Duck & Cover :: Indie rock music writing from Arcade Fire to the Zygotic Minci

RIYL: Flaming Lips, David Byrne, Flotation Toy Warning, Cloud Cult, Broken Social Scene Sounds Like: Concept albums: not just for Prog anymore. A Few Words: I get my music in a myriad of ways, most of it dubious and downright sneaky. But sometimes I manage to procure a legitimate review copy of an album. It just so happens that my Twitter obsession helped me fill the shoes of "honest blogger" for once. If Twitter needs another success story, I'm willing to throw Umbrella Tree into the pile. By following a fan's tweet, I got in touch with the band and was very soon getting an earful of their latest album, The Letter C . At first blush the album appears to revolve around a nautical theme. Swaying 3/3 signatures will suddenly shift like the seas into rockier, more disjointed patterns. And with track names like "Ocean Sober", "Starfish", and interludes called "Periscoper" (A through C) it's easy to assume they're taking us down in ...

Organic sweetener for saccharine shoegazers RIYL: My Bloody Valentine, Wye Oak, Sonic Youth, Sully, the heavier side of Yo La Tengo Sounds Like: Musicians with the talent to capture both their angst and the irony of their angst. A few words: I confess: I'm a sucker for shoegaze. When my friend Drew played MBV's Loveless for me back in the 90s, I thought I'd found the best record of all time. And while Loveless is still arguably the quintessential shoegaze record, the genre has evolved remarkably, as is evident on the third record from Northfield, MN band Gospel Gossip . The album exhibits everything a shoegaze fan will be looking for: dreamy layers of distortion, frenzied drumming, and songs well past the 3 minute mark. But Dreamland has elements that raise it above the generic; most notably are Sarah Nienaber's vocals, through which we can hear (shock horror!) discernible lyrics. I can't tell you how relieving it is to finally be able to stare at my sneakers AN...