Indie and Lo-Fi music reviews

From start to finish, this entire album is amazing. The lyrics are honest and funny and his voice is one of a kind.

If you only buy one Hayden album, this has got to be it. But you won't. Once you buy this one, you're gonna go out and buy them all. I know it.

"Story-songs" are the hardest to create and pull off. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's "Nebraska" album is most highly acclaimed due to his amazing ability to tell a moving story in each song on the album. Years from now, Hayden's album "Everything I long for" will be highly acclaimed by musicians and songwriters worldwide (Hayden will be the next BOSS). Hayden has the miraculous ability to make you laugh and cry in each song. He captures a universe of mood and feeling from beginning to end. The pace of his music is magical!!! If you are going to buy one Hayden album, this is the one that i would recommend! (If i were to be stranded on an island with 3 Cds, this would be one of them.) Buy it, shut your eyes, listen, and you will cry and laugh.

This album is depressing, melancholy, and almost criplingly sad. It will make you ache, it will make you miss times of your life you can never go back to, it will accent your lonelinesses and remind you of your sorrows.
IT'S GREAT!
This album is the epitomy of where I was hoping modern-day folk music would head toward: this album is as sincere and as truly folk as the mournful songs of Mississippi John Hurt or the Carter Family. Back then, people sang about what was really happening to them, to their world, to where they lived. If they'd had microwaves and pizza and cable TV and coffee shops, they would have sung about them, too.
That's what a lot of modern day folk musicians don't get. They treat folk as if it was stuck in a bubble. They imitate something real, and what comes out is something phony, because what they're singing about isn't really their world.
Not so with Hayden.
Not so with "Everything I Long For."
This album recognizes its time and its place. It draws as much from indie rock and grunge as it does from folk, and the result is something completely original. Low-fi folk grunge? Grunge-folk?
It's Hayden.
Like Daniel Johnston, Hayden is never afraid to be painfully honest, even if it makes him look cowardly or pathetic, and it pays off by mostly just making him incredibly sympathetic. He sings about liking a girl he sees in a coffee shop, and having his friend give the girl his number while he himself hides in the bathroom. He sings about a weekend spent with a girl at his parents' house and how he wishes she would got there with him again, now that they're all grown up. He sings about lying to ditch out on a crappy job, and about working in a sporting goods store. His songs are depressing, yet songs like "My Parents' House" and "We Don't Mind" also have hope and private happinesses hidden deep inside them, and warm the sad and chilling soul of this album.
The songs are quiet, for the most part, and haunting, but on occassion it feels as if too much quiet suffering is being left unexpressed, and Hayden has to scream out, and let it out, and let you know. Those are some of the BEST parts. He sings one song from the perspective of child-murderer Susan Smith's little son, as the car he's strapped in rolls into a pond--the child wonders what he did wrong, tries to help his brother, and screams and screams and screams and screams as the water fills the car.
My gosh, it's good stuff.
If you're the sort who occasionally feels better after listening to depressing music, then this is the album for you. If you like the blues not for their mind-numbing repetition but for the idea that singing out one's pain is cathartic and healing, then buy this CD. If you like albums that feel like a friend you love confiding his deepest secrets because you're his closest pal and he's at the end of his rope, then buy this album. If you like music, if you like music that makes you feel something, if you like music that makes you feel something meaningful, then you really do need to buy this album.
And Hayden's "Moving Careful" e.p. is great as well.

The title tells it all. It is my favorite album since I have it.

This is my first review of a Will Oldham/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. I chose to review this album first because I think it's simply my favorite in his catalog that I've heard.

I would say that 90 percent of this album sounds exactly like my thoughts throughout a normal day. It's sadly beautiful and hopeful simultaneously. "I See A Darkness" is the type of song that makes you want to reflect on life and your inner thoughts. It's an ode to life.

These songs are sung with such heartfelt beauty and passion that's almost immeasurable to compare this with any other artist. Will shares a lot of his thoughts and feelings with us in his music. He has a "no-holds barred" approach that is sure to catch any listener's attention.

All the songs on this album are part of something bigger. One listen and you'll know that you've found an album with integrity and purity. It will probably get you through a lot of times in your life if you allow it to. Either way, this will be an album that you will not soon forget.

