New album lacks typical energy and cohesiveness


For those unfamiliar with Owen Pallett, he is the person behind the artist pseudonym Final Fantasy. Before his third full-length album Heartland was released, Pallett was forced by a lawsuit courtesy of what should be a rather obvious entity to drop the Final Fantasy name. Under that moniker, Pallett released two solid albums and proved […]

Rapper is a Canadian alternative hip-hop gem


Kevin Brereton, also known by his stage name k-os, is a Canadian alternative hip-hop artist that has yet to cultivate a substantial following in the United States. This might be expected if k-os was an average artist of average talent or if he was simply a carbon copy of the current stars of alternative hip-hop. […]

Artist rides reputation with new album


The name Jason Derulo already draws significant recognition for a singer who has not released more than two songs to the public. An accomplished songwriter and producer, Derulo has worked with artists such as Lil Wayne and Sean Kingston before getting in the studio to record his own material. After an eight months of production […]

Influences on new BJM album run the gamut


With the release of its eleventh studio album Who Killed Sgt. Pepper, the Brian Jonestown Massacre has reinvented its sound once again. Throughout its nearly two-decade existence, the band has produced a diverse catalogue of albums crossing genres from folk rock to shoegaze to noise pop, all the while maintaining its authentic ’60s psychedelic aesthetic. […]

Songwriting and vocal versatility from Guillemots front man


The scruffy Fyfe Dangerfield is best known in England as the multitasking singer-songwriter-instrumentalist frontman of British avant-garde pop band Guillemots. But even after two full-length albums and three EPs, his Mercury-Prize nominated group is still obscure listening in the United States. The band is known for its orchestral approach to pop music and songs that […]

Trio’s most recent independent release blends old and new


Alkaline Trio is a punk band. Punk music, by definition, is and has always been an anti-establishment form of expression that aims to blatantly defy and oppose mainstream culture. The Hills is not punk. It came as somewhat of a surprise, then, when the nearly 14-year-old Chicago band Alkaline Trio appeared on MTV’s reality show […]