Indie and Lo-Fi music reviews

For the major Barlowphiles out there (and I think I am starting reach that level of fandom) I would reccomend you get this disc. Yes, it is only instrumental cuts, but there are tweleve of them and they are all Lou originals, only available on this disc to my knowledge. I admit the import price is a bit steep. I bought this record in France pretty cheaply this past Summer so I felt good about it. The twelve cuts are very cool, at times mellow, at times very atmospheric and all around very interesting for the discerning listener. Also, the other guy on the disc, Rudy Trouve, is interesting to listen to. Making it a little more worth it, since I had not heard of this artist before picking up this disc. So if you really really like Sebadoh/Sentridoh/Folk Implosion than you should have this, from a completists perspective. But if you are just looking for more Lou, save your money on this and pick up a couple Sebadoh full-lengths for the same price.

I was able to get this cd back in 2000 while I was in Europe, so I didn't have to pay this ridiculous price. But, the price aside, what you get on this cd is a collection of really good, though simple and basic, instrumental tracks. Some have a sense of Folk Implosion to them and are a bit darker... but all in all, there are some really nice tracks here. I've always been kinda fond of the album. The Rudy Trouve tracks are interesting as well, though their mood is a bit different.
So no, don't expect another Sentridoh record.

I have no idea what they guy under me is talking about. This is just like any of lou's stuff, simply put, GREAT, if you like his other stuff and his sebadoh stuff, you will get into this

The Cd's seem to fly by,..it's packed with lots of music,...espcially like the They Might Be Giants track and the AM Radio song aswell: really awsome!!

The Cd's seem to fly by,..it's packed with lots of music,...espcially like the They Might Be Giants track and the AM Radio song aswell: really awsome!!

The Cd's seem to fly by,..it's packed with lots of music,...espcially like the They Might Be Giants track and the AM Radio song aswell: really awsome!!

This is local cowpunk from a band that usually does better. Singer Ron House (local record store owner and punk veteran) annoys many people with his whiny, you-thought-Jello-Biafra-was-bad vocals--but this is the first time he ever started annoying me, too. And the usually terrific slashing, sloppy guitar work of Bob Petric is mostly wankery here (ironic wankery, but wankery nonetheless). Only things really listenable are "Half Off," a great little ballad Ron's been doing solo for a while, and "When the Entertainment Ends," a smart potshot across the multimedia bow ("When the entertainment ends/That's when the fun begins"). Don't wanna bash a great band for a bad disc, though--their earlier effort, "Bait and Switch," is among the best releases of the '90s. Yeah, by anyone. Why Ron House isn't in Garth Brooks's shoes, I don't know. Bet he even has a suitable belt buckle.--J. Ruch

Loved their first album, but this has it's own charms. The charming mix of elicit sex at a party and the inescapability of aesthetic awareness of the first song is great: "the story I told you hardly likely/that the calm of your bedroom was what I need to see/it didn't stay calm for long/the song choice downstairs was wrong"). Great guitar work on the whole thing, catchy (if primitive) vocal harmonies on El Cajon, too!

Since I lost the first CD of this I had in the divorce, I ended up buying another. And I'm not sorry.

This is a great album, regardless of what John Ruch says. I am a huge fan of the Slave Apartments and this disc is not a disappointment. "Rump Government" and "Lightening Rod" are two of their best songs yet. It's a shame they are no longer together, they were one of the best bands in Columbus.

It's always difficult for me to write a negative review for a disc like A Thousand Yarns especially when it's obvious that Dawn Dineen put an incredible amount of herself into the songs and their recordings. However when I find that my own notes on the disc are taken mainly from Dineen's bio and other technical information, it's clear that the record leaves little of an impact. Granted, the album is mixed well it's ashame she wasn't able to do more with the content as she wrote all but one of the songs and plays all guitars and bass on the disc. Dineen's mid-level vocal range is not as expressed as well as it could be despite her best Suzanne Vega impression on opening cut "Fleer." "Ant Farm" is fun while "Devour" sounds as if it was penned by Bjork. Sadly, A Thousand Yarns frays before you get to the edges.

