Music

As it turns out, first impressions really aren’t everything. For example, my first impression of Luxury (Sonic Unyon) by The Nein was “Wow, this is some serious amateur-hour crap.” But you know what? I was pretty much wrong on this one.

While many of today’s best retro acts are busy recreating the Britpop and post-punk of the ‘80s, Southern Culture on the Skids has taken it back even further and mastered the art of late ‘60s dirty Southern rock. After a two-decade-long career of penning their own tunes, SCOTS has compiled a collection of covers on Countypolitan Favorite (Yep Roc) that plays like a lesson in the roots of Americana.

One of the values of the Information Age is the growing interest in obscure and unreleased music from the past. The hard work of music archivists and specialized labels has sparked a cottage industry of re-releases like If This World Were Mine (Daptone) by Bob & Gene.

After releasing the critically celebrated ambient noise album, Lambent Material, Portland composer Matthew Cooper showed the full range of Eluvium’s aesthetic. An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death was a classically-minded instrumental approach to Cooper’s minimalist drones. Though he’s since returned to Lambent’s sonic palate, Copia again embraces his gentler side.

To many people, Trans Am is that band that turned down a half-million dollars because they didn’t want one of their songs used in a Hummer commercial. It was ironic that the car maker would choose a track from their last album Liberation, a reaction to the increasing presence of militarism and fear in their hometown of Washington D.C., as the theme song for a commercialized military vehicle. Despite the purported politics, however, Trans Am’s music sounds tailor-made for a 30-second blipvert, and would definitely have moved some urban assault vehicles to our nation’s stock-brokers and soccer moms.

It’s been more than three years since the High Llamas last put out a CD. In that time, the music industry has become even more fractured, and blogs have garnered the power to make or break a band. This could be a good thing for the High Llamas, always a favorite of critics, never a favorite of record stores.

As heavy music pioneer Justin Broadrick ages, his music projects become more accessible. After helping to spark the inception of grindcore as a member of Napalm Death and industrial as a member of Godflesh, he founded Jesu, a trio whose sound fused the pulverizing riffs of Broadrick’s past with more hook-led motifs, in 2005.

Even if Americana-tinged rock isn’t your first listening choice, chances are it’s the first choice of an old friend or cousin. There’s a pleasant memory in the back of your mind tied to a twangy guitar and a drawling voice.

Yes, this is sweet candy. Some Midnight Kissin’ (Lujo Records), the first full-length CD from Floridian quintet The Dark Romantics, is likely to feel either illicit or familiar, a guilty pleasure or a foregone conclusion. The Dark Romantics aren’t without a certain experimental element, but they flaunt some of the best hooks in indie-pop.

Young James Long – slide guitarist Kirkland James, drummer Taz Bentley, and singer/guitarist P.W. Long – are engaged in an act of compression, pressing entire, fully formed blues-rock emissions into tight pellets of combustible energy, song-bullets fired into the hearts and brainstems of unsuspecting listeners with lethal accuracy.