Today's featured shit

It doesn’t sound like a sextet, but it is one. “Sweet Singin’ Birds” takes a Neko Case sound-alike and gives her ’60s girl group backing vocals and throws in keyboards. I guess you do need six people to accomplish all of that. All the songs are good. If you want more male-focused vocals, you can [...]

They’re Japanese. They sing in Japanese. It’s a rock band with Japanese lyrics and English song titles. The onesheet smells like cigarettes. The songs all sound the same and have this Gogol Bordello feel to them (and there is a song called “Go, Gal”). These songs are long. Twelve tracks take 72 minutes. “Solo” is [...]

This is a pretty cool record. The lyrics are silly, but even if you don’t understand the wit because you don’t speak English or pay attention to words, you’ll still like this album because the music is chipper. “Vacuum” doesn’t suck. It goes on about not being born in a vacuum cleaner. Really. Even at [...]

These songs have a lot of energy, and, yes, screaming females. That’s one for the lead singer and another for the backing vocals. This makes two, and that proves the necessary pluralization of “female.” “Sour Grapes” sounds like Kristin Hersh. You can tell that this track plays well live, because it is a good song [...]

Some catchy poppy stuff here. “Din” has Dambuilders music with nondescript 1980s male vocals. Like Peter Murphy, maybe? The bass is mixed really loud, but that seems intentional. “Terra Fuego” sounds a lot like “Din,” only with Doors-era keyboards. It’s a fun song although a bit silly. “Another Monkey on the Vine” is not about [...]