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MICHAEL BRODEUR

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Past perfection

The radiant, repressed pop of Neon Indian
Everybody please stop calling Alan Palomo "nostalgic." When I check in with him last Friday, the dude seems far more interested in whatever is on the horizon than whatever's in the past.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 05, 2010

Quasi | American Gong

Kill Rock Stars (2010)
I don't know what it is about the top left corner of our country that moves its indie-rockers to cuten up their miseries into adorable little creatures (see: Death Cab, Built To Spill, Elliott Smith, and my favorite specimen, Quasi), but it's a trick that just keeps working.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 23, 2010

Ride that wave

Are Surfer Blood the only band from Florida?
Like a killer wave or a lousy metaphor, success can really sneak up on you.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 23, 2010

Rock in a hard place

Township climb a rock scene that’s neither
That little twang of cognitive dissonance you feel in your brain when someone refers to a “Boston rock scene” is perfectly normal.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 19, 2010

A sister act

In addition to their bio, Tegan and Sara also have songs
High-fives all around: together we made Tegan and Sara rule.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 12, 2010

Real talk

Stephin Merritt and Magnetic Fields consider Realism
"If you're not writing about yourself, you can say anything you want, and it will probably be more revealing of your personality than if you're writing openly about your own life."

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 03, 2010

V66 revisited

A new film looks fondly back on 'the poor man's MTV'
A new film looks fondly back on 'the poor man's MTV'

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 08, 2010

Delta blues

Nneka brings Nigeria's plight to light
Nneka, who comes to the Middle East next Thursday, sounds a lot different on the phone from what you hear in her songs. She speaks softly, allowing stretches of silence to throw her thoughts into harsh relief. On record, she's all business.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 27, 2010

Various Artists | Pop Ambient

Kompakt (2010)
It'd be easy to understand a resistance to "ambient" music — beyond all of its unfortunate Enya and dusty Eno connotations.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 27, 2010

The resistible rise of Andrew Fenlon

Idol Threat Dept.
By the time I get Andrew Fenlon on the phone — two days after the airing of his now-notoriously contentious American Idol audition — the world around us has already split into three factions: those who loathe him, those who love him, and those who need a reminder: who is Andrew Fenlon?

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 20, 2010

5 for '10

New locals to love right away
I love baby bands, and I hope the ones I mention here don't mind my calling them that.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 22, 2010

Beach House | Teen Dream

Sub Pop (2010)
Before I talk about Beach House's third album — the top dreampop album of 2010 until further notice — I should reveal that I had the big gay whirlwind romance of my life under the influence of a steady stream of Beach House Mania at SxSW three years ago.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 19, 2010

Makes sense to him

John Ashbery's Planisphere
So understood is John Ashbery's post at the top of the contemporary American poetry heap (a distinction these days with the cultural heft of a Scrabble championship) that the question of just how to read him seems doomed to languish beside the point. Detractors need only a pillow and a trusty alarm clock to approach Ashbery.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 12, 2010

Vampire Weekend | Contra

XL (2010)
There are a few words I did not expect to use in describing Vampire Weekend's second album. Paul-Simony-er is one of them.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 11, 2010

Bleep the faith

The Boston8Bit collective put their chips on the table
If you were young and had brain space to spare in 1985, those vacant folds were likely soon flooded with the vast audial ephemera of the Nintendo era.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 06, 2010

Spring fever

Ten shows you didn't know you'd be going to
As action-packed as the holidays are, they can be a real dead zone when it comes to decent shows.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 30, 2009

The future is now

No teleportation, but lots of rad new albums
Even with all the promise of the new year ahead, it's hard not to feel a little stiffed in the Future of Mankind department. Here it is, 2010, and there's nary a flying car to be seen.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | January 04, 2010

Best unsung albums of 2009

The cocky and the cock-blocked
These days, it's not so easy to feel useful as a music critic.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 22, 2009

Bring the trauma

Fanfarlo adjust to the road
Even with the new order completely renovating the rock biz, some things have to be done the old-fashioned way. And after having their asses duly kicked by the old-fashioned way this past month, the five-piece London orchestral-pop combo known as Fanfarlo are eager to be done with this, their first US tour (which comes to T.T. the Bear's this Thursday). It's been a doozy.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 15, 2009

Graduate studies

The learning curve of Lissy Trullie
I'm not a big fan of the "you are what you eat" theory of musical influence. I've experienced enough defective Radiohead knockoffs in my day to know that a group's favorite bands often have nil to do with how their music will sound. I also think that our systems of influence are a bit more porous and a bit less under our control than any eating metaphor might suggest.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 16, 2009

Review: WFNX's Miracle on Tremont Street 2009

Passion Pit, Phoenix, and Spoon, live at the Orpheum Theatre, December 4, 2009
A quick, mildly sycophantic shout-out to the "powers that be" here in Phoenix -Land: This year's Miracle on Tremont Street was nothing short of a wicked pissah powerhouse bill. The grand old Orpheum creaked under the weight of a sold-out audience, and a pronounced feistiness prevailed .

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 08, 2009

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