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Father Murphy | ... And He Told Us To Turn to the Sun

Harking back to an America where one's own lonely voice was the only radio and a BBQ meant a spit in the middle of the desert, Torino's Father Murphy hide detuned industrial textures within stripped-down, spacy folk instrumentation, like a man in a bla
Aagoo (2009)
By DEVIN KING | July 31, 2009

Slideshow: Vintage photos inspire Pattern Is Movement

Pattern Is Movement's latest album inspired by these photos
Pattern Is Movement's latest album inspired by these photos
By PHOENIX WEB STAFF | May 15, 2009

The moving pictures

If one way that bands tie themselves to the past is through sonic reference — Fleet Foxes calling forth Crosby, Stills and Nash, or Animal Collective channeling the Grateful Dead — then there's been a number of bands who tie themselves to the past throu
Pattern Is Movement reanimate the past
By DEVIN KING | May 15, 2009

Sincerely yours,

There is a surge in polyglot music, but despite its force, a strain of conservatism (one that has always run through indie rock) is keeping pace.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's new homonymous album is filled with well-worn lyrics.
By DEVIN KING | February 10, 2009

2008 Listravaganza Part 2

Everything you wanted to know about the year in music, in tidy lists of 10.
The lighter side of music in 2008
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 05, 2009

2008 Listravaganza!

We are not at all sick of bands with animal names yet and seem to have a soft spot for Erykah Badu that we kept very hush about all year.
An absolute glut of cruelly reductive Top 10 lists from our dedicated staff of tirelessly enthusiastic writers
By BOSTON PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | December 24, 2008

Review: Various Artists | Instro Hipsters A Go-Go!

Psychic Circle (2008)
Throwback Throwdown
By DEVIN KING | December 15, 2008

Luomo | Convivial

Known also for his more ambient work as Vladislav Delay, Luomo is the house-music moniker of Finnish producer Sasu Ripatti.
Huume (2008)
By DEVIN KING | November 05, 2008

Wilderness | (k)no(w)here

This could prove strenuous, but the album is more contemplative than didactic — a (k)no(w)here that’s difficult to study but easy to inhabit.
Jagjaguwar (2008)
By DEVIN KING | October 28, 2008

School of Seven Bells | Alpinisms

School of Seven Bells piece together two points of reference: the electronic music made popular by the Postal Service, Volvo ads, etc.; and the tightly controlled feedback of shoegaze.
Ghostly International (2008)
By DEVIN KING | October 21, 2008

Pedal | Pedal

Any undergrad who has a few Satie discs in his or her collection — for studying and making out! — would find the same passive ambiance on this album.
Staubgold (2008)
By DEVIN KING | October 15, 2008

Growing | All the Way

You get the sense that Growing have been looking more and more toward the other side of the drone spectrum — that of the tiny computer.
Social Registry
By DEVIN KING | September 10, 2008

Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson and his karaoke-smooth backing band the Wondermints have instead given us something on par with 1970s Beach Boys.
That Lucky Old Sun | Capitol/EMI
By DEVIN KING | September 02, 2008

Hollerpalooza

Eli “Paperboy” Reed seems dubious about my following him for a few hours before and after his five o’clock Lollapalooza show in Chicago’s Grant Park last Sunday.
Eli Reed says he’s better than Otis
By DEVIN KING | August 05, 2008

Mars

Career-spanning records usually mark a band’s evolution; this outfit existed for just two years, so the material sketches a near-perfect first and sole album.
The Complete Studio Recordings, NYC 1977-1978 | No More
By DEVIN KING | July 29, 2008

Women

Women initially sound like most Beach Boys- or Kinksinfluenced bedroom pop.
Women | Flemish Eye
By DEVIN KING | July 22, 2008

Idol hands

The band, as always, sounded fantastic, especially if you’d been listening to the record all week in preparation.
Mission Of Burma at Pitchfork Music Fest, Union Park, Chicago, July 18, 2008
By DEVIN KING | July 21, 2008

Sic Alps

U.S. Ez , emboldened by all sorts of sloppiness, works in the way of Lomax’s porch recordings, forcing rock and roll back into a folk tradition.
U.S. Ez | Siltbreeze
By DEVIN KING | July 15, 2008

Paper Thin Stages

For their new album the band wrangle originally non-discrete material into 11 song-like morsels.
Magic Jar of Jar of Animal | Self-released
By DEVIN KING | July 08, 2008

Spontaneous celebrations

Last week, after dinner with Oxford Collapse, we walk back over to Chicago’s Empty Bottle to watch the openers.
Oxford Collapse get friendly
By DEVIN KING | June 24, 2008

Sun City Girls + Fire on Fire

The two remaining members of Sun City Girls, Alan and Richard Bishop, will pay tribute to their recently deceased bandmate, Charles Gocher, at Friday's event.
Friends of legends
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 18, 2008

Scorch Trio

Brolt! | Rune Grammofon
Brolt! | Rune Grammofon
By DEVIN KING | June 17, 2008

Praising Arizona

As a tribute to the man and a goodbye to the band he was a part of for more than 20 years, the Bishop brothers, as Brothers Unconnected, are touring the country, and playing an acoustic set of Sun City Girls songs.
Sun City Girls survey an unwieldy legacy
By DEVIN KING | June 09, 2008

Gas

Kompakt label head Wolfgang Voigt re-releases the four discs of his Gas project — long hailed as some of the best albums in ambient techno — along with a double LP of extended material.
Nah Und Fern | Kompakt
By DEVIN KING | June 03, 2008

Collections of Colonies of Bees

If one extension of math rock is Battles’ experiments with poppy aggression, Collections of Colonies of Bees prove that the genre doesn’t have to sublimate angst into vocoded aggression.
Birds | Radium
By DEVIN KING | May 20, 2008

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