tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86300665615040396852012-02-15T21:18:14.864-05:00Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.comBlogger1251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-10018992875668964562009-06-29T14:00:00.000-04:002009-06-29T14:01:04.709-04:00

Act Surprised is going on hiatus, but will return soon.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-20014469291637298902009-06-19T21:14:00.002-04:002009-06-29T16:29:44.934-04:00

"I feel confused because there's no sensation/ We lack a motive and we change our roles."In February 2008, Statehood's lead singer Clark Sabine was diagnosed with cancer. On June 17, 2009, Sabine passed away at the tragically young age of 33, and the DC scene lost a true talent. Statehood, a four-piece boasting the devastating ex-Dismemberment Plan rhythm section of drummer Joe Easley and bassist

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-69411511402098222672009-06-17T17:21:00.002-04:002009-06-17T17:21:46.887-04:00

Act Surprised is taking the day off and will return with a new post on Friday, June 19.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-44717354584490147102009-06-15T19:50:00.001-04:002009-06-15T19:51:58.493-04:00

"They can fill my lungs with air/ They can tell I barely care." National Skyline sprang from the fertile post-punk breeding ground of Champaign-Urbana, IL, home to '90s semi-stars Braid, the Poster Children, Castor, and Hum. In fact, National Skyline boasts refugees from several of those acts: bassist Jeff Dimpsey did time in the Poster Children and Hum, and singer/guitarist Jeff Garber used to

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-18991383816504696912009-06-12T22:19:00.000-04:002009-06-12T22:19:57.987-04:00

“Last night something pretty bad happened, we lost a friend, all shocked and broken, shut down exploded.” Formed in 1992, Grandaddy really nailed the Y2K zeitgeist with their particular brand of hippie-robot-rock. In my opinion, they hit their peak on 2000’s Sophtware Slump, a gorgeous landscape of techno-waste featuring android poets, emoting machinery, and a forest full of rusting abandoned

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-47498064142313557482009-06-10T22:51:00.003-04:002009-06-10T22:53:49.225-04:00

"Back in the day/ We were willing to play/ The songs that/ You'd never forget." I have a special place in my heart for Manishevitz, mainly because they hail from my home state -- Virginia, that dear Old Dominion -- and are affiliated with one of my favorite labels, Bloomington by way of Richmond-based Jagjaguwar.When I was in college, I was always proud of Jagjaguwar: it was a great label

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-24940814893478820522009-06-08T19:09:00.001-04:002009-06-08T19:10:49.746-04:00

"Here's a fact you cannot rise above/ We'll have problems and then we'll have bigger ones." Harvey Danger were victims of their own success. Having toiled in the Seattle club scene for the better part of the '90s, the guitar pop quartet barged into the mainstream on the strength of their 1997 single "Flagpole Sitta," which was featured in the post-Scream teen horror hit (and Katie Holmes vehicle)

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-39306888083444901362009-06-05T20:26:00.001-04:002009-06-05T20:26:51.394-04:00

Act Surprised will return with a new entry on Monday, June 8.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-53178749921666750962009-06-03T18:09:00.000-04:002009-06-03T18:09:44.116-04:00

“This loneliness ain’t pretty no more.” Hailing from the dolorous Nordic climes of Gothenburg, Sweden, El Perro Del Mar, aka Sarah Assbring, is a one-woman show of delicious lo-fi pop melancholia. Who knew such sonic grief could flow from a place that gets 17 hours of sunlight a day every summer? But flow it does, and after a listen to 2006’s self-titled LP, you’ll be happier for it. Backed by

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-12128597113466277592009-06-01T22:50:00.001-04:002009-06-01T22:54:07.955-04:00

"And yeah we knew you were tired, but then/ Where are your friends tonite?"LCD Soundsystem is the Robocop of indie rock: half man, half machine, all great. The brainchild of knob-twiddler and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire James Murphy (Robocop's real name was Murphy, too), it's a brilliant amalgamation of krautrock-inspired electro and meat-and-potatoes FM radio rock, insistent programmed

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-90050267584062977752009-05-29T23:07:00.000-04:002009-05-29T23:07:54.121-04:00

"You got the time ahead to pay." Alt-country or roots-rock or No Depression or whatever can be kinda tiresome. For every Uncle Tupelo or Scud Mountain Boys, there's some shaggy band of dad-rockers with more flannel than chops, whining about how no one makes good music anymore, everything's plastic and overproduced, there's no heart, blah blah blah. Frankly, the self righteousness and old-fogeyism

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-61958649133863331612009-05-27T19:42:00.000-04:002009-05-27T19:42:10.936-04:00

"It's a well-known drag, but it brings me down." Hailing from North Carolina by way of Memphis, down 'n' dirty garage blasters the Reigning Sound specialize in a soul and vintage rock-inflected racket coated in fuzzy, buzzy chords and punk-timed tempos. Like the Ramones and countless other wild-eyed pop historians, this southern-fried quartet looks backward for inspiration, mining the classic

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-66578245522019817262009-05-18T15:52:00.002-04:002009-05-18T15:53:34.599-04:00

On second thought, Act Surprised is taking a vacation, and will return on Wednesday, May 27. Happy Memorial Day.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-62105964210292495142009-05-15T15:54:00.001-04:002009-05-15T15:55:26.712-04:00

Act Surprised is taking the day off, and will return on Monday, May 18.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-66693148250109013092009-05-13T18:03:00.002-04:002009-05-13T18:06:45.162-04:00

