Clinic

Clinic, a nervous quartet from Liverpool, England, plays excellent organ-based garage rock clad in gimmicky surgical uniforms, complete with masks. Singer/guitarist Ade Blackburn, keyboardist/guitarist Hartley, bassist Brian Campbell and drummer Carl Turney formed Clinic in 1997 after Blackburn’s and Hartley’s previous project, the discordant Pure Morning, split. Blackburn’s trembling tenor plays prominently in Clinic’s taut…

Beachwood Sparks

Even though they dress in cowboy hats and Nudie shirts with pearl buttons, Beachwood Sparks is actually a pop band. Drummer Aaron Sperske keeps time for the Lilys, a decent Boston-based garage rock group, while bassist Brent Rademaker was in the faux-fi act further until forming BS with singer/guitarist Chris Gunst (who was briefly in…

Ikara Colt

Raucous art-punk … sleepy drone-rock … strutting garage-rock … tepid post-punk … or all of those in a pressure-packed nutshell, where rapidly strummed guitars and pounding rhythms seep out through a gauzy, dulling production style that’s all midrange (might as well unplug your tweeters and woofers for this one). And so are the songs on…

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

The four 20somethings who comprise . . .And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead play noisy art rock and drink too much. That’s not a coincidence, it’s a blend, in which the latter erases the pretense of the former, giving those miasmatic riffs the meathead punch they need. The band took shape…

Big Black

Steve Albini has had a genuine impact on the rock cosmos. In the ’80s, as leader of Big Black and Rapeman, the Chicago singer/guitarist ushered in an era of malevolent detachment; as an extraordinarily prolific producer (or, as he insists on putting it, “recorder” or “engineer”) of bands as varied as Jesus Lizard, the Pixies,…

Spoon

Spoon has three members, but frontman Britt Daniel wears so many hats (guitarist, producer, songwriter, singer, barker, yeller, strutter, warbler, cooer) that it sounds more like 11. That’s not to say Spoon songs are particularly intricate (they’re not), but when the cuts are taut and rigid (which they often are), it’s Daniel’s voice that navigates…

Contributors

These folks either wrote reviews that appear on the site or wrote for Trouser Press magazine. If anyone listed below cares to E-mail us with a link you’d like added, just let us know. And ditto if anyone is AWOL from this list. Grant AldenDavid AntrobusJem AswadTroy J. AugustoMichael AzerradCary BakerMichael BakerEmily BeckerSeth BenderJohn BergstromArt…