"Death To Everyone" is one of the most powerful tracks on this album. It also happens to be one of my favorites as well. If it absolutely doesn't pierce your soul, you may not have even been listening and don't deserve to go any further with this album. I would assume that most fans have heard Will's other work and most put this at very least towards the top. Oldham has really paved a path for what he wants to get across in his music. I would venture to say that people will study this work for many years to come.

If you've heard of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Will Oldham or are intrigued by what you've heard about him in general, this is definitely an album you should check out. Of course, he's got so many I guess you could start anywhere. Are any of them bad? No. My opinion would be to start here. If you don't become instantly fond of this work, you may not need to get anything else by him.

Whoa. I finally tracked this CD down after several months of looking. First of all, (...the) title of Best of 1999 is very accurate. Second, with that said why on earth is this so hard to get? My own answer to this question is that it must an independent release and therefore not in massive circulation. WELL IT SHOULD BE.

This is a really brilliant record. Will is the kind of artist that is a rare find among all the commercial shuffle of today's big money pot that is the music industry. His music is more for him than for a "target audience". And those who are interested can come along for the ride. (and what a ride) In other words He's not trying to sell records, he's making beautiful honest music for the love of music. This is a true masterpiece from a true purist.
You just need to hear it to understand. He can't be compared to other artists,

Oh yeah, and Johnny Cash covered the title song "I See A Darkness" on his last album. If that's not an honor what is?

Along with Pavement's "Slanted & Enchanted", "III" helped Lo-Fi garner respect as a credible subgenre. It's pretty uneven, but overall it's very good. Most of the tracks are more interesting than fun, though (but with 23 tracks that's not a problem). Because of the number of its highlights, as well as its historical importance, I give this 5 stars (but with caution, except for "The Freed Pig" its a very acquired taste and only for fans of the genre). Highly recommended for Lo-Fi fans as well as music collectors and historians.

Highlights include:
"The Freed Pig"
"Total Peace"
"Truly Great Thing"
"Kath"
"Perverted World"
"Wonderful, Wonderful"
"Limb By Limb"
"Rockstar"
"Renaissance Man"
"God Told Me"
"Violet Execution" (parts of)
"Scars, Four Eyes" (parts of)
"Holy Picture." (parts of)

Domino Record Co. (UK) will be reissuing this disc in the very near future for much less than people are trying to sell it here for, and as a reissue, it will likely have a lot of bonus stuff on it. wait to buy this, and get much more for much less.... Great disc, one of Sebadoh's best (but they're all very, very good).

Even though this isn't the first legit album from Sebadoh. It still is the first complete album Lou and co. released. This is just insanity at times. Even though this album is out of print (it has been for a while), copies are still floating around. Even if you have the slightest interest in Sebadoh or Lou Barlow's work, pick this album up. The standout song for me is the closing track "As the world dies, the eyes of god grow bigger" which is a 7 minute scream-fest of disturbing lyrics and vocals that just put everything you believe in down. The lyrics are really hard to get in the song because Lou and Eric are singing different lines at the same time until they just start screaming and wailing. Gaffney is at his best here and it shows so much. But it's not just Gaffney, Lou and Jason also contribute the best that they would ever make on this album.

Either way, get this album if you can, you WON'T be dissapointed at all.

This is a great album, and I won't add anything to what's already been said. I just thought I'd let those who don't much like keyboards know that this is still a totally worthwhile purchase. I'd thought of trying the magnetic fields for a while but never did because I didn't think I'd like the keyboard sound that everyone talks about. They treat the keyboards so much, and warp the sound to make it so it really doesn't make a difference. The songs are strong, and I think he makes sure to never sound cheezy on the keyboard (maybe once.) Anyway the songs are so good that the way it's played doesn't matter. Plus, the keyboards really do sound very good for the most part, and serve the songs well. Guitar fanatics, give this one a try, it's an excellent piece of music.