"You're the Legal Man, you've got to prove that you're no liar/ I'll render services that you may reasonably require."Legal Man marked a significant stylistic shift for Glasgow mopesters Bell & Sebastian, injecting confident swagger and a far more aggressively upbeat approach into their expertly twee sound. The period leading up to Legal Man saw Stuart Murdoch and his cohort of overcast

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-60641007559476299172009-05-11T18:43:00.000-04:002009-05-11T18:43:41.787-04:00

"If the least you can do is show some restraint/ Then the most you can do is get carried away."Every once in a while, an album comes along that makes you thank your head for having ears. An album so raucous, joyous, and undeniably ace that its greatness cannot be easily dismissed. It's a good thing when those albums make it into the world, and I can testify, on pain of death, that the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-9228341187350757822009-05-08T16:57:00.001-04:002009-05-08T17:08:55.066-04:00

"My friends are all junkies/ But they're still my friends."A friend from London brought me this record, the debut from duo Turin Brakes, when he came to visit in 2003, breathlessly singing its praises. I have to admit, I was a bit wary at first. Olly Knights's and Gale Paridjanian's voices seemed a tad much - high, arch, overtly DQ, maybe even slightly grating. But after a couple of listens, and

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-25470140032315663662009-05-06T17:04:00.003-04:002009-05-06T18:18:18.808-04:00

"And now we're learning/ About the charity that costs/ But we could do without/ The education." DC hardcore vet J. Robbins spent time in seminal '80s District punk outfit Government Issue and headed '90s post-punk giants Jawbox before forming Burning Airlines (with fellow Jawboxer Bill Bardot and ex-Government Issue drummer Peter Moffett) at the end of the century. Burning Airlines (lifting their

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-45033536851164165762009-05-04T18:10:00.002-04:002009-05-04T18:13:02.767-04:00

"She had wet hair/ Say what you will/ I don't care/ I couldn't resist it!"The title of Post-Nothing, Vancouver duo Japandroids' debut LP, betrays a certain amount of impatience. Impatience with rock classifications, with post-rock and post-punk and post-hardcore; impatience with theories and overthought; impatience with patience. This is rock'n'fuggin' roll, after all, not math class or grad

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-30251705671916964432009-05-01T18:06:00.002-04:002009-05-01T18:13:23.585-04:00

"You're solid gold now, but they'll still be a show without you."Before he developed into one of indie rock's foremost purveyors of thoughtful, stunningly accomplished, expertly crafted guitar pop, Ted Leo headed up DC's oft-overlooked neo-mod-punk outfit Chisel, a burning ball of hopped-up zealotry and blistering hooks. Though not as expansive or ambitious as Leo's later work with the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-81874659144291894062009-04-29T18:18:00.003-04:002009-04-29T18:27:02.867-04:00

"So I designed a postcard/ To send out to my friends/ It had a photograph of you/ And it said, 'Happy, the end.'"If you look up “sullen” in the dictionary, you may well find a picture of Fine China's lead singer Rob Withem glaring back, eyes hooded and mascara running. Seriously, check out the pictures in the liner notes to The Jaws of Life: these guys look like they’re in a perpetual

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-41144445348273274082009-04-27T18:06:00.004-04:002009-04-28T15:03:58.767-04:00

"If I drift out into channels way too deep/ It's 'cuz I can't stand the shifting sand and shells beneath our feet/ Put your suitcase down and leave your shoes/ Gently by the door, in a puddle with your blues."The aughts have been criminally Superchunk-deficient. With the exception of the 2007 7" "Misfits and Mistakes," the Chapel Hill indie pioneers haven't released any new material since 2001's

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-1296683629580364262009-04-20T14:10:00.001-04:002009-04-20T14:11:30.378-04:00

Act Surprised is taking the week off, and will return with a new post on Monday, April 27.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-41253576609241644772009-04-17T17:23:00.000-04:002009-04-17T17:23:10.263-04:00

Some Favorite Music Recently Purchased, In No Particular Order:Telekinesis!. Telekinesis! (Merge, 2009)First-class power pop in the Big Star/Badfinger/Sloan tradition, full of crunchy chords and tart melodies that resonate for days. Produced by Death Cab's Chris Walla, who also lends a hand to the instrumentation. Excitable, as the exclamation point ably implies.Coast Of Carolina - TelekinesisThe

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-41962609423626303672009-04-15T18:13:00.001-04:002009-04-15T18:21:43.071-04:00

"It's a circle of deception/ It's a hall of strangers/ It's a cage without a key/ You can feel the danger." Who doesn't like Tom Petty? Not only is he responsible for some of the greatest pop and rock tunes of the last 30-plus years -- honestly, when "American Girl" or "Freefallin'" or "Don't Do Me Like That" or whatever comes on, who changes the station? Who doesn't, at this point, own Tom

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-38798050970146705132009-04-13T18:33:00.000-04:002009-04-13T18:33:59.835-04:00

"You said everything like it was an afterthought/ You should have used it more wisely, that soul you bought."Purveyors of densely layered, rhythmically complex math rock, Seattle's chronically overlooked Juno were a brilliant case of cross-country indie networking, Pacific Northwesterners signed to the DC-centric DeSoto label founded by Jawbox's Bill Bardot and Kim Coletta. Though based a

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-56102841827859396612009-04-10T16:30:00.001-04:002009-04-10T16:33:06.943-04:00

