Review - Them Crooked Vultures

Rating: 8.0Note: I posted this review some time ago but accidentally saved the recent Animal Collective review over it. Whoops.As a concept Them Crooked Vultures seems hard to fault - the group's star-studded roster ought to give rock fans some pause at the very least, bringing together Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), David Grohl (Nirvana,...

Review - Animal Collective: Fall Be Kind EP

Rating: 6.8Animal Collective has never cared for much beyond sharing the unadulterated joy of creating music. Their fans can be thankful for this and their proliferation, having released eight full albums since their 2000 debut as well as four EPs, while earning their place in the upper echelons of music. Not many bands get mentioned in the...

Time Capsule: Serart

Serart (2003)It's easy to like world music, but often difficult to get really enthusiastic about it. It's a given that music in foreign tongues and tones helps us to build a kinship with the human race and makes us feel cultured to boot. But it's difficult to deny the perspective barrier between an artist a hemisphere away and the listener...

Three Weeks

Here's our interview with local Utah band and my personal friends, Three Weeks!     -Where did you come up with your band name and is there some meaning behind it?        It was a late night and we were in a silly mood.. we were talking about putting things off, and procrastinating.. our drummer at the time made the statement.. "yeah dude.. it's...

Nate & his Kite

 Read on for our Q&A session with band, Nate & his Kite, an experimental rock band from Indiana. -Nate & His Kite, very quirky but it leaves me wondering...who is this Nate and what about his kite?  Where did you come up with your band name and is there some meaning behind it? The name “Nate & His Kite” probably has an even more quirky story.  During the spring...

Kill The Drama

Here we have an interview with Steve of the Alt. Rock band Kill The Drama. Enjoy! -Kill the Drama, easily words to live by.  Where did you come up with your band name and is there some meaning behind it? Back when we started, we had a female lead singer who created some serious drama within the band so I suggested we call the band something with "drama" in it. A few days later our...

Review - Where Astronauts Go to Hide: Amongst Friends

Rating: 9.2 Albeit short, this album tickled each and every indie bone in my body. Amongst Friends opens with deliciously clear vocals, understated guitar and an excellent use of violin. Each track is littered with vivid imagery and personal references. You honestly feel like you're learning about the vocalist, Josh Pederson, with each...

Review - Julian Casablancas: Phrazes For the Young

Rating: 6.3Julian Casablancas' Phrazes For the Young fits the underwhelming solo record formula to a T - some small measure of the essence and charisma of the artiste's former group, a few bewildering design decisions caused by too few cooks in the kitchen and a frustrating lack of drive and unity. Phrazes For the Young will undoubtedly please...

Review - Neon Indian: Psychic Chasms

Rating: 8.5Making relevant electronic music can be a difficult task. While it's nearly impossible to escape the genre's popular perception of accessible, simple rhythms and repetition, give your listeners too many party anthems and the strength of your singles starts to wear a little thin (sorry, Justice). Indie musicians, on the other hand,...

Review - Armonico Hewa: OOIOO

Rating: 7.4As somebody who embraced 2006's Taiga for its sheer weirdness and overwhelming spirit, I've always found OOIOO at their most OOIOO when they seem like they couldn't care less about the listener, the critics or anybody else. The band, like its frontwoman Yoshimi P-we (yes, Flaming Lips fans, that Yoshimi) always seemed to be most...

Review - Blue Record: Baroness

Rating: 8.2Due to their geographical and occasional aural similarity to Mastodon, fellow Georgian rockers Baroness may never shake the comparisons to their brother band. After all, both groups are easily classifiable as "progressive sludge," both started on the same label and both peddle similar brands of hyperliterary, lyrically inoffensive...

Where Astronauts Go to Hide

Another great interview, this time with Joshua Pederson of Minneapolis/Chicago based band Where Astronauts Go to Hide. -Where Astronauts Go to Hide, very creative name. Made me wonder...where do they actually go to hide? Where did you come up with your band name and is there some meaning behind it? The name has very little meaning, actually. I thought of it while dining at a small pizza...

The Temple Cloud Country Club

Mstoc's exclusive interview with Dean Frances-Hawksley and Andy Suttie of The Temple Cloud Country Club. The Temple Cloud Country Club, very unique name. Where did you come up with the name and is there some meaning behind it? Dean - We originally intended the band to be a kind of internet music collective, a ‘club’ of sorts. This is because there are only two of us and we live in different...

Review - Qu: Sherwood

Rating: 7.3“I am the favorite in a fight that I can’t win.”On an album loaded with catchy tracks, Sherwood’s third release Qu (out October 13th on MySpace Records), has me tapping my toes and singing under my breath while I work on reports at my desk. Vocal harmonies and distortion saturated guitar solos hook you while the jazzy drums and...

My Brothers Banned

Mstoc's first interview. Here we chat with Lyle Puente of My Brothers Banned. -My Brothers Banned, very quirky and a great play on words. Where did you come up with your band name and is there some meaning behind it? When the banned started, my brother played drums and a brother sister duo were part of the group. We laughed about naming ourselves after the sibling factor. We thought...