Alexi Krauss and Derek Miller are now into the third album of the discography for their noise pop/rock duo known to the general public as Sleigh Bells. I’m personally waiting for them to hit the five album mark so I can simply cherry pick the singles for a ‘best of,’ collection. This band finds its roots in others like The Raveonettes, The Pixies and Andrew WK. While they take the collective wisdom of those precursors…they have not proven to string […]
Posts tagged "Sleigh Bells"
New Release Report 10/8/13
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here. The most anticipated album of 2013 has dropped and it ain’t who you thought it was cuz that guy released his album last Monday . That’s right, I’m talking about Hannah Montana herself, Miley Cyrus. It’s Bangerz baby! Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last year or so, Ms. Cyrus has been making waves. She’s been criticized for her raunchy videos and a controversial VMA appearance but now she gets to prove whether it was […]
The Popblerd Halftime Show: Stephen’s Best of 2012 So Far (Twitter Edition)
I’ll be the first to admit I probably haven’t been as tuned into new music this year as I was last year. I’m not sure what to blame, really, but I will say that the albums I loved this year have made up for it all with sheer quality. So, in keeping with the theme of sparseness (and because I totally want to be like Spin Magazine), I present to you my top seven albums of the year, summarized in […]
Spin Cycle: Sleigh Bells’ “Reign of Terror”
I was a huge fan of Sleigh Bells’ debut album Treats when it dropped two summers ago: a heavy, low-fi party album steeped in 80s guitar crunch and the double threat of Alexis Krauss’ delicate melodies and crazed cheerleader screams, assembled over electric drum machine back beats. The album excelled at many things, but outside “Rill, Rill”, subtlety wasn’t one of them. Then again, when your aim is 32 minutes of catchy, feel good, danceable noise pop, you don’t really […]
Chart Stalker 6/9/10: Jack Johnson Provides a Semblance of Order
One thing I should have mentioned in last week’s column is that it was the lowest week of recorded music sales in the Soundscan era, which goes back almost 20 years. Yes, we know there’s been a downturn in paid consumption of music over the last decade, but this is pretty much rock bottom, I think. Hopefully there’s nowhere to go from here but up. We’d be looking at an even worse week this week if not for Jack Johnson. […]
New Release Report 6/1/10: You Don't Know Jack
OK. I lie. If you’ve heard even one Jack Johnson record, you probably know him pretty well. The mellow Hawaiian surfer dude has very quietly become probably the most popular male pop/rock singer in the country not named John Mayer. And he’s done it without dating any celebrities, making an ass of himself in print media, or even having a hit song at radio. He definitely has a certain appeal. A lot of folks-myself included-occasionally need to hear music that […]