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CARRIE BATTAN
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Mishka (2011)
Following a steady stream of low-budget tracks, mixtapes, and videos posted on their Tumblr this year, the Bay-area stoner rap duo of Squadda B and MondreM.A.N. (a/k/a Main Attrakionz) have raised the stakes by offering up something that resembles a traditional release.
Amalgam Digital (2011)
Gone are the endless declarations of hoes on his dick in groups of 30 and 100; gone are the claims that he is everyone from Ellen Degeneres to Miley Cyrus.
Sub Pop (2011)
The musical reincarnation of Ishmael Butler, the elusive Seattle rapper who makes up one-third of the semi-popular '90s jazz-rap act Digable Planets under the name Butterfly, is a lot to unpack.
XL (2011)
For a densely layered, expertly produced dance-rock album, this second full-length from British three-piece Friendly Fires is perplexingly bland.
Self-release (2011)
Self-release (2011)
Barclay Records (2011)
In the four years since French electro queen Yelle released her debut, Pop Up, a gaggle of comparable female dance-pop characters — from Gaga to La Roux to Robyn — have made their way into the spotlight.
Brick Squad (2011)
After a sub-par, commercially warped album, an arrest followed by a brief stint in a mental hospital, and a supremely unfortunate face tattoo, it seemed Gucci Mane had turned a very sad corner.
Vice Records (2011)
Billed as a collaborative project, the debut from Boston-bred producer and video artist Ghostdad and Spank Rock–associated XXXChange and Chris Devlin feels a lot more like a loosely-curated DJ set than a cohesive album.
Captured Tracks (2011)
In part because it sounds an awful lot like the shoegaze and '80s dreampop bands she selects to fill her soundtracks, the debut full-length from Boston-gone-Brooklyn duo Minks floats along like a Sofia Coppola movie - delicate and listless, topped with a glossy and charming overcoat, but lacking in substance.
HoZac (2010)
An album like this sophomore effort from Philly-based husband/wife team Reading Rainbow is part of a very unlucky battle against the status quo, since its garage-band approach to reverb-heavy fuzz-punk melodies does exactly what an endless gaggle of lo-fi buzz bands thoroughly exhausted months ago.
Motown/Universal (2010)
When you're accustomed to being the coolest attendee at everyone else's parties, hosting your own can be tricky. And so it goes for Nicki Minaj.
Illegal Art (2010)
In one fell swoop that came in the form of a surprise, free-of-charge digital release a week ago Monday, Greg Gillis overturned the idea he'd been instrumental in creating at the birth of mash-up culture.
Friendly Fire (2010)
Two full-lengths removed from the departure of Mazzy Star's long-lost sonic sister, lead vocalist Victoria Bergsman, the Concretes have a developed a sound that's altogether different from that of their early/mid-naughts heyday.
Paw Tracks (2010)
It's a credit to Avey Tare that his debut solo album feels like a very natural extension of Animal Collective's overarching brand of psychedelia.
A better stunt: Lin transcends his self-promotion
When this review is posted online, 27-year-old Tao Lin will quickly send out its URL in a tweet and file it on his website's meticulously maintained record of press coverage.
Kill Rock Stars (2010)
Four years ago, it was guitarist and vocalist Corin Tucker's maternal pull that bore most of the blame for Sleater-Kinney's disbanding.
Saddle Creek (2010)
Is it possible to produce a record that sounds anything like a comeback when your sonic trademark is one of delicate sulk and sorrow?
True Panther Sounds (2010)
If the demise of traditional record making is designed to foster any band’s fruitful existence, it’s that of Teengirl Fantasy.
Polyvinyl (2010)
At the apex of earnest indie pop, the period during which their first two full-lengths were recorded, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin were a mild, dime-a-dozen act.
twosyllable (2010)
Creating the sonic and æsthetic impression that they're roaming the landscapes and seascapes painted on vintage postcards sold for 25 cents apiece in dusty piles near thrift-store cash registers, Colorado-based Candy Claws are shameless themesters.
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