Intimate is the first word that comes to mind. This album really feels like it was made in a spare bedroom (which it was). It has a much warmer feel than a lot of self produced albums (and ones which the songwriter played most of the instruments). In her breathier moments, she approaches Amee Mann, or Suzanne Vega, but that's just a jumping off point. Dawn has a unique vision and songwriting slant. She also doesn't default into tired blues-rock mode like some folksy songstresses do. The arrangements are thoughtful, and serve the songs well. Each of the songs on the album is a piece of the puzzle, they stand up individually, but compliment each other perfectly. The only problem is; i can't decide whether to keep this CD in the car or the living room.

I saw her perform in Baltimore and she was really good. I was surprised to see such a large crowd for a baltimore club. So I bought the cd and it was just as good. The vocals are smooth and the lyrics are weighty.

This was originally a bonus disc packaged with the first 2000 copies of the "Dusk At Cubist Castle" album. It is meant to played AT THE SAME TIME as you listen to "Dusk." Start the CDs at the same time, lay back and let the amazing potpourri of sounds startle your senses. Definitely trippy.

As an album by itself, well, it contains no actual songs, just a lot of ambient noises and such. It could work as a sort of surreal background track to your activities, but not much else. Hence the 3-star rating as an album.

Used as intended, however...Whoa!

As a stand alone disk, this album is a little lacking since it really isn't anything more than one long, outdoor 8-track recoding but when played along with the Dusk at Cubist Castle LP, it really adds a lot of depth to the recording.

I also believe that this CD is out of print since Flydaddy is no longer around. I could be mistaken though.

I actually like this CD more than their critically acclaimed follow-up. The trippy psychadelic post-rock of 'Feel Good Lost' combines Sea And Cake or Tortoise with the orchestral rock of Godspeed You Black Emperor. Apparently this was a low budget, low produced effort, but the chemistry of unlikely musical ideas is what makes this work. More raw and lush, less airplay friendly, but shows the bursting of creative ideas resulting from a new collaboration.

"Feelgood Lost" was the first Broken Social Scene album, although their second "You Forgot It In People" was what really broke this eclectic, smooth band into the limelight. The debut less polished and more raw, but the ambience and richness are definitely there.

It starts with the slow, shimmery "I Slept With Bonhomme At The CBC," before shifting into the steady, unexceptional "Guilty Cubicles." A more rock-edged sound appears (the slow-burning "Love and Mathematics"), along with eerie songs (the experimental-sounding "Passport Radio" and too-quiet "Blues for Uncle Gibb") and melodious pop (the stately "Alive in 85," bouncy "Cranley's Gonna Make It").

The sound of "Feelgood Lost" is a lot less polished and complex than their second album. But don't be deceived -- this is no demo or B-side album. It's just a group that hadn't fully come into bloom yet. There's rock, there's pop, there's even the murmuring, sweeping experimental soud of "Passport Radio," which sounds like the soundtrack to a surrealist computer-animated movie.

Violins, keyboard and synthesizers meld together seamlessly from the very start, with faintly strumming guitars and steady percussion underneath it. There's even a bit of fuzz guitar at the end of "Love and Mathetmatics." The funny thing about Broken Social Scene is how the music all seems to meld together into one big shimmering whole, especially in the slower, softer numbers.

Sweet, silvery atmospheric pop is the staple of Broken Social Scene, and their first album lives up magnificently to that. It's a bit rougher, but the spirit of it is still there. "Feelgood Lost" isn't lost anymore...

2 guys in the bedroom recording lush, warm, sleepy post-rocky sounds (tinged with a bit of glitchwork) on an 8-track. Best tracks are saved for the end: the veerrry lurvely "Last Place" and "Cranley's Gonna Make It". The middle portion meanders a bit. If you like Tortoise, Sea and The Cake, Mogwai, etc.

so anyways, I'm jammin' out to Ricky Martin, and like, I'm so sure this guy walks in my room and steals all my tampons. I mean, that's like, total snot. If anyone does ever buy this, let me know what it's like.

Tobin Sprout's 3rd solo album since his departure from Guided by Voices is a another fine collection of pop tunes. This album isn't as strong as "Carnival Boy" or "Moonflower Plastic", but it is still superior to anything GBV or Robert Pollard have recorded in their Sprout-less universe. Only criticism of this record, is perhaps the sameness of the production.

This album will always hold a special spot in my cd collection, because it's the first Robert Pollard release I've purchased and been disappointed with. I got into the GBV game late, but was quickly hooked after seeing them live. I both sought out the older stuff and made sure to scoop up (and if not, at least hear) everything new. And I really loved everything I bought, old and new, from Propeller to Isolation Drills, and each became a permanent fixture in my listening collection. And while I had heard friends' copies of some of the more uneven side projects Bob puts out, "Life Starts Here" was the first I awaited with anticipation but found lacking.

