Okkervil River, 'The Stand Ins' (Jagjaguwar)
Texas storytellers return with a magnificent Act Two.
By Amanda Petrusich 09.08.08 1:44 PM
Like the perennially chatty Decemberists, Okkervil river aren't stingy with syllables. the Austin band's fifth album, The Stand Ins, is packed with the same compound sentences, sprawling narratives, and precarious, barn-dance guitars that made its companion piece, 2007's The Stage Names, so weirdly gripping.
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Duffy: Girl From the North Country
Life in a wee Welsh village may not seem like ideal preparation for the pressures of breakout retro-pop stardom. But so far, Duffy's handling it better than last year's model.
By Amanda Petrusich 08.01.08 3:32 PM
The drive from Cardiff to Nefyn, a remote fishing village on north Wales' Llyn Peninsula, is only about 160 miles, but it takes me nearly seven hours.
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Cansei De Ser Sexy, 'Donkey' (Sub Pop)
Brazilian indie funk for your vintage steamer trunk.
By Amanda Petrusich 07.21.08 4:14 PM
Cansei De Ser Sexy consider ecstatic revelry more an imperative than a choice: "We didn't come into the world to walk around," seethes frontwoman Lovefoxxx on "Jager Joga," the opening cut from the São Paulo band's sophomore LP. "We came here to take you out!" Her voice demands hijinks.
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Fleet Foxes, 'Fleet Foxes' (Sub Pop)
Seattle kids conjure up a gorgeous backwoods tableau.
By Amanda Petrusich 06.02.08 5:10 PM
After releasing Sun Giant, a five-track EP, earlier this year, Fleet Foxes have corralled their sprawling, harmony-laden rock into a remarkable debut album.
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Fern Knight, 'Fern Knight' (VHF)
From the boonies to purgatory, she's traditionally bewitching.
By Amanda Petrusich 05.29.08 3:54 PM
Philadelphia hosts a booming community of psychedelic folksingers, and much like locals Espers (whose Greg Weeks produces here), Margaret Wienk is as influenced by the spacey thrills of the Incredible String Band as by the down-home mumbles of the Folkways catalog.
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The Chapin Sisters, 'Lake Bottom LP' (Plain Recordings)
Los Angeles family folk trio tinge their harmonies with dark wit.
By Amanda Petrusich 05.15.08 2:16 PM
In 2004, the Chapin Sisters' acoustic cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" began popping up on Los Angeles radio stations; the trio may have been singing through smirks, but they converted the dance-pop grind into a genuinely unnerving (maybe even prescient?) saga of self-destruction.
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