Articles By: Rebecca Lynn Prashner 
Thrice – Major/ Minor review
Thrice’s new “Major/Minor” might be straight out of an early 2000s alternative station top 40. It sounds a little bit like Tool and a little bit like 3rd eye blind. Heavily distorted guitar solos accompany bombastic drums and Dustin Kensrue’s labored vocals. There are some vague lyrics about stones, birds, and bleeding. Dustin sings, “you don’t care/ you don’t care.” He’s right. This album might as well be ten years old. Having old influences is alright unless the genre is [...]
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The Devil Wears Prada – Dead Throne review
The Devil Wears Prada’s “Dead Throne” is fast metalcore. The best thing about the albums are the fast drums and the worst things are the obnoxious throat screams and overblown high electric guitar solos. Basically, it’s what you’d expect from metalcore and The Devil Wears Prada in general. It’s actually fortunate that you can’t hear Mike Hranica’s voice, because the angsty lyrics are unintelligible. This is what separates The Devil Wears Prada from new post-2000 emo bands. The line between [...]
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Mates of States – Mountaintops review
Mates of States’ “Mountaintops” can’t help but sound a bit like a family band. Married couple Kori Gardner and Jason Gammel make clean pop music together with some folk influence. “Mountaintops” is indie pop with some Americana, like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah with higher production values. The album’s high point is the vocal harmonizing. On the track Maracas, they both sing simultaneously, “I’ve got your back/ syncopated breathing.” “Mountaintops” is all togetherness and light. There’s some obvious joy that [...]
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Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost review
“Father, Son, Holy Ghost” sounds like a tortured version of wholesome Christian family band pop. It has influences of the Beach Boys, the Everly Brothers, and good 50s rock and roll and pop music in songs about drugs and bad relationships. Owens’s lyrics aren’t cool or self-conscious. He’s candid and open with his emotions to the point of almost sounding self-absorbed, but it never burdens the wholesome pop vibe. If you’ve ever listened a Beach Boys album or to some [...]
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A Winged Victory For the Sullen review
“A Winged Victory for the Sullen” is a collaboration between Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid and LA composer Dustin Halloran. Wiltzie was interested in making some interesting ambient drone music, and Halloran answered with a string quartet, French horn, classical piano and bassoon. The result is a wash of guitar melodies accompanied by traditional symphonic sounds. It’s ambitious, ambient, and gloomy, as the title might suggest. The drone gets lost in the melodies at points, between what sounds [...]
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Samiam – Trips review
Samiam’s “Trips” is a little Yellow Card’s “Ocean Avenue” and a bit of that other Berkeley band, Green Day. The 90’s pop-punk aesthetic is there in spades and it’s got plenty of tweeny bopper angst. It’s punk cleaned up and repackaged in a clean, kid-friendly album. It goes from faster faux-punk tracks to ones that sound like a half-assed “Redundant” without all the despair. “Trips” has all the poppy repetition of radio punk without the self-deprecating sense of humor of [...]
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Terius Nash – 1977 review
“1977” is The-Dream’s latest released under his real name, Terius Nash. It starts out like a confessional album, which fits the self-title. Nash sings/ raps about failed relationships, Rolexes, not giving a f***, and crashing an ex’s wedding. Some tracks sound almost like Nash is reading from a diary: “I’m not like him/ not like them/ I wish you would/ roll up/ I’m not better than that/ but I appreciate the form of flattery.” Nash bares his soul. He acknowledges [...]
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Gotye – Making Mirrors review
Making Mirrors is a little Jack Johnson, a little Michael Jackson, a little reggae, and a little bit Jungle Book. That exact mix isn’t found on every track, but there’s good influences of each dispersed through the album. Wally DeBecker lays his soul out there in a mostly feel-good album, with a few songs dedicated to breakups and running into an ex. Then, with the track “I Feel Better,” Wally launches into a more upbeat Jackson five type mode after [...]
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Elite Gymnastics – Real Friends review
Elite Gymnastic’s “Real Friends” is an entertainingly eclectic EP. It starts out with a tongue-in-cheek Velvet Underground-style narrative set to Chillwave. The rest resembles their previous album Ruin a little bit more. It’s as if Elite Gymnastics took a Washed Out mashup and added some snide, candid lyrics. For a genre that’s usually been all about feeling nondescriptly good, “Real Friends” makes a bit more of a statement. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it’s a statement: “Last year I used to live [...]
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Purling Hiss – Lounge Lizards review
Purling Hiss’s Lounge Lizards combines shredding guitar with rough production for tracks that sound like they’ve taken a page out of old school punk. Lounge Lizards is grubby and short- only six songs on the entire album- and sounds like a juke box play. It’s got classic riffs and some doo-wop vocals backing up Mike Polizee’s gritty, Richard Hell-esque voice. The songs aren’t too fast-paced, but it’s a high-energy album. If punk production was mixed with classic rock and roll [...]
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