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MICHAEL BRODEUR

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LA story

Little Joy's journey starts at home
Ask people around here why they'd never move to LA and "the traffic" will reliably top the list. That sure sounds reasonable, but check it out: by not languishing in belching cars and rotting the sky for hours at a time, by not submitting to the forced downtime imposed by cities like Los Angeles...we're missing out on a ton of good music.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 16, 2009

Lovely, dark, and deep

Bill Callahan hides in plain sight
I've never met a baritone who particularly dug another baritone. If anything, a wariness simmers between them.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 08, 2009

Bachelorette | My Electric Family

Drag City (2009)
Annabel Alpers's debut album for Drag City (as Bachelorette) seems wholly devoted to her first uttered ground rule: "Daydream: Make sure it's good stuff."

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 01, 2009

Dirty Projectors | Bitte Orca

Domino (2009)
You're going to be hearing a lot more about this album than you might actually hear from it. Why? Because it's far simpler to succumb to a lulling, repetitive chorus of praise than it is to surrender to the pull of Dave Longstreth's often uncertain seas.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 10, 2009

Co-operators

Moderat bring out the best of both worlds
It’s 4 pm in Berlin, and there’s still so much shit to do before tonight’s Moderat album release party at WMF — a transient dance club that recently reopened in an old furniture factory in the center of the old city.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 19, 2009

Au Revoir Simone | Still Night, Still Light

Our Secret Record Co. (2009)
On the surface, Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone are a publicist's dream.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 18, 2009

Are Animal Collective a jam band?

Animal Collective are the next logical iteration of the jam band. Yes. Yes they are.
Like many white males in their early 30s with slowing metabolisms and dorkish concerns, I never really got what the big fucking deal was about Animal Collective. I was turned onto them years ago by a friend at an old workplace; he had better taste in music than me.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 20, 2009

Magik Markers | Balf Quarry

Drag City (2009)
Before Balf Quarry landed on my desk, I figured the dirtiest thing in Connecticut was Chris Dodd's browser history. Not so.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 12, 2009

Same difference

It's a pleasure keeping the Field on repeat
"I grew so weary of playing by myself on the laptop. I felt so controlled by the computer."

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 12, 2009

Passion Pit | Manners

Frenchkiss (2009)
Long have we at the Phoenix trailed the spark as it crackled down the winding wick toward the ostensible powder keg of this, Passion Pit's first full-length release. And why not?

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | May 06, 2009

The gang's all here

Chain and the Gang and the Hive Dwellers do it all again
It's coming up on 20 years since Calvin Johnson met Ian Svenonius. It was at a Hazmat show in DC, and Svenonius was fronting his Nation of Ulysses. Johnson was blown away.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 15, 2009

A cut above

The Books, live at the ICA, April 10, 2009
From out of blearily luminous pools of spiraling orange fractals, the disembodied head of a stately-looking man emerged, coaxing us to attention with little more than his calming gaze and an invitation to “a new beginning.”

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 14, 2009

Meant to be

The Books leave (almost) nothing to chance
The Books are, more and more, making their work something you can see.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 07, 2009

Various artists | Winter Is Cold

Self-released (2009)
As easy as it is to get caught up in the teeming swirl of our ever-generous local rock scene, it's just as easy to fall right out of the loop.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | April 09, 2009

That's how people grow up

Morrissey, live at House of Blues, March 29, 2009
Morrissey specializes in decadent enlargements of contrary emotions: he's got despair on lock, he's an excellent sculptor of ennui.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 31, 2009

Eight is enough

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's find strength in numbers
Not only does Indianapolis exist, it seems, but it's got people who form bands. Just not very many.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 31, 2009

Rogue wave

The allure of the music industry may be long gone, but SXSW can still attract the underground to its edges
These days, younger, wiser bands simply don't bat their eyelashes at the majors like they used to.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 25, 2009

Moving pictures

Dean & Britta take on Andy Warhol's Screen Tests
The latest Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips project — 13 Most Beautiful . . . Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests (Plexifilm) — is true to the artist it honors, innocence is only the surface of subterfuge.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 17, 2009

Make it new!

A refresher course from the indies
Not to make too big a deal out of this or anything, but holy shit this spring is huge. Think about it: it's the first spring following a long, drawn-out winter made longer and more drawn-out by a grueling two-year election that overturned eight even longer years of dreary uncertainty and near-constant suckage.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | June 16, 2009

All at once

N.A.S.A.’s gang bangers might be a little much
If nothing else, the release of The Spirit of Apollo (Anti-) a few weeks ago by the intercontinental hip-hop/baile/other duo of N.A.S.A. (that’s North America/South America) makes an encouraging, if not actually uttered, statement.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 03, 2009

The Low Frequency in Stereo | Futuro

Rune Grammofon (2009)
Unlike some of my fearless reviewers, I suffer from spells of apprehension when confronted by a Rune Grammofon release.

By: MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 03, 2009

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