After laying the smacketh down at a killer show in Boise last week, DIIV will continue supporting their latest album, Frog in Boiling Water, with more tour dates through the rest of the year. And for good reason: Post-rock doesn’t get much better than their latest material. Read my full review on FLOOD.
More punk in spirit than in sound, Chicago group Babe Report’s lo-fi debut, Did You Get Better (Exploding in Sound), is endearing if also a bit impatient as they keep things loud, fast, and heavily distorted. Read my full review on FLOOD.
Dusk, an atmospheric black-metal project from Costa Rica, expect the world to end. But rather than trying to pretend what they believe will happen actually won’t, Dusk seem to have decided to challenge and entertain themselves during the time we all have left. Read my review of their new album, Industrie, courtesy of New Noise.
The San Francisco quartet hits the perfect balance of intimacy and exhibitionism on their short-but-sweet third album of harmony-based indie pop.
One can imagine that, when French Cassettes listened to the final result of their third album, Benzene, the band members quickly realized they were onto something special.
Check out my full review of French Cassettes’ brand-new record, Benzene, on FLOOD.
Check out my FLOOD review of To All Trains, which is presumably the final studio album by indispensable, iconoclastic noise-rock outfit Shellac. The analysis also includes some my reflections on the band’s guitarist/vocalist and one of rock’s most singular engineers ever, Steve Albini. (His song “Bad Penny,” created with his previous outfit Big Black, inspired the name of this website.)
Days before Albini suffered a fatal heart attack at his own Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the underground legend agreed to talk with me about To All Trains (Touch and Go), 26 years after our first and only other conversation. A transcription of that first interview will surface online soon; sadly—but not a smidgen as sad as his passing—the second rendezvous never transpired.
The Glaswegian chamber-pop quartet’s comeback record finds the group nestling back into its comfort zone, soothing the soul like the band used to. Read my full review on FLOOD‘s website.
The Toronto noise-punks’ fifth LP sees their familiarly angular guitars working through melodies that range from ear-sweetening to atonal, furthering the mystery that is the Sub Pop band METZ. Read more on FLOOD.
The Virginia sludge quintet’s fifth album, issued via Relapse Records, exhibits Inter Arma’s penchant for probing the innards of metal and reconstructing it into a seamless new visage. Read more on FLOOD.
Drahla’s sophomore album, released via Captured Tracks, sees the Leeds-based trio overcoming grief over instrumental flourishes that recall yesteryear while artfully resisting the lure of entering a time machine. Read more of my album review on FLOOD.
After a relatively long wait, Matt Pike’s sludge-metal outfit High on Fire return with their most adventurous, pigeonhole-smashing, and idiosyncratic release to date. Here is my FLOOD review.
The Bad Penny (beta) 