Matthew Fiander

Various Artists: Sharon Signs to Cherry Red
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Various Artists: Sharon Signs to Cherry Red

By
 / 20 May 2016
This two-disc set comprises 45 songs that capture not a sound, but rather an attitude. These artists island hop across labels and genres and, in doing so, create vital songs worth unearthing now.
Terry Allen: Juarez
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Terry Allen: Juarez

By
 / 19 May 2016
Forty-plus years later this little-known Terry Allen album deserves a larger audience, a new and much bigger set of listeners to puzzle over this eccentric classic.
‘Nitro Mountain’ Is Harrowing and Dark
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‘Nitro Mountain’ Is Harrowing and Dark

By
 / 18 May 2016
This is an unabashedly fierce and often violent novel that owes as much to Graham Greene's Brighton Rock as it does to Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone.
‘We Love You, Charlie Freeman’ Ponders Over Watching and Being Watched
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‘We Love You, Charlie Freeman’ Ponders Over Watching and Being Watched

By
 / 17 May 2016
This novel tries to find words for the ways in which being other means being constantly under observation.
Fruit Bats: Absolute Loser
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Fruit Bats: Absolute Loser

By
 / 13 May 2016
The best stuff on the solid Absolute Loser makes for a welcome return of an underrated American band.
A Giant Dog: Pile
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A Giant Dog: Pile

By
 / 12 May 2016
Pile, the new album from Austin's A Giant Dog, can remind us of other moments in rock music, but this is not revivalism. Instead, it reshapes those pasts into the band's own present.
Aesop Rock: The Impossible Kid
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Aesop Rock: The Impossible Kid

By
 / 3 May 2016
On his excellent new album, Aesop Rock plays with autobiography as a construction. Rock tells some version of his story brilliantly here, and it doesn't matter what is and isn't fact; it all rings true anyway.
Woodpigeon: T R O U B L E
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Woodpigeon: T R O U B L E

By
 / 29 April 2016
Woodpigeon's lush, melancholy new album adds new textures to the band's already heavily orchestrated pop.
North Carolina’s Phuzz Phest 2016 Is a Music Festival Done Right
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North Carolina’s Phuzz Phest 2016 Is a Music Festival Done Right

By
 / 27 April 2016
Festivals can and should be transactions, but not of capital or codified cool. They should bring people into a space so they can see what it's about and let them add something to it. NC's Phuzz Phest does this well.
PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project
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PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project

By
 / 22 April 2016
Harvey's ninth album buzzes with energy, but her stories, for the first time, often make her sound like a tourist unable to scratch the surface of the places she documents.
Carter Tanton: Jettison the Valley
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Carter Tanton: Jettison the Valley

By
 / 12 April 2016
Carter Tanton usually tinkers with gauzy layers, but his new record rings clean with acoustic guitars and the laid-bare sweetness of his voice.
Jan St. Werner: Felder
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Jan St. Werner: Felder

By
 / 11 April 2016
Felder, Jan St. Werner's latest solo record, is impressively expansive. But for all its challenging experimentation, the album is surprising comforting listen.