"I'm trying to get you but you don't realize/ I'm a nightmare."Yet again, the proverbial "art college" spawns a tasty musical treat. London garage rock quartet The Duke Spirit's lead singer and guitarist met there; after adding a couple friends, the band's current lineup came to life in 2003. Lead singer Liela Moss is a powerhouse, a secret weapon raised on rock, soul, and blues. Her voice is

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-41533130291155775262009-04-08T12:36:00.003-04:002009-04-09T12:50:13.506-04:00

"Stolen nights and borrowed time." Washington, DC sits below the Mason-Dixon line, and its south shows. The District is a city of soul food and soul music, the hometown of Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, and Chuck Brown, and occasionally these influences find their way into DC's hardcore and postpunk scenes. A handful of DC groups -- the Make-Up, the Delta 72, the Dismemberment Plan, the Fort Knox

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-79466345436334800822009-04-06T18:12:00.000-04:002009-04-06T18:13:00.892-04:00

"The enemy turns captain/ The captain turns civilian/ The lieutenant becomes casualty."Most indie nerds know the story of fIREHOSE: Minutemen guitarist D. Boon died in a van accident in 1985, leaving his bandmates and best friends -- bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley -- devastated and distraught. Into this period of mourning stepped Minutemen superfan Ed Crawford, a 22-year-old Ohio kid

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-62502243257735014682009-04-03T18:29:00.000-04:002009-04-03T18:29:17.227-04:00

“What is there to know?/ This is what it is/ You and me alone/ sheer simplicity.” If you would have told me fifteen years ago that when I was 30 I would really dig a folk-pop duo from Norway, I might have kicked you in the shins with my combat boots. Fortunately now I’m older, hopefully wiser, and able to appreciate (some of) the Norwegians' music (if not their cuisine). Case in point: Bergen's

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-72860614090622230482009-04-01T18:15:00.002-04:002009-04-02T14:48:46.159-04:00

"Are we all something to envy, are we all something else?/ Are we all something to envy or are we more like a threat?"Though lacking the distinctive styles and sounds of other pioneering DC indie labels like Dischord (tighty wound, chest-thumping post-punk) and Teenbeat (hand-crafted, Factory-inspired Europop), Simple Machines was a formidable outfit. Founded in 1990 by Jenny Toomey and Kristin

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-84825955420868519432009-03-30T10:00:00.003-04:002009-03-30T10:06:47.006-04:00

Bargain Bin/Super Saver is a series in which guest writer Oliver Jones reconsiders the work of artists reviled, forgotten, and/or underexposed. In this entry, he discusses Uzi's Sleep Asylum LP, an early effort by Come's post-traumatic blues banshee Thalia Zadek. “Where does my baby go? / When all the lights come on?”Uzi’s Sleep Asylum, according to the liner notes, is “one of those records

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-21340293003521428102009-03-27T16:50:00.001-04:002009-04-02T18:17:23.040-04:00

"All it takes is intelligence/ I'm great with embellishments." The 1993 Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jeremy Piven, and Stephen Dorff (remember him?) vehicle Judgment Night is a terrible, terrible movie. The aforementioned quartet -- playing domesticated suburban dudes -- head into downtown Chicago to see a boxing match, take the wrong exit, witness a murder, and spend the rest of the movie

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-42479240986482681072009-03-25T18:23:00.001-04:002009-03-25T18:25:46.034-04:00

"Who are you calling crazy? You wouldn't know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eating Fruit Loops on your front porch!"LA's Suicidal Tendencies started out in the early '80s as one of a slew of SoCal hardcore outfits in the vein of Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, and other angry young men dedicated to exposing the societal rot spreading under the West Coast sunshine. ST's particular gimmick? A

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-74011984741828703022009-03-23T18:26:00.000-04:002009-03-23T18:26:58.944-04:00

“Drinking stolen gin from the rich peoples’ bar next door.” Ah, art school, ever-reliable indie rock Petri dish, you have delivered yet another adorable, delicate record. Hailing from Australia, Architecture in Helsinki is an eight-piece of musical virtuosos equally at ease behind a keyboard or glockenspiel. Rising from the late ‘90s ashes of the truly unlistenable “funk-grunge” (shudder) band

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-45974636631133790662009-03-20T18:01:00.002-04:002009-03-20T18:05:23.161-04:00

"I'm 14, and you know/ That I've learned the easy way/ Some stupid decisions/ And with it a broken heart."Much of Scotland is rocky, windy, overcast, and damp, and these environmental aspects often find themselves reflected in the music the country exports. Bands like the Arab Strap, Mogwai, and the Jesus and Mary Chain tend to revel in Hibernian gloom, while even the sunnier, more pop-oriented

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-78616107367344663162009-03-18T18:20:00.003-04:002009-03-18T23:50:34.066-04:00

"Do you believe there's a place for us/ Up and over thee turnstiles?"Merge boasts a pretty impressive roster, and pretty much always has since it was founded by indie impresarios Superchunk twenty years ago. The number of good to great acts put out by the label -- to include Dinosaur Jr., Destroyer, Neutral Milk Hotel, Polvo, Spoon, Teenage Fanclub, the Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields and scores of

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-69476413052167465862009-03-16T18:23:00.000-04:002009-03-16T18:23:36.062-04:00

"I fell in a hole/ A deep, deep hole/ At the bottom I found god." Are you a fan of ill-tempered, angrily precise, and excessively accomplished noise in the vein of Drive Like Jehu, Slint, Big Black, the Melvins, and similar purveyors of rocking bad vibes? If so, then Young Widows is right up your alley, a trio dedicated to blowing speakers and raising hairs, delivering sonic sucker punches left

