Search Results for "Jordan Oakes"

Hailing from the same town as the Gin Blossoms — Tempe, Arizona — Dead Hot Workshop debuted with a self-released cassette LP, followed several years later by a low-budget album, this one on CD. The relatively subdued White House (its recording budget partly offset by a loan from Doug Hopkins of the Gin Blossoms) is…

The Hang Ups’ airy vocals suggest various three-letter bands like the dB’s and La’s, but rude bursts of guitar keep the Minneapolis quartet’s pop precariously impolite. Songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Brian Tighe has a good grip on classic pop, but seems reluctant to put down the intrusively stark guitars. Co-produced by Ed Ackerson (27 Various/Polara), He’s After Me…

The Delilahs’ two albums offer earnest folk-pop with occasional snapshots of R.E.M.’s infancy. At times reminiscent of a much milder Bob Mould, vocalist Aaron Seymour guides the Minneapolis quintet through cathartic music that flips from happy to sad with less notice than a car wreck. On the band’s self-titled debut, “Beats the Hell Out of…

The Dylans’ flower-power pop offers little clue as to the point of the group’s name; all they share with Robert Zimmerman is the undefined spirit of the ’60s. Formed in Sheffield, England, in 1988, the quintet — led by singer/guitarist/bassist Colin Gregory and guitarist Jim Rodger — took the blueprint of groups like the Soft…

Pennsylvania’s Idle Wilds play gorgeous pop music that draws a time line directly from the Beatles to Big Star — and in doing so, the band draws attention to itself. The melodies on the Big Hit Records EP reveal singer/songwriter David Gray (no, not that David Gray) to be a pop imagist on a par…

It might seem unusual for a New Jersey band to make an album called Hick-Pop Comin’ at Ya! with no irony intended, but From Good Homes’ debut is just as advertised: rural power-pop (imagine Material Issue as singing cowboys). Since Hick-Pop occasionally borders on slickness, it’s up to the songs and vocals to keep the…

Boasting a cool Generation-X moniker — arcane to the masses, but hip to young cognoscenti — this New York band plays a hard-to-define blend of rock, pop and grunge lite. With nods at dance music, new wave and au courant punk, Envy reflects the musical climate of its year of release, only the hooks are…

New Jersey’s Shirk Circus plays a curious mesh of Minneapolis-style post-punk and influence-welcoming pop. Considering that the trio’s long-playing debut, Words to Say, was cut as first takes in an hour, the album’s stylistic diversity is amazing. Only the low-budget production keeps songs like “#14 (What Would You Be If You Weren’t Nothing?)” from achieving…

Clear-voiced singer/songwriter Suzie Higgie gets rich, electric rock backing from her bandmates on Wish List, the Sydney quartet’s first longplayer. Although Higgie’s refined delivery suggests a West Coast Debbie Harry, guitarist Stuart Robertson sounds like a reformed metalhead, cranking up the contrast in a tastefully loud surge. If the band flirts shamelessly with mainstream radio,…