I first heard this album about eight years ago, and I have listened to it several times a month since. It just doesn't get old--the more I hear it, the more remarkable it is. Many people have commented on Merritt's eclectic instrumentation, which is indeed striking. But the really fantastic thing about his music is just how great he is at turning out a tune. The instrumentations are novel, but not novelties, and the tight melodies have the charm and stay-in-your-headness of folk tunes. Stephin Merritt is just so damned smart--and not in a look-at-me-I'm-so-deep or hipster way, but in the understated, constant, prolific manner that makes for lasting songwriting. His lyrics are also smart and moving, even when, as with the 69 Love Songs trio, he insists on claiming they're ironic or meta. He's a master at wry, pithy little lines that stick with you a lot more strongly than most of the abstract, self-congratulatory crap that passes for poetry these days.

I've listened to each Magnetic Fields album several times over--I'm completely addicted to them, in fact--and while there's not a bad one in the bunch, Charm of the Highway Strip does stand out as the most consistently fantastic and aesthetically unified project. Give this album a try. You won't regret it-none of the many people I've forced this on have.

I'm in a Magnetic Fields month, or maybe a Magnetic Fields six months, who knows? Haven't dipped into 69 Love Songs, yet. And that's probably a six month project itself. But of I, The Wayward Bus/Plastic Trees, and Charm of the Highway Strip, Charm is my current favorite. Like the work of Handsome Family, Giant Sand, and Hank Dogs, this country is not going to be crashing into the mainstream any time soon. Made up of equal parts electronic, synth mixes, cello, and something that sounds like a harpsichord (personally I hear more Phil Spector than Abba in the music), every one of these nine vocal songs -- the tenth, Dust Bowl, is an instrumental that can be skipped -- trades on the classic country themes of trains and highways. Only in Merritt's hand they are neither appealing nor romantic, but obsessions that promise escape and deliver only more pain and loneliness. Which, of course, is exactly what defines Merritt. Lonely Highway, with its references to Jackson, might be the fate that awaited Lee and Nancy, Johnny and June, after they got married in that "fever hotter than a pepper sprout." My two current favorites are I Have the Moon (though written eight years or so earlier, it's what Drusilla might have sung to Spike on Buffy after he became human) and Fear of Trains, where Merritt joins the Ramones in having the KKK take someone away, in this case the history of a Native American girl. Next week the favorites are likely to be different. What's certain is that Charm of the Highway Strip as a whole is going to be a very long-term favorite.

i've struggled a lot with this album. i really, really wanted to love it, and after listening to it a few times--not enough times, i admit--i think i'll have to settle for merely appreciating it. here's a guy from the athens, GA area--actually a small town nearby called winder--a guy who made music with his friends on the weekends or in the evenings, just for fun, just to pass the time. after a while, he fell in with the athens crowd and, as he is also an artist of sorts, he created a comic book about REM's peter buck being a superhero. this got him noticed by some people, and his home recordings made their way to mr. buck, who liked them and recommended them to minneapolis producer peter jesperson, best known for discovering the replacements. he contacted logan, logan sent him over 600 songs or something, and the two of them whittled this number to 42, which were spread over the two discs of jack logan's debut bulk. since then, he's released about an album a year, all of them good. a very steady songwriter. at any rate, this isn't an easy listen, it's everywhere all at once, and i do need to give it some more attention before i criticize it at all. what i can say is that the atmosphere of joking around, having fun, playing rock songs is very dominant here, and that alone makes it a worthy addition to any CD collection.

Okay, imagaine The Replacements, George Jones, The Minutemen, The Mekons, CCR, Neil Young, Dylan, Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Big Star, Exile On Mainstreet era Stones, & early REM---all rolled into one. Then toss in your your small town bar's favorite local jam/cover band. Outside of a few critical raves & a small cult of ardent admirers, the world has no patience for songwriters like Jack Logan. Or for albums like Bulk. Which is a shame because there's some incredible stuff at work here. You may not like every song on here, but I'd wager to guess there's more than 10 ya can't do without.

Drunken, lo-fi & loose---this is what the term "Indy Rock" is supposed to mean. A virtual smorgasboard of musical styles are on display: Garage,Punk,Country,Pop,& good old fashioned Rock & Roll. But be warned: these aren't studio recordings. So whiney audiophiles---don't waste your money or your breath. But if you're not afraid of a little grit in your speakers, read on.