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-77707701989965674502009-03-09T16:41:00.002-04:002009-03-09T16:45:16.834-04:00

Act Surprised is taking the week off to make some changes. Regularly scheduled programming will return on Monday, March 16, 2009.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-76763190174837241122009-03-06T17:36:00.002-05:002009-03-06T17:39:34.224-05:00

"The alcoholics and the ruined and the framed/ I'm on a black road." Listening to The Fitzgerald, you delve into the sordid lives and witness the less than stellar choices of front man Willy Vlautin's characters - gamblers, alcoholics, murderers - and somehow you come away from this record intimately identifying with all of them. It's a testament to Vlautin's story-telling ability, most

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-17169264742609182252009-03-04T19:23:00.000-05:002009-03-04T19:23:27.106-05:00

"And that's a lot to reject/ If that's the best you can do/ And that's a lot to accept/ If that's the best you can do." Icky Mettle is one of the best records of the last twenty years, period. A relentlessly hooky, punchy, snarling LP packed to the gills with perverse riffs and absurdist, Honors English lyrical nonsense, Archers of Loaf's debut is alarmingly accomplished, and sounds as brilliant

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-18397083708329442062009-03-02T10:00:00.000-05:002009-03-02T10:00:01.370-05:00

"Stupid child/ Why do you lie?/ I'm gonna treat you/ Treat you/ Like a stepchild!" In 2009, Jon Spencer has basically outstayed his welcome. His latest records unfortunately find him slipping into the realm of self-parody, and Spencer seems to have bought into his own hype by developing into a sort of indie hipster hype man and proto-blooze belter. Is he joking around, subverting society's

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-89005268007466496532009-02-27T18:25:00.001-05:002009-02-27T18:26:54.069-05:00

"I got love for sale/ Come on, get some/ Before it gets stale."Greg Dulli is a a pretty sinister dude. The man's got some demons, and I'm not so sure he's fighting 'em so much as inviting 'em down to the neighborhood joint for a few drinks and maybe some 9-ball. In many ways the embodiment of male braggadocio curdled and turned sour, Dulli nevertheless possesses a powerful charisma and charm,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-22887011158370043412009-02-25T18:04:00.000-05:002009-02-25T18:05:04.584-05:00

"Thank you, afternoon/ I'll slip between your spaces." In the '90s, Frodus was one of DC's most fearsome outfits, spazzy, darkhearted post-hardcore kids of the crankiest caliber. Fronted by singer/guitarist/Hungarian Shelby Cinca, those dudes produced perpetually/awesomely alarming sounds before flaming out in the early aughts with the 2001 release of the excellent And We Washed Our Weapons in

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-68942417493871096142009-02-23T18:50:00.002-05:002009-02-25T07:37:38.105-05:00

"Someone had got up and gone to the moon/ And nothing else was more impossible than that." I bought Looper’s Up A Tree used from a record-seller in Madison, Wisconsin notorious among young ladies in the area for his creepy offer with a wink to “zip it open” every time you bought a CD. Creep factor of the salesman notwithstanding, Up A Tree turned out to be a sound investment. I listened to it

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-79460100249097621192009-02-20T18:20:00.001-05:002009-02-20T18:24:05.406-05:00

"We fall into patterns quickly/ We fall into patterns too quickly."Chicago's Cap'n Jazz were one of the most influential emo bands of the '90s, a fiercely fractured sob team helmed by the Kinsella brothers, Tim and Mike. Crafting weird and excellent indierock abstractions, toying with the English language like a cat with a mouse and a thesaurus, Cap'n Jazz became heroes of bespectacled year '

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-40899227968447552162009-02-18T18:24:00.005-05:002009-02-19T07:46:50.576-05:00

"Wish I could tell you/ About the distance between/ How my life is unfolding/ And how I thought it would be."Erlend Oye is one half of largely-acoustic Norwegian folk pop duo Kings of Convenience. In that outfit, he helps deliver elegant, melancholy, and supremely catchy ditties informed by northern isolation and the steady rains of his Bergen home town. It's Simon and Garfunkel as presented by

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-78981990331965631612009-02-16T18:13:00.001-05:002009-02-17T14:40:57.280-05:00

"Part time in the hole/ Full time rock 'n' roll."The first time I ever saw Texas psychotics the Riverboat Gamblers was on a Saturday night in the early aughts, at the eternal Beerland, on downtown Austin's Red River St. I was pretty lit by the time they took the stage (that's how Beerland rolls -- it's a drunk place), and didn't really know what to expect. But I know what I got: one of the livest

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-51376809963935175532009-02-13T18:00:00.001-05:002009-02-16T10:31:17.827-05:00

Hey fellas/lay-days,Trying to make some time with that special squeeze? Below is a list of tunes guaranteed to set the mood and quicken the pulse. So drop some coin at emusic or iTunes or whatever, put some or all of this on a mix/playlist, and get busy.Happy Valentine's Day.1. "My Funny Valentine" -- Elvis Costello, from Rykodisc's reissued/expanded edition of Armed Forces.Elvis, accompanied by

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-29647053153811734532009-02-11T18:09:00.001-05:002009-02-11T18:11:47.339-05:00

