Archive Search Results

1. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: November 18, 2009

   Tape Deck Mountain"Dead Doctors Don't Lie" Guaranteed to be adored by space-rock cosmonauts and effects-pedal enthusiasts, to confuse Jonas Brothers fans, to totally tick off...

2. A-List

   The Fiery Furnaces

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: November 11, 2009

   Until this year, being a Fiery Furnaces fan meant that one had an especially high tolerance for cracked musical-theatre narratives, live revisionism, and wonky, disjointed...

3. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: November 11, 2009

   GIRLS"Ghostmouth" It's true: America needed its own Teenage Fanclub, which meant that we needed our own Bandwagonesque, too. But I'm almost afraid to ask what that actually...

4. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: November 4, 2009

   Shakira"She Wolf" Queasy. Awkward. Yup, this disco slinky is queasily, awkwardly appealing, despite coming across like a well-meaning 12-year-old's concept of an anthem for...

5. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: October 28, 2009

   Birdman feat. Drake"More Milli" Lil Wayne's guardian/label benefactor would like you to gape at his stable of whips and swag (ergo "Foreign grinds, hard times, gettin'...

6. A-List

   Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: October 21, 2009

   If Know Better Learn Faster—the new salvo from Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down—doesn't boast quite as rollicking barnburners as 2007's We Brave Bee Stings...

7. Music

   Aquarelle nails dreamy sweet-spot electro

   Ryan Potts experiments with translating experience and memory to music

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: October 21, 2009

   Ryan Potts laughs easily. That disarmingly agreeable laughter is one of the first things you notice in conversation with him: It radiates a companionable warmth, demonstrates...

8. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: October 21, 2009

   Julian Casablancas "11th Dimension" Phrazes for the Young? Based on this first single, very literally so: double- or triple-entendre advice, depending on who's listening,...

9. 5ingles

   The Songs We Can't Escape

   By Ray Cummings

   Published: October 14, 2009

   FASHAWN"Gone in 60 Seconds" Okay, this freestyle goes on for almost 120 seconds, but I won't hold that against Fashawn, who's got formidable bravado and versatility for a...

10. A-List

    Yo La Tengo

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 7, 2009

    Hoboken, New Jersey's Yo La Tengo have always seemed like a trio of hip older uncles and aunts: deeply dippy, good-hearted musos trailing their collective muse wherever it...

11. A-List

    Rob Thomas

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 7, 2009

    Let's be honest here: Ripping on Rob Thomas is all kinds of fun. The sudden fluctuations in weight. The reliably maudlin FM radio cheese. The cornball 1999 collabo with boomer...

12. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: October 7, 2009

    AMERIE"Why R U" "I can't lose" scans as an odd opening statement for a celebrated diva whose in-turnaround next album has been delayed and held back pretty much constantly...

13. A-List

    Tortoise

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 30, 2009

    Call it a passive-aggressive reflex: Snark-bash post-rockers long and hard enough, and eventually, they will strike back, and hard. So maybe that's why Beacons of Ancestorship,...

14. A-List

    fun.

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 23, 2009

    Fun. hail from NYC, are a trio, and make swollen, pompous pop-rock their self-amused métier. Just what everybody needs now, right? It just may be, after all: Seriously,...

15. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 23, 2009

    WHITNEY HOUSTON"Million Dollar Bill" My earliest exposure to the former Mrs. Bobby Brown came during elementary-school carpool trips, when brassy, world-beating hits...

16. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 16, 2009

    BLANK DOGS"No Compass" It's as though Blank Dogs are writing themes for Scooby-Doo scripts that haven't been written or animated yet, in which the ghouls and "special guest...

17. A-List

    Woods

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 9, 2009

    There's a song on Songs of Shame, the latest salvo from New York lo-fi/scuzz-psych crew Woods, that's an absolute monster of a jam. "September with Pete" stretches to nearly 10...

18. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 9, 2009

    A GRAVE WITH NO NAME"We Parted Ways at Mount Jade" Oh, that strained falsetto. That smeared spreading of guitar parts. Ethereally indistinct. This is sort of like trying to...

19. 5ingles

    The Songs We Can't Escape

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: September 2, 2009

    BYGONES"Spray You with Your Own Trip" Two minutes into "Trip" and Bygones are interpolating the Hill Street Blues theme into their post-Zorn wow 'n' pow. Which isn't...

20. A-List

    Vivian Girls

    By Ray Cummings

    Published: August 26, 2009

    None of the three members of NYC's Vivian Girls is actually named Vivian, and they don't front with identical Christian names like the Donnas used to; they're Cassie Ramone,...