Joseph Arthur & the Lonely Astronauts, 'Temporary People' (Lonely Astronaut)
"Shoot first, ask questions later" strategy equals amiable chaos.
By Jon Young 11.14.08 5:42 PM
Joseph Arthur's obsessive pursuit of first-take ecstasy can produce moments of thrilling immediacy or create an unappealing mess (see 2007's Let's Just Be). Having already churned out four EPs this year, the Brooklyn dynamo mostly gets it right here.
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Fucked Up, 'The Chemistry of Common Life' (Matador)
Visionary Canadian pit crew thrash to the future.
By Joe Gross 11.13.08 4:05 PM
Bands have been looking for what comes after hardcore punk for decades. Solutions have included visits to the local tavern (the Replacements), Neil Young blowouts (Dinosaur Jr.), and metal (too many to name). The sick joke is that the genre now thrives on a fidelity to the past that rivals Civil War reenactments.
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Antony and the Johnsons, 'Another World' (Secretly Canadian)
Heartrending New York crooner shifts his focus to earth's ills.
By Stacey Anderson 11.11.08 5:39 PM
Chamber-pop warbler Antony Hegarty has always thrived in stark black-and-white, from the monotone severity of his cover photos to the crashing finality of his lost-love elegies. But he follows 2005's Mercury Prize–winning I Am a Bird Now with something decidedly more green: a five-song EP of environmental mourning.
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AC/DC, 'Black Ice' (Columbia)
Rock's eternal road crew repave the highway to you know where.
By David Marchese 10.30.08 11:05 AM
Lyrical Assassin
For a music critic, being immortalized in song could be the highest compliment...unless the song is a death threat.
By Michael Azerrad 10.27.08 12:33 PM
"I have got a feeling you've never been in this situation before," says the English fellow on the other end of the line. He's right -- I've never spoken with someone who has publicly vowed to murder me.
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Tom Gabel, 'Heart Burns' (Sire)
Anarcho-punk bard unplugs machine, still wounds fascists.
By Brian Raftery 10.27.08 9:49 AM
On this mostly acoustic seven-song EP, the politically minded Against Me!
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