"I looked deep within my pocket/ For the note you sent to me/ To put it in a nutshell/ You're a heartless mercenary."Scottish twee-punkers Orange Juice emerged from late-'70s Glasgow to pave the way for a slew of like-minded, fiercely pop-obsessed pansies from rocky Caledonia. Their brash, aggressively naive, and incessantly catchy style can be heard in later Scottish acts like the Vaselines,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-2997516073127679112009-02-09T10:00:00.001-05:002009-02-09T10:12:07.105-05:00

"We were the princes of the diamond district/ When every caper made it in the paper." There are few albums that have excited me upon first listen as much as Tremble Under Boom Lights. A stone indierock classic, this sophomore release from the much-missed NYC-via-DC neu-garage upstarts Jonathan Fire*Eater packs more energy, swagger, and good ideas into its five tracks and 22 minutes than most

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-70571162617126553872009-02-06T17:12:00.001-05:002009-02-06T17:13:32.496-05:00

Act Surprised has had a tough week, and will return to its regularly scheduled programming on Monday, February 9.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-24391980113267902912009-02-04T18:25:00.002-05:002009-02-04T19:24:57.553-05:00

"A sophomore at Brown/ She worked lost and found/ I put your face on her all year."There was a lot of ink spilled about New Jersey's Wrens when their buzzing indiepop masterpiece The Meadowlands dropped in 2003. The basic story goes like this:The Wrens released their debut LP, the shoegazing Silver, way back in 1994. They followed up this first salvo with the far more focused, tightly-wound,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-34374698473355470732009-02-02T16:36:00.001-05:002009-02-02T16:37:09.685-05:00

Act Surprised is taking the day off, and will be back with a new post on Wednesday, February 4.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-37419601623617950952009-01-30T10:29:00.003-05:002009-01-30T12:45:16.076-05:00

"Agonizing noises are now put in a line." Prolific Japanese garage-drone maestros Boris specialize in high-volume, paint-peeling noise, handcrafted using Gibson humbuckers and towering stacks of Orange, Sunn, and Ampeg amps cranked to 12. Theirs is a heavy '70s stoner sound tinged with punk, worshiping at the altar of droptuned pioneers like Sabbath and Blue Cheer but borrowing from the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-23701934517449926072009-01-28T10:00:00.000-05:002009-01-28T10:00:01.203-05:00

"I saw such light in you/ Crushed by the basement view."I arrived at Devotion + Doubt through a friend, drunk.One summer, while spending the better part of two months nursing a hangover and teaching high school U.S. History to disinterested and disgruntled teenagers, I heard this friend play a lovely version of Richard Buckner's "Lil Wallet Picture" on his guitar as a prelude to my descending (

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-79433676309875210252009-01-26T19:38:00.004-05:002009-01-26T19:41:03.322-05:00

"There is nothing to not be amazed at." Chavez were, hands down, one of the most underrated and overlooked bands of the 1990s. There were few groups that decade -- or any decade -- that so successfully married atonal guitar experimentation with fist pumping stadium-ready hooks and chest-thumping anthemic bluster. Chavez were incredibly powerful, melodically and rhythmically, and their two LPs --

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-1731473325723499752009-01-23T18:09:00.000-05:002009-01-23T18:11:12.230-05:00

"He didn't cry on a safari/ In over his knees." By 1990 or so, the bonds holding together post-punk wunderkids the Pixies were fraying. After releasing some of the most savage, thrilling, and disturbingly hooky albums of the '80s, the fearsome Massachusetts foursome had begun crowding each other; in particular, the creative visions of guitarist/vocalist Frank Black (aka Black Francis) and bassist

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-18366498728673783782009-01-21T19:00:00.000-05:002009-01-21T19:00:32.744-05:00

"I'm doing alright with just enough." The Sea and Cake are part of the Chicago-based Thrill Jockey family of post-rock eggheads. Taking their band name from the Gastr del Sol song "The C in Cake," this foursome (Thrill Jockey man about town Sam Prekop on guitars and vocals, Windy City rhythmist extraordinaire and Tortoise staple John McEntire on drums, Eric Claridge on bass and synths, and Archer

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-88793294770717545082009-01-19T16:33:00.000-05:002009-01-19T16:34:01.913-05:00

"I have not slept for nights/ I am learning to travel through time/ That's right, nothing can hold me down." When they first lumbered across the early '80s hardcore landscape, Dinosaur Jr. were credited with making guitar solos cool again. Punk and hardcore looked askance at the solo, dubbing it a selfish mode of flaunted virtuosity, a means of setting yourself above the rest of the band and the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-18366820634856377622009-01-16T18:28:00.000-05:002009-01-16T18:29:23.265-05:00

"We are the last of the jukebox Romeos." One of my favorite musical trends of the last few years has been the re-emergence of stripped-down, gimmick-free (unless you consider the lack of gimmicks itself a gimmick), bass'n'drums'n'guitar-driven bar band rock'n'roll. Bands like the Hold Steady and Marah have looked back to Thin Lizzy, Springsteen, and the Replacements as musical touchstones,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-11908146320789849132009-01-14T18:44:00.002-05:002009-01-16T08:39:45.603-05:00

I'm not a jazz guy. I mean, I like some jazz, but I am definitely not a jazz guy. I don't have the patience, really, and I'm too big a fan of hooks and riffs and the power of tightly constructed rock and pop. I like structure, and jazz -- some jazz -- is the antithesis of structure, a musical approach predisposed to tear structure a new one in the pursuit of new kinds of musical understanding and

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-59635384939321590002009-01-12T19:42:00.000-05:002009-01-12T19:42:23.933-05:00

