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Music Reviews

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Grand Archives: Soft-Rock Redux

XPN

With a '70s-friendly sound that recalls The Beach Boys and CSNY, Grand Archives makes wistful indie-pop that's as lovely as it is hummable. The band's lineage can be traced to Carissa's Wierd [sic], a Seattle folk-rock group that spawned Sera Cahoone and Band of Horses.

Crime Window

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Drive-By Truckers: New, 'Brighter' Songs

The Southern band remains guitar-heavy, but its new album features some of Drive-By Truckers' best songwriting so far — particularly in Patterson Hood's songs. On Brighter Than Creation's Dark the band tells stories about strugglers, musicians, and soldiers.

Drive-By Truckers: New, 'Brighter' Songs

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Song Of The Day

Austin TV: Behind and Beyond the Masks

The Mexican indie-rock band Austin TV is known for performing in crazy masks and other disguises, but it needn't worry about gimmicks overshadowing its music. In "El Secreto (De las Luciérnagas)," The group plays music that brings to mind the versatile instrumentals of Explosions in the Sky.

Secreto (De Las Luciérnagas)

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Song Of The Day

A Cold-Weather Anthem for the Cold-Hearted

The Magnetic Fields' "California Girls" hums and reverberates with defiled surf-rock — a fitting response to Brian Wilson, if a few decades late. With its unexpected mantra ("I hate California girls"), it invites listeners to huddle up in front of a fire and hate the West Coast.

California Girls

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Richard Egarr: The 'Bernstein of Early Music'

The keyboardist delivers a historically informed performance worthy of the passion behind Handel's Organ Concertos on a new CD. Egarr possesses a remarkable gift for combining subtle musical gestures with forward–moving, irrepressible rhythms.

Richard Egarr: The 'Bernstein of Early Music'

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Underground Russian Rock on Tour in U.S.

Fresh Air

Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews music from Russian rock group Auktyon. The band is currently on tour in the U.S. Auktyon, like some other Russian rock groups, found their footing during the censorship-free period of glasnost in the former Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Underground Russian Rock on Tour in U.S.

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Song Of The Day

Lightspeed Champion: 10 Minutes of Reinvention

In "Midnight Surprise," Lightspeed Champion guides listeners through a three-part composition, flush with a galaxy of delicate string arrangements and lyrical vulnerability — no easy feat for a bandleader whose last project was notorious for its hip-hop and thrash (in)sensibilities.

Midnight Surprise: My Time Spent Down the Lavender Bridge/Oh God, Reall

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Music Interviews

Assisted Listen: Emilio Navaira, King of Tejano

Hundreds gathered at a vigil Monday night for Emilio Navaira, the man known as "the King of Tejano Music," who is in a coma after a bus accident and may not survive. Reporter Ramiro Burr offers a quick guide to Navaira's singular genre.

Assisted Listen: Emilio Navaira, King of Tejano

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'Brit Box' Collects Rock from Across the Pond

Fresh Air

In the past 20 years, Great Britain has produced a huge quantity of popular music that's gotten very little attention in the U.S. The Brit Box is a four-CD collection of British rock and pop, including songs by The Smiths, Supergrass, and The Boo Radleys.

'Brit Box' Collects Rock from Across the Pond

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Song Of The Day

Surrogate: Beware the Perils of Fame

Although it was probably never intended as such, Surrogate's "15" provides a welcome and soothing mantra for those wary of a celebrity-crazed culture. The California duo crafts a sneaky arrangement on "15," from its fine debut album Love Is for the Rich.

15

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Garifuna Women Preserve Culture in Song

At the top of the UN's list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" are the people known as the Garifuna, bearers of a unique brand of Afro-Caribbean music and dance. A new CD by the Garifuna Women's Project helps preserve the legacy of the stories and music of the Garifuna people.

Garifuna Women Preserve Culture in Song

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Song Of The Day

What Made Milwaukee Famous: Punchy and Pithy

"Sultan," an unashamedly catchy rock anthem that begs to be compared to the best of Spoon, gets What Made Milwaukee Famous' formula exactly right: It dispenses just enough horn power behind its jaunty piano lines, with pithily concise lyrics to boot.

Sultan

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Song Of The Day

Michael Dean Damron: Contempt and Fury

Damron used to lead the booze-drenched roots-rock band I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House. Time hasn't mellowed his worldview, but in "Hallelujah," he's learned that righteous indignation can be even more affecting when it's delivered with a whisper instead of a scream.

'Hallelujah' by Michael Dean Damron and Thee Loyal Bastards

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Adam Green, at 'Sixes & Sevens'

Fresh Air

Fresh Air rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Sixes & Sevens, the new album from singer-songwriter Adam Green. He co-wrote the song "Anyone Else But You" for the film Juno and co-founded the New York folk group The Moldy Peaches. Sixes & Sevens is his fifth solo album.

Adam Green, at 'Sixes & Sevens'

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