Disc 1 tends to get more airplay as far as I'm concerned. "Fu*K Everything" sets the tone right off, quietly putting 1001 Nirvana's to shame. The macabre depths of "Underneath Your Bed & "Chloroform" are likely to tickle the funnybone while sending a shiver up the spine. But for sheer catchiness, you can't top the likes of "Shrunken Head" or "Voodoo Doll". On the flip side of that, there's the punk-noise dementia of "Lovely". Other stand outs include the haunting, "Escape Clause" & "15 Years In Indiana".

On disc 2, the likes of "Would I Be Happy Then?" keeps me coming back for more. And I'm a sucker for that eerie cover of Neil Young's "On The Beach". Things end with "Town Crier" which is another in a long list of great songs on here that they haven't invented a category for yet.

With his tongue-in-cheek & feet firmly planted in the rural South, Logan has a knack for stumbling onto a few deep, dark truths before shrugging them off in favor of "A New Used Car & A Plate Of Bar-B-Que". Over all, Bulk goes to show that well crafted songs don't necessarily need slick studio backing or a houshold name to commend them. Quirky, raw & often moving---stuff like this is like stumbling onto this incredible yard sale in a small town just off the insterstate.

Nick Drake sang of the absurdity of life and Albert Camus wrote about it. Flannerey O'Connor took literary snap-shots of simple people with simple lives in the South. The Stones made a living off killer riffs and Neil Young brought us the muted agony of Tonight's the Night and frenzied emotion of Like a Hurricane. Jack Logan does all these things and he does them for one reason, it is what he likes to do.
I saw Jack Logan in Boston back in 1995. A friend and myself where the only people there to see him and know who he was. He introduced himself as being from London and proceeded to play about 2 hours worth of songs from Bulk (and drink about 10 Buds).
Female Jesus is a metaphor about people finding Salvation in different ways. Shrunken Head (Probably the most commercial song on the album) is a white trash anthem of growing up and dealing with tough family situations. Drunken Arms and New Used Car and a Plate of BBQ are classic Southern Country songs about longing and alcohol. Who else would mention Brunswick Stew in a song. Tex recalls Exile on Mainstreet Stones and Farsighted recalls early 80's Graham Parker.
Other stand-out songs include Escape Clause, 15 Years in Indiana, Chloroform (disturbing subject matter), Monday Night, Good Times/Bad Memories and Weatherman.
I own over 3000 CD's and can say without hesitation this is, along with Nick Drake's Pink Moon, my most listened to disc.
It is all things to people who love good old fashion rock and roll with a sense of humor and understanding of the daily toil that is life. Much like when Kurt Vonnegut inserts himself into his novel Breakfast of Champions, Jack Logan put himself into each song and gives us a view of life that is both humorous and depressing.

Some people are just crazy...There sure are a lot of reviews on here that don't say anything about the quality of the music and not much else, except self-decieving BS. To skip the BS..here is the straight scoop: Modest mouse is a pretty cool band. Some songs sound like flat-out noise and some are really harmonic, especially on other albums like building nothing. Its a good cd not life-changing (as no album is). If you like the style and similar bands, you'll like the album. In a couple years, who knows maybe you'll still like it and throw it in every now and again.
If you are looking for something to mope to in a depressive, self-pitying, stupor or would just like to pretend there is more there than just music, the jibberish and other lyrics will give you plenty to...keep you busy...if sitting on a couch and smoking pot or however you mope, can be considered busy. Some people should just go get a job or go back to school, unless you can trick people into thinking your a genius and can get past the rapture of record companies. Pretty good CD.

..But I love it! It has its weak moments.... Some of the songs can drag on for a long time, and sometimes Isaac's voice isn't up to scratch, but an album doesn't have to perfect to be enjoyed; if you want perfect, I would recommend Red Hot Chili Peppers or something, cause their production is more or less perfect. I, on the other hand, enjoy this album because it ISN'T perfect, because it has it's flaws! One thing I should say about this album is that the tracks skip between such a wide variety of music; it isn't obvious genres but MM seem to be able to gather many different styles together to create sometimes truly original sounds.

