Dude, I’m writing so much that my eyes are falling out. Well, my ears too, considering how much I’ve been writing about music lately.
In fact, I’ve reviewed several releases for Metromix over the past few weeks, and almost all of them have been good, if not great. So let’s tune in, turn on and catch up.
Modest Mouse, No One’s First and You’re Next
The impassioned cynic’s champ since their smart-ass 1996 debut, “This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About,” and 1997 follow-up, “The Lonesome Crowded West,” Isaac Brock’s Modest Mouse have persistently kept the indie faith for the faithless. After they signed to Epic in 2000 and added Smiths guitar virtuoso Johnny Marr in 2007, the Pacific Northwest natives have stayed angry and hungry, even on this EP of repurposed material left on the cutting-room floor of 2004’s “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” and 2007’s “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.” MORE @ METROMIX
>Portugal The Man, The Satanic Satanist
Portugal. The Man are a band with issues. They came up in Wasilla, Alaska, home of the state’s controversial, now-resigned governor, Sarah Palin. And although guitarist John Baldwin Gourley, bassist Zachary Scott Carothers, keyboardist Ryan Neighbors—all of whom share singing duties—and drummer Jason Sechrist preceded Palin on the news cycle by a couple of years, releasing their debut “Waiter: ‘You Vultures!'” in 2006 and “Church Mouth” in 2007, attention lavished on the band for its 2008 effort, “Censored Colors,” invariably mentioned the guv. Meanwhile, this finely invested pop-rock release was leaked early on the Internet, prompting a plugged-in Gourley to write an lengthy essay asking true fans of the band’s anthemic songcraft to buy it in stores as well. It’s a fair plea: “The Satanic Satanist” is worth every penny. MORE @ METROMIX
The Dandy Warhols, The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound
After treating listeners to psych-groove releases like “The Dandy Warhols Come Down” and “Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia,” Portland’s the Dandy Warhols signed up Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes to co-produce their 2003 crossover “Welcome to the Monkey House.” Its glossy nihilism brushed weirdly up against a world going to war in Iraq, but the Dandys had a war of their own brewing against their label, Capitol Records, which suppressed a version of “Monkey House” mixed by Russell Elevado, the Grammy Award-winning engineer behind The Roots’ “The Roots Come Alive” and Alicia Keys’ “Songs in A Minor.” The band eventually left Capitol, started their own label (Beat the World), and put out mixes they like, including Elevado’s, now known as “The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound.” MORE @ METROMIX