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02.29.12 “We’re gonna blow these old holy houses to dust,” screams Cursive frontman Tim Kasher on his band’s seventh album, his speak-sing tenor slicing through raging guitars and crashing drums. I Am Gemini is reportedly a concept album about extreme duality (good and evil, angels and devils, a pair of long-lost twins named Cassius and Pollock) but it often feels like an assault on religion, powered by years of tormented Catholic guilt. This thematic ground is familiar for Kasher and company. Their 2006 album, Happy Hollow, tackled these matters directly, but… more »

Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads album cover

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Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads

Dustin Wong

2012 | Thrill Jockey

Dustin Wong, Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads

2012 | Label: Thrill Jockey

By Brandon Soderberg eMusic Contributor

02.21.12 Communicating infectious joy through delicate, exploratory guitar work, loop maestro Dustin Wong’s follow-up to 2010′s Infinite Love, and his first release since his jazz-hands-waving, sugar rush of an avant-rock group Ponytail split last year, is like a homespun version of Manuel GÃ¶ttsching’s E2-E4. It has the same, super-determined, dude-in-a-room, one-take intensity, but this 16-part song, delightfully distracted by awesome effects pedals, layered riffing and the commanding knock of a drum machine, spazzes out (the very Do Whatever You Want All The Time-like “Feet Prints On Flower Dreads”), conjures up… more »

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Onwards to the Wall

A Place to Bury Strangers

2012 | EP/SINGLE

A Place to Bury Strangers, Onwards to the Wall

2012 | Label: Dead Oceans / SC Distribution

By Phil Freeman eMusic Contributor

02.03.12 This Brooklyn band is to the Jesus and Mary Chain what Interpol is to Joy Division: not as cravenly imitative as detractors would have you believe, but the ancestry is clear. This five-song, 17-minute EP’s blown-out sound definitely recalls Psychocandy, mixing simple garage-rock riffs, primitive, almost mechanical drumming and deadpan vocals, but APTBS adds a huge bass sound the J&MC rarely bothered with. The opener, “I Lost You,” adds a lovelorn lyric to the mix, while the EP’s title track brings in vocalist Alanna Nualla for a moody, post-punk dialogue… more »