My favourite thing about this album has to be the repetitive (but not boring) tracks, like "Convinient Parking" and "Long Distance Drunk", also the female voice is nice in the latter.

My least favourite track isn't actually any of them, it's just the fact that "Truckers Atlas" goes on for too long.

I would reccomend this album over "Good News" because it gives what I think a true representation of Modest Mouse.

Brilliant!

Longesome Crowded West just somehow works. Everyone should have a listen! Polar Opposites is my favorite song of all time.

very few albms get the attention this one does and with so few people having actually heard it. if you are new to GbV, start here. all of robert pollard's four P's are present: pop, punk, prog and psych. i have no idea why, but i still here gabriel-era genesis in these songs. what an album! this, to me, is one of the finest pieces of art ever created. shakespeare, picasso, beethoven. i'm serious!

here's the deal. a great artist sees things, hears things, a little differently. i hear these perfect songs recorded on a radio shack tape deck and wonder...what if...how would these crazy-good songs sound if recorded in a real studio and my mind constructs the rest. it informs the music and vice versa. it forces the listener to work things out and destroys the barriers between artist and consumer. hey! i could do that! and so many tried and the music world was refreshed with new voices and new ideas. this is important stuff. and yet we hear songs about robots and UFO's and god knows what else.

believe the hype. this is indeed one of the great triumphs in the history of music. the tape hiss, the four track dropping guitar parts (on purpose?), the overall horrible sounding thing that is bee thousand. my all-time favorite.

Like shards of broken glass that are arranged into a stained-glass window, this is the record where all the pieces first come together for the musical collective known as Guided By Voices. "Bee Thousand" is their first album to enjoy mass distribution, which is to say that, unlike previous albums, more than 1,000 copies were manufactured. To be straight about it, it's also their first album that is capable of withstanding scrutiny by the commercial marketplace. Main songwriter Robert Pollard remains as inscrutable as ever, and the songs recorded herein remain decidedly low-fi in recording methods, but each of the twenty songs on "Bee Thousand" are not only fathomable as music, but have a hook. They also last just long enough for them to sink in, with no song lasting much more than three minutes, and yet all of them are thoroughly unpredictable in structure and content.
This is by no means a perfect album. The low-fi approach that Guided By Voices choose by design virtually guarantees that each performance can be analyzed for sloppy instrumentation, bum notes, ridiculous lyrics....but that is what provides much of the appeal. If you can't buy into that concept, then you'll never be able to appreciate these guys. On the other hand, if you're a fan of spontaneous invention and unbridled creativity - recording methods be damned - then you owe it to yourself to experience "Bee Thousand".A-- Tom Ryan

A brilliant melding together of great songwriting and neo-sixties garage rock. This is a timeless classic which is truly in a class of it's own. Buy this album!

Much hype surrounding the release of UTBUTS when it came out in the mid-90's. But I have to say it's overrated. Most of the songs won't last long. Of course, there are still some great songs on here but the change to a recording studio has also meant a decline in material, though they fortunately picked that up on later albums

how do you follow up the twin lo-fi greatness of bee thousand and alien lanes? you don't. to his credit, robert pollard knew this. this is the record that comfortably straddles the band's basement past and its slick future. the resulting effort is stellar. gone is the laser-like focus of the aforementioned jewels, replaced by a dark universe where there is no joy and fear seems to be the only common thread. this is the domain of the cut-out witch. her spell is cast largely on this entire songscape. the entire record revolves around that one brilliant song. and she CAN change your life.

