The News Review:
- Punk to folk: A quiet revolution for two performers
- Pixies magic – Music – Entertainment – theage.com.au
- Music Review | Robyn Hitchcock
- Music Review: LCD Soundsystem
Punk to folk: A quiet revolution for two performers
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Mar 29, 2007
It doesn’t sound like the bands that initially got me started in Waxwing which were like Fugazi Jawbreaker Nirvana. I moved to Seattle in the early ’90s and that’s when I started going to punk shows and decided I was going to be in bands the rest of my life. Ironically Votolato says he was “oblivious” to the alt-country scene in the ’90s that now informs his music particularly “The Brag & Cuss” a second record that’s on the way in June. It finds the singer-songwriter building the sound a little more as he does on the current tour backed by the band Drag the River. “Not that this record is going to be crazy fast” he says. “It’s still a mellow record but the songs are treated with full arrangements. bviously the folk-country and alt-country fields have been well cultivated over the years but Votolato says that isn’t going to stop him… “When you listen to my music now it’s more the direction that’s gone. It doesn’t sound like the bands that initially got me started in Waxwing which were like Fugazi Jawbreaker Nirvana. I moved to Seattle in the early ’90s and that’s when I started going to punk shows and decided I was going to be in bands the rest of my life. Ironically Votolato says he was “oblivious” to the alt-country scene in the ’90s that now informs his music particularly “The Brag & Cuss” a second record that’s on the way in June. It finds the singer-songwriter building the sound a little more as he does on the current tour backed by the band Drag the River. “Not that this record is going to be crazy fast” he says. “It’s still a mellow record but the songs are treated with full arrangements.
Pixies magic – Music – Entertainment – theage.com.au
The Age – Mar 29, 2007
Violent punk rock guitars only two or threechords at the most shards of them dry as dust. They stop and theystart from a whisper to a shout in a split-second. The dynamics ofsuch a little song are interminably wide. It’s only an indie-rock song.
Music Review | Robyn Hitchcock
New York Times – Mar 29, 2007
But on Tuesday night at the Knitting Factory in an unusual burst of straightforwardness he explained the artistic strategy he has been using since he arrived in 1977 as the leader of the Soft Boys a neo-psychedelic band in the punk-rock era. Skip to next paragraph… Add a lifelong fascination with insects from an old song “Kingdom of Love” which describes an infatuation as “You’ve been laying eggs under my skin” to the title song of his most recent album “l?Tarantula” (Yep Roc). Hitchcock’s imagery arrives in music that’s a happy throwback to the mid-1960s when psychedelic bands were packing their ideas into tuneful four-minute songs. At the Knitting Factory Mr. Hitchcock and his band played the early Pink Floyd single “See Emily Play” written by Syd Barrett a compendium of ideas that would turn up in his own songs. They also played “Eight Miles High” the Byrds song about a West Coast band visiting London.
Music Review: LCD Soundsystem
San Francisco Chronicle – Mar 29, 2007
tmpl –>(03-29) 13:59 PDT (AP) — LCD Soundsystem “Sound of Silver” (DFA-Capitol): LCD Soundsystem the brainchild of DFA Records founder and producer James Murphy is once again biting and audacious on “Sound of Silver. Murphy who flies virtually solo in the studio crafts electronica with wit atmosphere and a keen pop sensibility and he simply oozes with confidence. How else would you explain the late 2006 release of a promo track that runs 45:33 and is titled — 45:33?With a pair of 2005 Grammy nominations under his belt — for his self-titled debut and the infectious single “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” — Murphy has returned with his New York attitude intact and a thumping vibe that’s sure to fill any dance floor. He sprinkles rock 80s synth Euro disco techno and funky soul into a delicious mix that’s impossible to sit still to — and lyrically he sinks his teeth into a healthy dose of irony. “Get Innocuous!” and “Us v Them” smack conformity in the mouth “Someone Great” shows breakups as both a relief and a heartache and “All My Friends” is about having no direction in life and somehow not really caring. “New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” is a lament to the city’s ever-changing landscape and the fantastic “North American Scum” allows Murphy to point out our national flaws while still insisting: “You see I love this place that I’ve come to know… and I know you wouldn’t touch us with a ten foot pole. Compared to some of today’s typically mindless dance music this is party poetry.