Reviews: Music/Comedy Recordings

With his seventh album, Recovery, Eminem proves he has plenty left in the tank and asserts himself as the best rapper in the game today.

Crystal Castle’s Ethan Kath and Alice Glass recognize the year is 2010. In fact the two have made it a point to showcase the robotic feedback, and angst-ridden irrelevance that comprises the noise we are made of. Released May 24th, 2010, "Crystal Castles II" lives up to its band’s name, possessing what may be a cold wave of gothic-glitch in mainstream music.

If this record doesn’t move you to tears, you aren’t listening closely enough.

When Seattle four-piece Minus the Bear released their first single off of their upcoming release, OMNI, fans and critics alike were a little skeptical.

My initial listen of the group's sophomore release “The Optimist” proved that after a muted three-year hiatus, the band has finally packed its bags and produced something compelling.

Beachy guitar riffs, 60s pop drumming, and lo-fi psychedelic mixing techniques combine to make the perfect summer album—provided you were planning on spending this summer alone watching "Garden State" on DVD.

California rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fuse blues, country and garage rock to create a unique mash-up of musical genres on their fifth studio album, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo.

Fang Island's self-titled debut album is composed almost entirely of that climactic moment in any song when the singer shuts up and the music gets really intense. Every track is pumped-up and the minimalist lyrics keep them from being simply wallpaper covering the music.

I hate novelties. Novelty parties, novelty clothes, you name it. I don’t care how ugly your sweater is, or how slutty of a secretary you can be, and if I hear that kid from bio class play “Jingle Bells” on his piano tie one more time, I swear, I’ll murder Santa Claus. And most of all, I can’t stand novelty songs. (However, being the cosmopolitan that I am, I can make an exception for the 1985 Chicago Bears’ “Super Bowl Shuffle.” That song is fire. Plus, how else would I be able to see such a whitey like Jim Fuller rap and dance? It’s hard to imagine that the dude was worse at something than passing.)

The first time I experienced Flatfoot 56 was actually at a ska show on Long Island. I saw a dude from their band come onstage with a bagpipe, and, after my general confusion as to why he didn’t have a trumpet subsided, I thought, “great, another trite Celtic-punk band.” (Note: I am fully aware that this statement, coming from a guy at a ska show, might seem a little silly.) But I was pleasantly surprised with the band’s uniqueness.

Though a few of the songs on this album (comprised entirely of covers) will be unknown to younger listeners, Streetlight Manifesto’s fourth full-length is a novel, engaging, and occasionally hilarious cross section of the band’s influences and guilty pleasures.

At its low points, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists’ Brutalist Bricks is just that: brutal. But when it strikes back from a temporary letdown, the band’s fifth full-length album is a peppy, riff-driven reminder of why you liked Teo Leo in the first place.

In their debut album, Titus Andronicus may have went into hipster overload with spoken word Albert Camus and Shakespeare. But with their release of "The Monitor," these Jersey kids prove that they've grown up and moved on to more mature territory.

The second coming of Matt Skiba is here; the band has finally made it out of their goth kid phase and gone back to their roots of slick (but sincere) pop punk.

Fan Death, a Brooklyn born, Canadian based band, released their five-track EP “A Coin For The Well", a subpar release that is comparable to a forgetful 19-minute faux-rave.