"The capillaries of the community/ Are hemorrhaging on everything." Islands sprung from the ashes of mad Montreal geniuses the Unicorns, whose talent for perpetually surprising, sonically jarring, and genre defying indie pop was matched only by their internal volatility and penchant for pissing people off. After releasing a sole LP, 2003's stunning Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-33650888846693525732009-01-09T08:33:00.002-05:002009-01-11T10:35:16.503-05:00

"You're such a willing stick to beckon that wanting knife/ You've been looking for it, the right blade all your life/ Saying, 'Who's gonna cut me down to a size that suits me?/ Is there a worthy sculptor among all you fine young knives?'"Orange Rhyming Dictionary is a great album, but it occupies a precarious position. On the one hand, it can be considered the apogee of first-wave emo, an

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-90097894770970069212009-01-07T19:04:00.001-05:002009-01-07T19:04:10.515-05:00

The mid to late 1990s witnessed the emergence of post-rock, a genre which briefly distracted indie hipsters from straightforward verse-chorus-verse guitar noise before ultimately boring them nearly to death and sending them running back into the arms of hooks and riffs. Post-rock filtered Eno experimentalism, progressive jazz, and electronic bleepscapes through a more or less standard rock lens

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-32809882023304619992009-01-05T19:34:00.000-05:002009-01-05T19:34:32.656-05:00

"Don't call it nothin'/ It might be all we ever have."Uncle Tupelo were the alt-country Beatles. Not only did their 1990 debut No Depression (which in turn stole its title from the Carter Family standard "No Depression in Heaven") lend a name to one of the decade's most distinct musical movements and the magazine that chronicled it, but, like Liverpool's favorite sons, Uncle Tupelo were able to

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-37207672684186351212009-01-02T16:43:00.000-05:002009-01-02T16:43:22.554-05:00

"You always had the quickest wit/ The quickest quips and I can't keep up/ It's clear that you have a real gift of gab/ And I'm just jealous/ Maybe that's the way you and I will always relate." There's a real easy answer as to why I love Menomena's third LP Friend and Foe: the drums. The drums on this record are effing awesome, man. They sound great -- way up in the mix, agile and pummeling -- and

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-38801402980848596682008-12-31T17:08:00.001-05:002008-12-31T17:10:13.477-05:00

In the dual interests of 1) feeding the end of the year's appetite for lists, and 2) writing a post without having to do too much work on New Year's Eve, I've decided to provide what my iPod tells me are my top 20 most frequently listened to songs.1. The Thermals, "Pillar of Salt" (from The Body, the Blood, the Machine)2. Kanye West, "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (from Graduation)3. LCD Soundsystem, "

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-87044551761647864162008-12-29T17:24:00.000-05:002008-12-29T17:25:02.400-05:00

"It's only lies that I'm living/ It's only tears that I'm crying/ It's only you that I'm losing/ Guess I'm doing fine." Beck is kind of a bummer these days. He used to be hobo boho visionary, with crisco-disco dance moves, an invention up each sleeve, and a seemingly bottomless supply of casual genius. Now he's a Scientologist who's apparently content to endlessly sample himself while trying to

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-10429391911536138432008-12-22T09:14:00.001-05:002008-12-22T09:16:06.885-05:00

Act Surprised is taking this week off, and will return with a new post on Monday, December 29.Happy holidays.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-1178792109867804452008-12-19T19:38:00.000-05:002008-12-19T19:38:55.048-05:00

"Speaking the words of the sorcerer's tongue/ No one can stop what's already begun/ Follow the footsteps and unlock the door/ The giant you face has awakened."As you can tell from the general nature of the entries on Act Surprised, I'm a big fan of sunny pop hooks and major-key chords. Gimme catchy any day and I'll be happy. A shimmering verse-chorus-verse hung on a king-sized riff? Sold,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-58532297193871916652008-12-17T20:17:00.000-05:002008-12-17T20:17:15.047-05:00

"Unstable but ingenious/ How we built this wall between us/ Unmiraculous but swift/ How it came to an end."The DeSoto label was started in 1989 by Bill Barbot and Kim Coletta from Jawbox, adding to an already impressive list of DC-based indie labels like Dischord, TeenBeat, and Simple Machines. And like its mates, DeSoto released albums from excellent DC acts like the Dismemberment Plan and

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-23315129539056674722008-12-15T10:00:00.001-05:002008-12-15T10:00:00.463-05:00

"Well now wild young Billy was a crazy cat/ And he shook some dust out of his coonskin cap/ He said, Trust some of this, it'll show you where you're at/ Or at least it'll help you really feel it."When I was a kid, my dad had a mixtape he'd compiled from a bunch of his records. It was called Party Tape, and it was awesome. Lots of Stones and Bowie, plus some Cat Stevens, Springsteen, and Tom Petty

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-21347926999062150602008-12-12T18:15:00.002-05:002008-12-14T02:45:12.869-05:00

"A trip out of town/ As the moon goes down/ And the faster we move/ The faster we’re found." I wasn't a huge fan of that whole Devendra Banhart/Sufjan Stevens freak folk thing when it first reared its weird beard a few years back. It seemed hyper contrived and, well, real hippy-dippy. Lazy, patchouli-scented psychedelia. No thanks.In the years since, I find that 1) I still don't like Banhart, 2)

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-14761038073915236052008-12-10T19:48:00.000-05:002008-12-10T19:49:03.883-05:00