Considering how much music I've listened to and reviewed by these guys, it's surprising to recognize how little I know about them. Although I've listened to (the equivalent of) perhaps a dozen albums worth of music, I still cannot say I understand Guided By Voices, and I like that. They are a band that keeps me guessing, that forces me to listen with my wits as much as my ears, and I like that, too. With lyrics that are as opaque as a kaleidoscope, there just isn't much that is tangible enough to provide a foothold.
The most obvious trait of GBV is their tendency to take a song just past the point of creativity, and then record it, unadorned. For music fans who listen creatively, this is great fun, because it forces the listener to hear the song from an angle that is obliquely opposed to most pop music. It isn't ear candy, and without the production values that are now considered `normal' or essential for the pop marketplace, we either hear the song through the gauze of `low-fi' or we ignore it entirely. I hate to admit this, but the average Joe on the street likes his music to be provided for him; let radio rotate a few prefabricated variations on familiar themes, and Joe Public is fine with it. He would hate Guided By Voices, and the reasons are simple. The primary reason is that this band avoids the polish and sheen of production values the way that cats avoid swimming pools. I might not know much about the band themselves, but their work methods seem to be fairly obvious. After a song is written, the recording commences soon afterward. Once the song is set down, it is left in that state as if it were preserved in aspic. It's a strange methodology because it relies on the infinite possibilities of initial creation, but forces the process to end at that point.
On Under the Bushes Under the Stars, Guided By Voices allow themselves a bit more leeway with production (just a bit), and the album benefits greatly from it. After all, why can't production (or post-production, for that matter) be used as a creative tool? The five tracks that kick off the album make this point abundantly clear, with an attention to detail that is nowhere near anal, but at least shows some consideration for the intelligent songs they decorate. "Rhine Jive Click", "Burning Flag Birthday Suit" and "The Official Ironman Rally Song" sound exactly like Guided By Voices, but they also sound good enough for commercial airplay. One song, "Don't Stop Now" is a re-recording of an earlier song, and true to what I had said earlier, its arrangement remains absolutely true to the low-fi version it updates, except with a production that suits it better and makes it more appealing. These guys still might not get airplay, but after this album, I can no longer say that it is simply because the band chooses it to be that way. Who knows? If radio stations started playing "Lord of Overstock", maybe Joe Public would hum along. A Tom Ryan

First heard this on Radio 1 in 1991 - John Peel seemed to play this over and over and over again that autumn - my untrained ear heard another booooorrrring Sonic Youth nod at first, but the 54th time or so, it rubbed off and I was hooked.

First, I'd like to say this is the best work Pavement has done, hands down. But you'd be way better off just buying the Slanted and Enchanted reissue which includes all songs on this EP along with other live cuts for less than 15 bucks. That's all I have to say.

pavement is a band that relies on pop genius together with a certain melodic and emotional evasiveness, which combines to inspire a unique sort of hushed fascination.

Given the general obliquity of the band, it really fits all too well that some of their best material is stuck on a four-song ep that's over just as you start to fall in love with it. It's the old pavement trick: give you the sugar-pop goods, take them away, give them back, take them away again. You'll never quite figure it out, and that's why it'll always be special.

Watery, domestic is maybe the best thing pavement's ever released. As with all pavement, it's perfection not just because of what you hear, but also because of what you don't hear.

This is probably one of Ween's most interesting albums. In the cover there is a story of the brothers Dean and Gene Ween and their encounter with Boognish, who is displayed on the front cover of the album. They go on to say that Boognish is the embodiment of two extremes: Good and Evil. The musical styles of this album are more or less a reflection of this concept. The gist of this album is punky, funky, and ultimately delerium, ABSOLUTELY a Ween album to say the least. There is even a funky cover of Prince's "Let me lick your p***y". This is definetely an album for Ween affecionados. Those who are recently tuning in to the band may do well to pick up "Chocolate and Cheese" or "White Pepper". Like the title of one of the albums songs, this disc is like a mushroom festival in hell. Hail Boognish!

This album blew me away when I first heard it 12 or 13 years ago, and I still think that it is Ween's masterpiece, and one of the best rock albums of the past 15 years. So unique, so ambitious, so funny and so very irreverent. The range of musical styles and the freakiness of the lyrics placed Ween in a category all their own (although some might argue that Frank Zappa had lain the groundwork).

I don't think Ween has ever matched "God/Satan" for sheer start-to-finish genius.

ween without a doubt began with what I call un polished music music you can do from home on a 4 track. before them most artists always had to resort to expensive studios making great but usually polished music even 70's 80's punk music. I was so relieved when I first heard the first three ween albums all around 1991 1992. I was like finally the home recording to do what ever you wanted regardless of what is sounds like. i just got into the moldy peaches i mean they are more regressive than ween because ween can really write and play and sing....however when I heard chocolate and the country album I went oh no they want to go the polished way. I wish they kept making music like the first three.