My biggest complaint with this release is that the flaws of the collaboration are revealed. Where I listened to and treated each track on "Tower in the Fountain of Sparks" as a complete, unifed, whole song, many of the ones on "Life" sound like instrumentals with words over them. And where songs like "The Cost of Shipping Cattle" and "Up the Nails" culminated with Bob dramatically repeating a line, it seems like an old formula he resorts to on "We're in the Businesses" and "I Can't Freeze Anymore."

But, that said, some of the songs do warm up to you over time, and I enjoy the elements of play and experimentation found here. The "Intro" is a great opener, "Dawntrust Guarantee" is an interesting forray into weirdness, and "Out in the World" is a fun-filled boot-stomping closer. My main wish is that Tobe and Bob would have maybe swapped a few more tapes and accrued some more material, so that they could really put out a powerful and cohesive sophomore disc. But as it is, "Life Starts Here" seems split between more experimental sonic excursions and watered-down tracks in the style of "Tower."

on the first airport 5 release, there was a kind of lazy indifference to the whole thing. this one is a vast improvement. the album works as a cohesive unit and creates an atmosphere all its own. this is what great records do. this is not a great record, though. the finely tuned ear of mr. pollard is again somewhat off here, as with the first airport 5. a little more work and this would have been one for the ages. as it stands, it is meerly a very good album.

Where I was largely disappointed in the unevenness of the first Airport 5 release;Life Starts here is solid effort, filled to the brim with Pollard's vocal hooks and Tobin Sprouts beautifully understated instumentation.Tobin plays alot more piano on this release which gives the songs a greater warmth and depth.Bob weaves his vocal web in,out over,under and through a rich collection songs, which range from the experimental (Intro & Dawntrust Guarantee)to the infectious chorus in (Yellow wife #5 & However Young they are),the anthemic rise,fall and deconstruct in(How Brown) and the catchy(Impressions of a Leg, Forever Since & I Can't Freeze Anymore)Yeah, there's even a couple of toss a ways but who cares? This is a collection that is warm, playful and weirdly wonderful and leaves me longing for more!

"Natural One" is one of my favorite songs. I hadn't previously heard anything else by Folk Implosion, however, so I expected the b-side to be stylistically similar to "Natural One." "Cabride," the b-side, is rather discordant, with some odd instrumentation. I'm pretty sure I heard a recorder in there somewhere. I've listened to it a few times but I just can't seem to get into it.
So, overall: 3 stars. As I said, I love "Natural One" and would have given the single 5 except for the weirdness (for lack of a better term) of "Cabride."

Natural one is a great song alone and good song to go with the movie kids, fits it perfectly. This single only has 2 songs on it and the second Song Cabride is just a instrumental, reminds me of new york and the movie- goes good with it. So i recomend this if you like the music from the movie kids or I recomend the whole soundtrack. Natural one 4 stars-cabride, 2 and half-3 stars.

this album is for you. I found it pretty boring at times, but I'm not a great Smog fan either. I don't know if the comparison to Lisa Germano is really fair - Germano is much more melody- and texture-driven, whereas Dall's music is extremely spare. What they have in common is a calculated ghostly creepiness. Jim O'Rourke and Bill Callahan (Smog) back Dall up on this. Oh, and the cover really is utterly gorgeous, esp. on vinyl.

This record has one of the most beautiful album covers you'll see--an ornate Chinese painting against an eye-catching chartreuse background--but the artist's name is nowhere to be found anywhere on the cover. And it's difficult to find her name inside, too. Commercial suicide? Deliberate obfuscation? Whatever her motives, Cynthia Dall has made an intriguingly atmospheric record with the simplist of ingredients: some spooky piano or zither, some minimalist guitar or percussion, and some disturbing minor-key songs. Cynthia's rather girlish (and appealing) vocals, and an unpolished production that sounds more like demos than a finished record place this squarely in the indie camp--a good thing in my book. (It is on Drag City, after all.) I would highly recommend this to fans of Lisa Germano, the April March record that April did with Los Cincos, and any other mildly depressed female singer-songwriters. A good listen for a cloudy afternoon. . . . .