Avi Buffalo

Avi Buffalo: Rock Prodigies’ Trial by Fire

Avi Zahner-Isenberg traded in his skateboard for a guitar at age 12. A short eight years later, his band, Avi Buffalo, is signed to Sub Pop and touring the world on the strength of its self-assured rock-pop debut.

Christopher Cavaliere

World in Stereo: Christopher Cavaliere’s Monrovia Suite

Each week, World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

Christopher Cavaliere: “Étude 7 (Brazilian March)” (Monrovia Suite, self-released, 8/13/10)

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With his self-released album Monrovia Suite, multi-instrumentalist Christopher Cavaliere presents a tightly wound collection of worldly instrumental tracks.  Accessible yet avant garde, the album exudes a patience and grace towards composition that may be best demonstrated by those schooled in jazz and classical music.

The young virtuoso, hailing from Bridgeport, Connecticut, has a knack for turning his solo routine into a swelling symphonic experience. In the same style as Frédéric Chopin and other great composers, Cavaliere has titled his songs as études. It’s a compelling choice warranted by the album’s dynamic lushness, timeless guitar intercessions, and rhythmic complexity. The songs can be heard as studies in the sense of composition, arrangement, and tone. For listeners, it’s a helpful way to frame the album, imagining the songs more like movements or motifs in the traditional classical sense.

Fuck Buttons

Fuck Buttons: Over the Influence

While retaining some of the dark, distorted undertones that peppered its 2008 debut, Fuck Buttons‘ latest offering relaxes a bit with atmospherics that glaze the record in a glassy sheen.

Ariel Pink

Concert Photos: Ariel Pink @ Metro

LA-based psych-pop artist Ariel Pink has been touring Europe and the USA for the past year in support of The Doldrums, the Paw Tracks debut album from his band, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. Pink played at the Metro in Chicago recently, and contributing photographer Laura Gray captured these images.

Ariel Pink

Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Seven That Spells’ Future Retro Spasm

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Seven That Spells: Future Retro Spasm

Seven That Spells: Future Retro Spasm (Beta-Lactam Ring, 5/20/10)

Seven That Spells: “Olympos”
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Morrow: Based in Zagreb, Croatia, Seven That Spells plays a powerhouse fusion of psychedelic rock, math and jazz influences, and full-tilt drumming assaults.  The group, originally a power trio, is led by guitarist/keyboardist Niko Potočnjak but has undergone radical changes in its lineup over its relatively brief tenure, and its last album, Cosmoerotic Dialogue with Lucifer, was a noisy, progressive, multi-drummer attack on the senses.