Music | Wednesday, December 6,2006

On her own, untethered

Isobel Campbell may sound a bit fey, but that’s OK

Hot on the heels of Ballad of the Broken Seas, Isobel Campbell’s album of duets with Mark Lanegan, Milkwhite Sheets finds the Glaswegian cellist/chanteuse all by her lonesome again, with mixed r

Music | Wednesday, November 29,2006

A less-than-spirited return for Jay-Z

Rapper’s new Kingdom Come doesn't feel like a comeback

By Marissa Monson

It’s difficult to muster up the nerve to throw stones at a guy like Jay-Z. Ever running the rap game, he released a chain of hits, rarely missing a link and never staying off the charts for long

Music | Tuesday, November 21,2006

Duo breathes life into death

Gob Iron, Farrar and Parker’s new side project, explores the great beyond

By René Spencer Saller

Death, unlike taxes, is the great equalizer. From the mewling preemie in the neonate ward to former President Gerald Ford, from the lowly fruit fly to the august giant tortoise, from the pope to the D

Music | Wednesday, November 15,2006

Sweetness and coherence

Sample Trolleyvox’s power pop and The Memory Band’s eclectic folk

By René Spencer Saller

Untitled Document If you like your power pop sweet and shiny and more than a little bit silly, the Trolleyvox is the band for you. The Philadelphia-based quartet, whose ranks hav

Music | Wednesday, November 8,2006

A vagabond's scrapbook

Amy Annelle and the Places sing of escape

By René Spencer Saller

Amy Annelle, the singer, songwriter, and sole permanent member of the Places, traffics in narcotic dream-folk cut with aleatoric noise. Sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by a revolving cast of mu

Music | Wednesday, November 1,2006

Change of pace

John Legend impresses while Gwen Stefani yodels

By Marissa Monson

SINGLES ONLY We’ve stood at the edge of commercial crap with Gwen Stefani before, but with her new single, “Wind It Up,” we have fallen off the cliff. Not only does the Hollaback Gir

Music | Wednesday, October 25,2006

The storm before the calm

Akron/Family is back with more of the same.

By René Spencer Saller

On its second full-length, Akron/Family delivers more of the transcendentalist free folk that’s made the band famous, or at least famous among all of the right people. Ex-Swan Michael Gira loved

Music | Wednesday, October 18,2006

The bridesmaid turns bride

Kid Congo Powers comes out of the shadows to celebrate the grit that was

By René Spencer Saller

For most of his career, Kid Congo Powers (né Brian Tristan) was a sideman, performing with some of the most influential bands of the past two decades. He began playing guitar in 1979, when a ch

Music | Wednesday, October 11,2006

Hollow boulders

By all rights, Two Ton Boa ought to be heavy

By René Spencer Saller

One of the many excruciating aspects of Rock Star: Supernova was watching the female contestants as they wailed and writhed and whipped their hair around in a doomed attempt to prove that hott chixx c

Music | Wednesday, October 4,2006

Cruisin’ instead of mixing it up

Sleepy Brown’s Mr. Brown, the Decemberists’ The Crane’s Wife, and J Dilla

By Marissa Monson

SINGLES ONLY Sleepy Brown has the 9-to-5 blues. (We’ll play along.) After a long day of the grind, Brown and Big Boi cut out at 4:59 pm — how scandalous! — and make their way over to