CD Reviews

The History of Apple Pie | Out of View

Marshall Teller Records (2013)

By LIZ PELLY | January 29, 2013

3.0 Stars

Don't let their wacky name scare you. London-based quintet the History of Apple Pie's debut LP for Marshall Teller Records is an essential spin for fans of Dino Jr. riffs and early Slumberland indie-pop. Self-produced by guitarist Jerome Watson, the LP fits in that dreamy sweet spot between loud MBV-inspired haze and noisy Sonic Youth guitars. It's not all '80s and '90s nostalgia, though. What really shines here is singer Stephanie Min's gauzy radio-pop singing. It may be a bit twee for some, but others will fall instantly. A good place to start would be either of the record's singles, "You're So Cool" or "Mallory," though closing track "Before You Reach the End" is a slow-burning shoegaze gem as well. The History of Apple Pie aren't exactly breaking new ground in the world of indie rock, but they are the sort of band who win you over in seconds.

Review: Joyful Noise
There's not much joy but there's plenty of noise of the rafter-rocking gospel singing variety in Tony Graff's musical dramedy.
Alex Chilton | Free Again: The ''1970'' Sessions
Post–Box Tops and pre-Big Star, Alex Chilton was an 18-year-old Memphis boy on his way to his dual identity: former #1 pop hitmaker, perpetual underground hero.
Cardinal | Hymns
After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
Snow Patrol | Fallen Empires
Word on the street had Snow Patrol looking to change up the big anthem sound for their sixth release.
O'Brother | Garden Window
O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."
Guided by Voices | Let's Go Eat the Factory
The GBV name on Let's Go Eat the Factory' s label indicates two things to those fans: this is the first record to feature the "classic" Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes line-up since 1996, and this is the first Pollard album to deserve the GBV moniker since the break-up.
Brite Futures | Dark Past
A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.
A Place to Bury Strangers | Onwards to the Wall
Onwards to the Wall clocks in at 16 minutes and 35 seconds, and it could shatter into smithereens at any moment.
Cloud Nothings | Attack on Memory
With Attack on Memory , the third full-length from Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings, 20-year-old frontman Dylan Baldi approaches new, drastically darker material with the same empty-bottle angst that made his previous releases so appealing.
You Me at Six | Sinners Never Sleep
Sinners Never Sleep is a transitional album, though such efforts rarely bode as well for the future as this does.
Imperial Teen | Feel the Sound
Like its title, fifth album Feel the Sound is as generic as doubters have probably always assumed — they sound both relaxed and exhausted.
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ARTICLES BY LIZ PELLY

COLLECTIVE THINKING @ BLANC GALLERY | March 06, 2013
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PRIMORDIAL SOUNDS’ LABEL-READY LEARNING CURVE | February 20, 2013
Noah Bond's Allston apartment looks like an antique shop.

BEACH FOSSILS | CLASH THE TRUTH | February 20, 2013
Last year in an interview with the Phoenix , Dustin Payseur of Beach Fossils said his sophomore album would be inspired by "a lot of frustration from a lot of different sources."

ICEAGE | YOU'RE NOTHING | February 11, 2013
There's something intriguing about the ways Copenhagen punk band Iceage seem simultaneously to care so much and so little.

BEE-HAVIOR: ''FESTOONING THE INFLATABLE BEEHIVE'' AT BU'S 808 GALLERY | February 06, 2013
An art gallery may seem like an unconventional space for discussions on insect behavior, but Maria Molteni maintains beekeeping is as much an art as a science.