April 2009

The Deal: Charlotte quartet Brandon Kirkley & The Firecrackers independently releases six-song EP, What We Thought We Knew.

The Good: The band offers up pop-rock tunes on its debut. "One to None" has a radio-friendly groove to it and building chorus that you can easily see might be a live staple in their set. Singer Kirkley shows a bit of range in his vocals on "You Don't Know" with moments of falsetto and a bit of that rock 'n' roll power scream. The harmonica gave a nice touch on "Sunset City."

By the time she released her sixth solo album -- Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea -- Polly Jean Harvey had pretty much stretched her sound in every direction it could logically go.

1992's Dry was her fully formed indie-encapsulating debut; 1993's Rid of Me her Steve Albini-produced exploration of caterwauling noise; 4-Track Demos her raw, immediate bedroom snapshot; 1995's To Bring You My Love her confident, theatrical blues masterstroke; 1998's Is This Desire? her electronica-dabbling incorporation of folk-rock touches. What was left but to streamline her sound, spruce up the recording studio and record a steamy slab of hook-driven pop-rock?

The tangled ribbon of sludge and psychedelia that weaves throughout Kylesa's previous albums twists with restraint on Static Tensions, the fourth full-length from Savannah's quintessential blackened-metal outsiders. From the opening salvo of "Scapegoat" to the swaying rhythms of "To Walk Alone," textures are refined in the periphery as guitars mash scorching fugues against bombastic rhythms.

The Deal: Former Libertine frontman/current Babyshambles singer/notorious drug abuser Pete Doherty adds an 'r' and releases long-awaited acoustic album.

Got an email from State Media with their updated concert announcements and I literally gasped aloud when I saw that Bon Iver (the moniker of Wisconsin singer/songwriter Justin Vernon) will be making his way down to FLA before hitting Bonarroo, and will play State Theatre Wednesday, June 10. Bon Iver's stunning, austerely beautiful For Emma Forever Ago was No. 2 on my top 10 album of '08 list, Vernon a vocalist who takes your breathe away with his delicate, soulful falsetto.

Brian Jonestown Massacre played a compellingly mellow show on Friday night at Variety Playhouse. The tambourine guy is still in the band and he is still very hard to look at, yet his placement at the front and center of the stage feels like a distractionary tactic.

A bit of a stop-gap product while waiting for LaVere's full-length follow-up to the still-going-strong Anchors & Anvils, Died of Love is a five-song, 22-minute hodgepodge of an EP: two traditional songs, two covers, and a new version of the A&A standout "Washing Machine."

For today's Roll Call we call out Tony Dekker from Ontario's Great Lake Swimmers.

Who are you?
Tony Dekker from Great Lake Swimmers.

Describe yourself in three words.
Big huge nerd.

Who - dead or alive - would you most like to meet?
Leonard Cohen.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Nobody. I don't slap people in their faces.

After 20 years, it's no surprise the co-founders of the band Bloodkin have been through their share of ups and downs. Daniel Hutchens and Eric Carter first started playing music together when they were in elementary school. Though the duo has had different bandmates over the years, they've released eight albums and are currently fueled by a new-found sobriety that has sparked new life into a band that was just about written off by its primary players.

Dan Deacon's live shows are communal experiences, in which ecstatic crowds twist and turn in time with the knobs on the Baltimore electronic music performer's jury-rigged DJ station.