"You do nothing but socialize/ And become a menace/ Put on your Reeboks, man/ And go play fuckin' tennis."I heard Black Grape before I ever listened to the Happy Mondays, Shaun Ryder's previous, much celebrated Madchester band. In high school, the whole Madchester scene kinda passed me by since I listened pretty exclusively to good ol' Amurcan indie rock from DC, Chapel Hill, Minneapolis,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-78404106430894382402008-12-08T10:00:00.000-05:002008-12-08T10:00:00.401-05:00

"It's hard to understand/ The cruel, cruel summer of a water ban/ A dead grass cradle and a water can/ To hold our prayers for rain."Some enviable musicians can pull timeless melodies, addictive hooks, and effective lyrics out of apparent thin air with as little effort, it seems, as breathing or blinking. They make stellar songwriting seem natural, a reflexive action requiring little to no

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-56523806054133766782008-12-05T18:41:00.001-05:002008-12-05T18:44:11.308-05:00

"Open eyes to see it all/ I've known you at six feet tall."Sunny Day Real Estate were one of the '90s' best groups, turning out epic, incredibly inventive and compelling emo, with a large sound and larger hooks. They were the happy union of Fugazi and Queen, and frontman Jeremy Enigk -- he of the histrionic vocal style and Christian tendencies -- was a huge part of their sound and image. Sunny

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-58153965535533898762008-12-03T21:04:00.002-05:002008-12-03T21:07:53.457-05:00

"Well they might wear classic Reeboks/ Or knackered Converse/ Or tracky bottoms tucked in socks/ But all of that's what the point is not/ The point's that there ain't no romance around there." Here's the thing about the UK music press: it has its head up its collective ass. You can't turn around over there without NME feverishly hyping some godawful group like Menswe@r, Gay Dad, or Starsailor.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-77790832910886377902008-12-01T18:17:00.001-05:002008-12-03T21:06:29.373-05:00

"And all this beautiful is smuggled like a secret/ And it doesn't have to be that way." The indie ears of the early aughts were ceaselessly besieged by the sounds of a newly-named -- if not newly-conceived -- genre: dance punk. Though the idea of marrying funky-drummer rhythms and disco beats to crankily distorted guitars was nothing entirely new (see: Gang of Four, ESG, Fugazi, the Dismemberment

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-5628438281962035782008-11-28T09:00:00.000-05:002008-11-28T09:00:00.301-05:00

Act Surprised is on Thanksgiving break, and will return on Monday, December 1.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-46184599263458340572008-11-26T17:37:00.004-05:002008-11-30T14:41:21.711-05:00

"Short pants are a sign of weakness/ Sunglasses hide a mental vacuum/ The summer is almost here."The debut LP (following a handful of EPs stretching back to 2002) from Detroit's PAS/CAL is one of the most pleasant surprises of recent memory, an irresistible collection of lovingly crafted, meticulously constructed chamber pop masterpieces. These guys never met a la-la-la, a whoa-oh-oh, or a

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-58872178481844362562008-11-24T07:58:00.015-05:002008-11-30T20:44:38.143-05:00

"And as the summer's ending/ The cold air will rush your hard heart away."I'm a big fan of the EP format. EPs tend to be really focused works, with clear positions distinctly and succinctly conveyed in a handful of tracks, effective and potent distillations of ideas and concepts. Sometimes the ideas work and sometimes they don't, but there's only a few songs on the thing, so it'll be over soon

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-62348289981820488582008-11-21T18:03:00.000-05:002008-11-21T18:03:57.254-05:00

"Ambition runs from our family/ We don't like anyone to disagree." Power pop sometimes gets dismissed by the brainiacs. It's not overly serious, not too complicated, and is by nature incredibly eager to please. Take a few chords, lay 'em over a peppy backbeat, and there you go, right? Maybe. But honestly, who doesn't like power pop? Especially when it's expertly crafted, bedecked in layer after

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-42343809239654332102008-11-19T18:17:00.004-05:002008-11-19T19:34:28.066-05:00

"When I say I'm in love you better believe I mean I'm in LUV, L-U-V!"DC post-hardcore of the late '80s and early 90's, while undeniably awesome, could be a bit dire. Bands like Fugazi, Jawbox, Hoover, and loads of others were true innovators: they mapped out an exciting new musical territory informed by the energy of punk, the dedication of hardcore, and the tunefulness of pop, but they often did

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-75718909180718074842008-11-14T09:00:00.000-05:002008-11-14T09:00:00.278-05:00

Act Surprised is heading out of town for a few days, and will return with a new post on Wednesday, November 19.

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-18100106470402642352008-11-12T18:42:00.001-05:002008-11-13T08:02:41.270-05:00

"I was in heaven/ I was in hell/ Believe in neither/ But fear them as well." There are essentially two eras of Modest Mouse: Before Moon and Antarctica (BMA) and After Moon and Antarctica (AMA). AMA Modest Mouse is a powerful animal, no question, and has released some great records since their 2000 signing to major label Epic. The Moon and Antarctica, Good News for People who Love Bad News, and

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-82830482259550474992008-11-10T07:31:00.005-05:002008-11-13T08:00:47.152-05:00

Bargain Bin/Super Saver is a series in which guest writer Oliver Jones reconsiders the work of artists reviled, forgotten, and/or underexposed. In this inaugural entry, Soul Asylum spends some time under the microscope."Fifteen years later, caught in time's incinerator/ Yesterday's worries are today's/ But the good times are so near, just sitting back and drinking beer/ You know I'm halfway down

