Music

Once in a while I come across a record that makes me want to throw out any sort of sensible criticism and just rave. Aw Come Aw Wry is so good, and so precisely the type of music that interests me, that barring any acts of god (or new Mountain Goats releases) I’ll be expecting Phosphorescent to make three or four of my next favorite albums.

I should be tired of these records by now – the lo-fi sound, the squeak of the fingers moving on the acoustic guitar, the sighing vocal, maybe some lapsteel – but Bare Bones and Branches snuck right past all of my jaded defenses. What can I say? I’m a sucker for melancholy.

In a world inundated with commercial pop and whiney pubescent anthems of the frolicsome teenage wasteland, Sherwood put their stamp on musicland’s endless supply of banality.

Never before has a band more perfectly emulated their sound through the visual imagery of their album art. The band I speak of is Kash, the new outfit coming at you from Sick Room Records.

Has Common regained his sense? After the experimental but not totally wack Electric Circus, Common returns with his sixth album, Be. Executively producing the album and providing nine out of 11 beats is long time fellow Chicago patron Kanye West.

Since I found the group Little Brother, their rising producer 9th Wonder, and their crew of artists The Justus League, I have become familiar with hip hop that takes me back to the Native Tongues era. The majority of the music includes soulful beats and solid rhymes focusing mainly on everyday life.

The duo of rapper Sean Boog and producer Khrysis form Justus League offshoot The Away Team. Their first album, National Anthem, is a combination of consistent rhymes and better then stellar production.

I love this band so much that even though my bandmate Jason gave me a downloaded copy of The Kick and the Snare a few weeks ago, as soon as it was available for purchase on their website, I bought it. I am also attempting to sneak the review past my editor.

Before I listened to this CD, I read the liner notes and found that Texas One Ten was inspired by and dedicated to the mother of Bryan Jones (drums, vocals), who had passed away just before the recording process. I already felt like a cloud would be raining depression over every track, but as I listened, I realized that the album was not a train wreck, but a celebration of life and everything that comes with it.

Huzzah! I cast you awash into a jumble of black metal, tough guy, and Dimebag Darrell-emulating riffage! You are now swimming smack-dab in the middle of the Monarch self-titled album.

13 & God is the first collaborative effort between The Notwist and Anticon’s Themselves, which ultimately doesn’t sound like a collaboration at all. What you wind up with is a polarized record between tracks that essentially sound like they belong to The Notwist or Themselves.

Howard Hello is the latest project from Kenseth Thibideau, a former member of Tarentel, and Marty Anderson (Lazarus, Dilute). Following Tarentel’s success, Thibadeau left the band and now plays keys and bass for Pinback.