courtney Taylor-Taylor decides that the best way to...
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Published: August 21, 2008
Shwayze Shwayze
Suretone/Geffen
Most everything you need to know about horny, go-getting Los Angeles newcomer Shwayze can be gleaned from lines like this one from "Polaroid":...
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By Ben Westhoff
Published: August 14, 2008
Scars on Broadway Scars on Broadway
Interscope
In a wry comment on his reputation as a doctrinaire zealot, System of a Downer Daron Malakian kicks off the side project he shares with SOAD...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 14, 2008
UmConscious The Avenue
Self-released
The video for this album's title track — a guided tour of Colfax locales such as Casa Bonita — makes it clear that the members of...
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By Michael Roberts
Published: August 14, 2008
Dan Kaufman Superstar Eruption The Album of the Century Volume One
Pearsonified Records
With a title like this for an album, you'd be excused for thinking that former Thorazine Frisbee mastermind Dan Kaufman has an absurdist,...
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By Tom Murphy
Published: August 14, 2008
Mini Reviews
Death in June, The Rule of Thirds (Soleilmoon). Samples aside, you'd almost think this was a record straight out of the modern psych-folk...
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Published: August 14, 2008
Black Kids Partie Traumatic
Columbia
Last year, Black Kids released a blogosphere-revered EP full of electro-tinged dance songs addressing themes of incest and gender ambiguity. The...
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By Ben Westhoff
Published: August 07, 2008
Hercules and Love Affair Hercules and Love Affair
EMI/DFA
Despite all the chatter about Antony and Tim Goldsworthy — and make no mistake, they're both crucial to the success of this album —...
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By Kyle Smith
Published: August 07, 2008
3OH!3 Want
Photo Finish Records
3OH!3 is a group you either love or loathe. Judging from the response the act has gotten both here and across the country, most listeners land...
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By Dave Herrera
Published: August 07, 2008
The Swindlers The Swindlers
Self-released
Things don't always work out how you planned. Given the copyright date on the back of this one (when the band originally intended to release this...
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By Tom Murphy
Published: August 07, 2008
Mini Reviews
Alkaline Trio, Agony & Irony (Epic). Matt Skiba was once told he had two to three years before his voice would be completely gone, thanks to acid...
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Published: August 07, 2008