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-17490299683403685232008-11-07T17:57:00.001-05:002008-11-07T17:58:36.181-05:00

"Are you so superior, are you in such pain?/ Are you made out of porcelain?/ When they made you they broke the cast/ Don't wanna be first, I just want to pass."From 1977 to 1982, Elvis Costello could do no wrong, and it wasn't for lack of trying. Beginning with the debut My Aim is True and ending with the baroque, Sgt. Peppers-esque Imperial Bedroom, this period was astonishing both in the

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-64871517046989625862008-11-05T22:11:00.001-05:002008-11-05T22:15:48.505-05:00

"Be my island/ Be my lighthouse/ In the dark closet/ Look behind the presents."While most of DC-based enclave TeenBeat's bands put the emphasis on the "pop" part of indiepop, Versus were a little different. While label mainstays like Velocity Girl and Unrest tended towards hyper-catchy, semi-saccharine sparklers tinged with bitterness, NYC's Versus were noisier, thornier, and bigger-sounding.

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"Don't believe a word/ For words are only spoken/ Your heart is like a promise/ Made to be broken."Writing about Ted Leo last week made me want to listen to some Thin Lizzy, so over the weekend I threw on 1976's Johnny the Fox, the follow up to their breakthrough LP, Jailbreak. And in listening, I was reminded again of just how much these dudes brought to the table. The indie world has, for a few

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-21819638226802300542008-10-31T15:55:00.001-04:002008-10-31T15:56:50.533-04:00

Act Surprised is taking the day off, and will be back with a new post on Monday, November 3.Happy Halloween.

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"And your crying won't make you a dime/ It's just like any other job where they're gonna pay you for your time."What's not to love about Ted Leo? Not only does he seem like a genuinely nice dude, smart and passionately political without being a jerk about it, but he's one of the most blindingly talented songwriters out there right now, with an incredibly well-developed sense of timing and melody

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-35740632533222984312008-10-27T20:02:00.001-04:002008-10-27T20:20:14.741-04:00

"I remember how the darkness doubled/ I recall lightning struck itself."Despite being widely considered a true punk classic, Marquee Moon isn't punk at all, at least not in the narrow stylistic sense of the word. Instead of rushed "1-2-3-4-!" beats, thrashing distortion, and barked/screamed vocals, we have densely composed guitar symphonies and nervously spoke/sung impressionistic lyrics verging

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"Apocalypse can go down easy/ You gotta know it's an acquired taste."I haven't heard a whole lot of Les Savy Fav; Go Forth is the only record I own, and I didn't get it too long ago. So I'm no authority on this Brooklyn post-punk outfit. I will say this, though: I am an authority on a lot of DC post-punk outfits, and Les Savy Fav reminds me of a bunch of them. The sharp-edged guitars, all elbows

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-6620490826928956802008-10-22T15:39:00.009-04:002008-10-22T23:59:39.263-04:00

"Wish wish wishing that I could just play my guitar/ But you'll find me on the freeway getting high up in my car."I've seen Swearing at Motorists live a handful of times, and at each show, it's essentially the same deal: half the crowd is really, really into it, and the other half is solidly ensconced somewhere on a spectrum ranging from This Isn't Very Good to I Hate This. I'm always really,

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-81681893286456815872008-10-20T20:05:00.001-04:002008-10-21T08:48:22.438-04:00

"Opened up a can of loud mouth malted/ High-fives in your eyes/ Push the gas and now I'm kissin' good-byes/ Looking for a purpose/ How the hell'd we get here?"Ugly Casanova is a side project from Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, and an interesting entry into the Modest Mouse pantheon. Like many side projects, it stands simultaneously as a sort of stylistic curio and road map, a forum for the artist to

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-52186077058585363832008-10-17T18:39:00.000-04:002008-10-17T18:40:04.951-04:00

"Yesterday's trash/ Too bored to thrash."Common rock cognoscenti opinion maintains pretty steadfastly that the Replacements' third album, 1984's Let it Be, is their best. And there's no question that it's a great album (my favorite 'Mats song of all time, "We're Coming Out," is on Let it Be, after all). Let it Be saw the erratic-but-brilliant Twin Cities upstarts settle down a bit and evolve from

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"I've got style for miles and miles/ So much style that it's wasting."There was a period in my youth when, if it it wasn't Pavement, I probably wasn't interested. I fell for these guys quickly and completely, and believed that anything Steven Malkmus and his merry band of over-educated Fall-aping conspirators produced was nothing short of sheer genius. Pavement's music connected with me in a

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-38102187860729120562008-10-13T08:00:00.001-04:002008-10-13T08:00:00.551-04:00

"There's too much time for us to crack/ I want my money back/ One thing I guarantee/ It's so hard trying to be a little less like me."In hindsight, the title of The Minus 5's 2003 symphonic pop opus Down With Wilco seems eerily prophetic. In 2002, Wilco released one of the finest albums of the decade in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, completing a trifecta of genius which includes 1996's Being There (

Brandon Gentryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14717031874843062051noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8630066561504039685.post-19038596465992027312008-10-10T16:54:00.002-04:002008-10-10T17:23:28.343-04:00

"Everyone is not as one/ Everyone's the same." I fully realize that, from an indie snob perspective, I'm not supposed to like this album. At all. It is not generally considered to be remotely cool. Its release was greeted with some initial interest -- the band was, after all, a supergroup of sorts, featuring Billy Corgan, Chavez's Matt Sweeney, Slint's David Pajo, Paz Lenchantin from A Perfect

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