1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

The Kingdom can careen recklessly toward pretentiousness (their first EP was a concept epic about legendary Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas), but here, these Portland indie rockers swerve in a more nervy, enigmatic direction.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

The tumbling, chilly psychedelia of this full-length follow-up to 2004's Through the Sun Door EP finds dusky-voiced pianist Mira Billotte and her drifting troupe (including members of Gang Gang Dance, Dirty Three, and the Tower Recordings) on a languorous journey from Brooklyn to Xanadu.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

This Athens, Georgia band is probably amazing in small clubs, where the energy that sparks its debut album can be stoked to a blaze. Fat Lip comes on as solid and preternaturally tuneful without too closely aping its influences -- the Kinks, the Replacements, and Guided by Voices.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Many acts have tackled hip-hop from a rock mind-set, but most get mired in the sticky thicket of authenticity, i.e., is it real?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Sleater-Kinney changed these five Portland gals' lives the way riot grrrl changed S-K's. And initially, they seem to embody every surface description of feminist punk all at once -- butch and femme, political and fanciful, arty and breathy.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Mute Math can seem hopelessly dorky -- they wear skinny ties, singer Paul Meany sounds like Sting, and they sued Warner Bros., charging that the label tried to market them as a Christian band and dump them on a Christian label.