Music

Austin-based quartet, The Sword plays derivative heavy metal reminiscent of Black Sabbath, full of witches-at-black-masses lyricism. Gods of the Earth employs vaguely blues-influenced rhythms and dense heavy metal chords intent on creating a vibe rather than showcase technical prowess. The album begins and ends in cinematic fashion.

King Kahn and the Shrines sidestep gimmick and breathe new life into excavated soul sounds on the forthcoming The Supreme Genius Of (Vice, 2008). The album picks up right were the elusive Kahn and his nine piece enterprise left off, with last years What Is?! (Hazelwood, 2007). Opting for their signature analog nostalgia garage sounds; reverberating guitar riffs recall primal rock and roll at its most chaotic and ambitious. In lesser hands The Supreme Genius Of could come off exploitative, but Kahn treats his source material with a reverence that infuses agelessness and authenticity.

It’s obvious that techno producer-turned-soul crooner Jamie Lidell‘s voice has been gradually improving. On his last album, the outstanding Multiply, the instrumentation and production was the star of the show. On JIM, Lidell‘s voice is front-and-center.

The robot funk master, Beck, has finalized plans to release his latest disc, Modern Guilt, July 8th on DGC Records. For his follow-up to 2006’s critically acclaimed disc, The Information, Beck hit the studios with famed producer Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton to record all of Guilt‘s 10 tracks.

If all you’ve ever really wanted from American independent rock is more—more experimentation, more tinkering with boundaries, more pre-, post-, or meta-anything—your prescription is ready. Using brass, woodwinds, noisy guitar, squealing keyboards, loping drums, and honky-tonk piano, Man Man nod to antecedents (think Captain Beefheart by way of the Cramps, or a junkshop bohemian Elvis Costello) without really sounding like any of their influences.

Lindstrøm – Norway’s melodic disco/electronica outfit, known for remixing such acts as LCD Soundsytem, Roxy Music, Franz Ferdinand, and The Killers – is set to release his second album Where You Go I Go Too on August 19th. The album will only be comprised of three songs, but will clock in at over 54 minutes, including a nearly 29-minute opening track.

Within weeks of playing to sold out crowds in New York and Los Angels, She & Him have announced their official summer tour plans, which will kick off in Toronto on July 23rd. The duo, which comprises of actress/ singer Zooey Deschanel and musician M. Ward, released their debut, Volume One, earlier this year to much critical praise.

Just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you know how. For Brandon Summers, the lead singer and guitarist of the Portland duo The Helio Sequence, this was a lesson he learned the hard way. On the band’s 2004 album Love and Distance, Summers pushed his voice to levels it didn’t know how to endure.