Mates of State
Team Boo
Polyvinyl (2003)
Everyone needs something cute every once in a while... once in a while. Too much can make you vomit, but a little dose can make you feel a lot better about things. Mates of State's latest album, Team Boo might just be the appropriate prescription. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel are a married couple from San Francisco playing in a … Read more
Matinee Club
The Modern
Ninthwave (2008)
Synthpop is a funny thing. Most genres to spring out of the electronic explosion of the 1980's are founded on a firm platform of moving forward. Unlike more traditional rock instrumentation, the equipment available to the electronic musician is constantly evolving into new forms, both hardware and software. And if you don't keep up (or purposefully regress to banging kitchen … Read more
Matmos
Rat Relocation Program
Locust (2004)
Usually when bands have "concept albums" I'm sort of hesitant on getting into it. I don't really know what the problem is, but most of the time I see them as being somewhat silly, over-ambitious, or pretentious. I guess you can say they're one of my pet-peeves when it comes to music. While not by basic standards a concept album, … Read more
Matt Cameron
Cavedweller
Dine Alone (2017)
Matt Cameron has long been the kind of drummer that most drummers wish they were. Seemingly able to play anything - to bounce from project-to-project with nary a blurred line. In short, Matt Cameron knows his shit. It would be fair to say that despite being the drummer for Pearl Jam since 1998, Cameron will forever be inexorably linked to … Read more
Matt Pond PA
Emblems
Altitude (2004)
I once had a substitute teacher that repeated something 10 times, because he said that people have to hear something at least 8 times before it actually gets into their head. I had to see Matt Pond PA in print 10 times before I went to buy their latest, Emblems. When I got to the store, they didn't have it … Read more
Matt Pond PA
Still Summer
131 Records (2017)
Matt Pond PA has delivered a flurry of music since their inception in 1998 around the enigmatic songwriter and namesake. His revolving cast of collaborators, creators, and guests have served him well throughout his career. Just as it goes, he is very underappreciated and underrated as a songwriter. They are that band, and he is that singer, that you just … Read more
Matt Skiba and the Sekrets
Kuts
Superball (2015)
Matt Skiba's latest side project sound like they've been born out of the wave of late-90s American indie that brought us the likes of Weezer and Blind Melon, and with Skiba adopting a Bowie-esque aesthetic on the band's album cover it gives the impression of a band fully embracing the indie sensibilities that they couldn't explore in as much depth … Read more
Maudlin Of The Well
Bath (Re-Issue)
Antithetic (2012)
I think I can tell you the exact moment my perception of music changed. It was a complete Gestalt switch, an utter reconception of the possibilities that lay open to the artists I enjoyed so much. Several artists had widened my view and primed me for this change--hearing the pulverizing waves of Isis, the mathematical crunches of Meshuggah, the vast … Read more
Maudlin Of The Well
Leaving Your Body Map (Re-Issue)
Antithetic (2012)
(This excessive treatise is continued from my review of Bath)You can already tell the second album is going to be different from how it opens. Completely abandoning the soft, melodic introduction, "Stones of October's Sobbing" instead begins with an almost dissonant combination of winds and acoustic guitar which begins to build into a massive doom-laden epic, the various brass instruments … Read more
Maur
Elegy
Independent (2014)
Running nearly twenty minutes in length and featuring two tracks, 2014’s Elegy is the second demo from Indonesian five-piece Maur. I’d classify this band as sounding somewhat similar to stoner metal, particularly on Elegy’s fourteen minute title track which unleashes crisp guitar work played at a deliberate, relaxed tempo. There are moments when the instrumental parts didn’t quite match up … Read more
Mauser
End Of The Line
Vinyl Rites (2011)
While eventually churning out some less than desirable material late in their career, there is no arguing the impact early Discharge made in both the punk and metal scenes—going so far as to create their own sub-genre in the process. D-beat, as it is aptly titled, signifies thick, lumbering guitars matched with an intensely repetitive drum beat, and shouted vocals, … Read more
Max Richter
Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
Deutsche Grammophon (2017)
Neo-classical music and minimalistic explorations always had a point of convergence. Minimal electronic applications found their way into classical orchestrations, expanding the sound of the orchestra, as well as the emotional scope of the composer. Max Richter is a proud example of this tradition, a composer who has learned as much from Philip Glass and Steve Reich, as he has … Read more
Maximum Penalty
Demo '89 & East Side Story EP
I Scream (2006)
By the end of the 1980's New York City youth-crew was in its final days and tougher, fatter, metal-laced hardcore bands were ruling the Sunday Matinee shows at CBGB's in the Bowery. Somewhere in the thick of long hairs, skinheads, and horrible tattoos were East Side's Maximum Penalty. Maximum Penalty releases a demo and one EP and for some reason … Read more
Mayflower
Second Best Sunsets
Kiss of Death (2010)
After a brief intro track (what's the point of intros, anyway?), Mayflower kicks things off with the energetic "I Never ", an Off With Their Heads influenced gruff punk song with group choruses and a memorable hook. It's a fitting start to Second Best Sunsets, setting the tone of cynicism contrasted with bouncy, hold-your-beer-in-the-air sing-a-longs. What separates Mayflower from other, … Read more
Mayhaw Hoons & the Outsiders
Lime Green
Good Cheer Records (2017)
When John Lennon went into the studio to record the vocals for "Twist and Shout" he had already taken multiple throat lozenges and even gargled some milk to combat the sore throat he was suffering from at the time. The recording, a throat-shredding, rough-edged track that sounded unlike any of the band's other songs, left Lennon's throat feeling like sandpaper … Read more
Mayhem
Ordo Ad Chao
Season of Mist (2007)
Black Metal: (n) a subgenre of heavy metal music that uses screamed Satanic lyrics, fast guitar playing and drumming, and heavily distorted music with a focus on satanic imagery and occult themes. For some, the above definition is redundant. Some of you reading this review are already familiar with Mayhem and their, shall we say, tumultuous history. For the rest, … Read more
McLusky
Difference Between Me and You is That I'm Not on Fire
Too Pure (2004)
Super producer of such illustrious bands as McLusky, Nirvana, and Bush, (SERIOUSLY STEVE WTF?) Steve Albini recently said that McLusky is the best band working in England right now. Yeah, that may be his characteristic bravado and showmanship, but it also may be pretty close to the truth. On their third full length, The Difference Between Me and You is … Read more
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Go Down Under
Fat Wreck Chords (2011)
Well they’re back with a vengeance, the punk supergroup coverband known as Me First and the Gimme Gimmes with the release of their eighth album the Australian tinged EP entitled – Go Down Under. For a band that started out as a side project for fun these guys have worked up a great formula. Take the cheesy pop songs and … Read more
