Category Archives: Reviews

Deaf Description: The Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going Away

I’ve already let my nerd flag fly high when I trumpeted the announcement of the upcoming Fiery Furnaces record, but what I didn’t tell you at the time (because it wasn’t announced until the following week) was that the siblings Friedberger were asking their fans to submit “deaf descriptions” of the new album. That is, [...]
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Review(?) of The Decemberists, Hazards of Love

“Hazards of Love (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)” from Hazards of Love. (buy) A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of the Decemberists’ new album Hazards of Love in versified form for Detour. It appears among other excellent reviews, but I thought I’d let it stand alone for you, our [...]
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Friday Fix: Peter Bjorn & John, Dan Deacon, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Peter Bjorn & John – “I Want You!” (from Living Thing) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] No tambourine. I distinctly remember that from an interview a few years back with Björn Yttling about Writer’s Block and the smashing success of “Young Folks”: as a band, they made a conscious decision to avoid the [...]
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Friday Fix: Camera Obscura, Bishop Allen, The Boy Least Likely To

Camera Obscura – “French Navy” (from My Maudlin Career) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Is there such a thing as a Camera Obscura song that doesn’t start in a dusty library? Tucked away inside, surrounded by stacks of old books and LPs, Tracyanne Campbell is the introvert par excellence. But the melancholy of [...]
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The Blind Eyes – Modernity

The Blind Eyes – “January” (from Modernity) [Audio clip: view full post to listen] At first, whenever anyone talked about the Blind Eyes, myself included, it seemed inevitable that someone would group the St. Louisans alongside the neatly-tailored English pop of the Jam and Elvis Costello, or occasionally next to the slightly more rambunctious Thin [...]
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Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

Scott Walker: 30 Century Man Verve Pictures I am a big Scott Walker fan, but I want to keep things in perspective. I have wanted to see Stephen Kijak’s documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man ever since its 2006 UK release. But I was never in the right place at the right time. It has [...]
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The Fancy Dan Band – Born Fancy

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] The Fancy Dan Band – “Away From Here” (from Born Fancy) I would be remiss if I failed to mention that today marks the official delivery of Born Fancy, the inaugural album by San Francisco’s rockabilly revivalists The Fancy Dan Band. I’ve been waiting for this day for [...]
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