Audioholic Media

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 07.28.09
by Joshua Krage

While there are technically some big names out this week, I don’t consider gangsta rappers, R&B club singers, or High School Musical alumni things about which I feel like writing. So I colored in the indie releases a bit because there are some really good ones:

David Arkenstone
Bad Boy Bill
Bad Veins

Band of Skulls, Baby Darling Doll Face Honey – seriously muscular UK trio that have the full-volume urgency of Muse, the airtight male-female dynamic of the Von Bondies, and a grasp of how to swing from a wall of sound to a subtle acoustic interlude. These guys arrived fully formed, deserving of the heaps of buzz and press they’ve been receiving across the pond.

Birdman
Blur – best of
Kristinia Debarge
Fabolous
The Features
Trevor Hall

Howling Bells, Radio Wars – huge cinematic scope on the sophomore set from this indie-label heavyweight in the wings. With support slots opening for Coldplay, The Killers, and Snow Patrol under their belt, this shadowed and sinewy foursome are ready for the big time and have brought the perfect album to take their shot. Bonus style points for frontwoman Juanita Stein’s reverb-colored desolate croon — that’s ambience, baby.

Neon Horse

The Octopus Project, Golden Beds EP – one of my favorite fringe indie experi(instru-)mental pop groups. Definitely obtuse but playfully so. This is just a taster EP but still full of head-scratching moments of instrumental grandeur and hip, mopey lyrics with a cute, fuzzy edge.

OST – Adam
OST – Funny People

Owl City

Nitin Sawhney
Starflyer 59
George Thorogood and the Destroyers

Timber Timbre, Timber Timbre – slow, quirky folk blues out of the Toronto branch of indie Canadian label, Arts & Crafts.

Ashley Tisdale
Wrabit

YACHT, See Mystery Lights – geez, every major and minor music magazine and interwebkin seems to be going gay over this band, who is really just a really musically-enlightened programming genius and whoever happens to be playing with him at the time. This is a case where all the love, hype, and press is well deserved, because this guy is Interesting (*<--capital "I"*). The band is conceived as a way of life, a social commentary, and a business venture, but the fact that they're signed to James Murphy's DFA label should tell you that they're 1) indie and 2) danceable. In spades, indeed.

If you live in the UK, this is festival season for you, so you may have already seen some of these bands live on stage, from a sweaty throng of hooligans who may or may not have been throwing spent beer bottles full of their own product. If so, bully for you, good show. We’ve got some of our own festivals stateside, so if you Yanks are able, check ‘em out and report back! We’re really hitting the days of summer now…

P.S. Enjoy a sampling from this week’s new songs on my MySpace page. It’s updated pretty much weekly now…

—–

To view past reviews, visit our archives.