The Falcon
Gather Up the Chaps
Red Scare Industries (2016)
The Falcon are a curious band: a collection of rogue Chicagoans (now with Dave Hause as well), lead vocalist Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms) seems to get the most attention but teammates Dan Andriano (Alkaline Trio), Neil Hennessy (also The Lawrence Arms), and now Hause carry some impressive resumes on their own. It’s a loaded band, one that rips out punk burners in the 1-2 minute range with big choruses, crude metaphors, and something of a kitchen sink subgenre underbelly that bleeds into those songs. They also haven’t put out a record in about 10 years, so how does the reanimated band fare on Gather Up the Chaps?A decade has passed, the Bush years are in the rearview and, soon, the Obama ones as well. Time changes things, but The Falcon are still dirty birdies playing songs that sound like R-rated jokes on the surface with a lot of gritty philosophy hidden between the crude one liners. The main difference on their second full-length is that things are tighter. Production is solid and equal across all 12 songs, and while the band likes to throw in a cornball melody, a ska-punk hook, or two-minute tongue twister, the songs are tighter … Read more
Tim Hecker
Love Streams
4AD (2016)
Since 2001 Tim Hecker has been exploring the more adventurous sides of electronic music. The experimental scope of the artist … Read more
Endless Mike and the Beagle Club
St. Paul
A-F (2016)
Endless Mike and the Beagle Club are from Johnstown, PA (about an hour outside of my second home, Pittsburgh), and … Read more
