Album Review: Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends

Originally published October 7, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
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Tobacco
Fucked Up Friends
Anticon. Records

In high school, my idea of multi-tasking was doing homework while simultaneously watching TV, listening to the radio and talking on the phone. Tobacco’s Fucked Up Friends is kind of like that. Sounds travel in all directions and frequencies, mystically making sense.

Tobacco’s instrumental songs are more cryptic than his work in Black Moth Super Rainbow, but still powerfully demand attention. Gripping hip-hop beats add the feel of dusty vinyl and fuzzy analog synths set the listener’s brain on coast. With guest vocals from Aesop Rock on “Dirt”, Tobacco proves that he is making friends with the right people.

Album Review: Pretty & Nice - Get Young

Originally published October 7, 2008 in Soundcheck Magazine.
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Pretty & Nice
Get Young
Hardly Art

The sophomore album from Boston’s Pretty & Nice, out on Sub Pop’s Hardly Art label, brings bands like Hot Hot Heat, The Futureheads, and, at times, The Hives to mind. However, don’t be fooled by the hard-hitting opening of “Piranha”: there is hardly anything garage rock about Get Young. The album, recorded in the band’s basement, is theatrical pop with its frantic and hyper jingle and jangle of percussion and synth. The band’s exuberance is mod but fun. Yet, it is hard to tell if they can offer anything that will set them apart from others.