Music | Thursday, June 29,2006

Matters of the heart

Lucky Syd -- girls are suckers for sad boys

As long as there are girls who are suckers for sad boys, there will be a place in the global economy for the likes of Syd Matters. You won’t hear me complaining. If those girls can be blamed for

Music | Thursday, June 22,2006

No pain, no gain

Evangelista is not an easy listen, but it’s cathartic

By René Spencer Saller

Listening to Evangelista, Carla Bozulich’s latest album, is like watching someone carve off strips of her own skin, fold them into dainty origami shapes, and present them on a cloisonn

Music | Thursday, June 15,2006

Bringing out the best

Isn’t it a Wonder, how two talented people bring out the best in each other?

By René Spencer Saller

At least half of all marriages end in divorce, and the rate at which bands break up has to be even higher, so what are the odds that a husband-and-wife band could succeed in the long run? Wh

Music | Thursday, June 8,2006

No freaks – just folk

If Vetiver were a drug, it’d be hash, not acid

By René Spencer Saller

There’s a reason Vetiver gets lumped in with the freak-folk crowd, but it doesn’t have much to do with its music. Andy Cabic, the San Francisco-based collective’s only perm

Music | Thursday, June 1,2006

All in the family

Feathers can crash at my pad whenever they like

By René Spencer Saller

What if the Manson Family had been less of a patriarchal death cult and more of a freeform collective? What if they’d shacked up in cool, reasonable Vermont instead of hotheaded C

Music | Wednesday, May 24,2006

On our side again

Neil Young’s ideological vicissitudes defy all reason

By René Spencer Saller

Now that President George W. Bush’s approval ratings are stagnating around 30 percent, protest songs are fashionable again, with everyone from Pink to Pearl Jam clamoring to kick ol

Music | Thursday, May 18,2006

A big, big world

Susana Baca is fluent in the only speech that matters

By René Spencer Saller

Susana Baca Traves'as (Luaka Bop) Travesías means “passages” in Spanish, and it’s an especially appropriate title for Susana Baca’s latest album, her

Music | Thursday, May 11,2006

The stuff that dreams are made of

Jolie Holland’s out with her third and best album

By René Spencer Saller

When I was 5 or 6 years old, I believed that musicals were real. When the time was right, the people around me would burst into song, and we could finally stop worrying about what to say nex

Music | Thursday, May 4,2006

No reinvention, no imitation

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs offer familiar favorites, brilliant obscurities

By René Spencer Saller

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory) When it comes to covers, there are two schools of thought. Adherents of the first try to re-

Music | Thursday, April 27,2006

Case of the missing heart

Sure, Fox Confessor is a tour de force — but that’s not enough

By René Spencer Saller

Much has been made of Neko Case’s peerless pipes, and rightly so. Her voice, a resonant contralto, is as loud as a marching band, as bright as church bells, as delicate