I listened to a lot of Tupac today.  The sun is shining (briefly) in Cleveland and it was a good day for “To Live and Die in LA” and “Picture Me Rollin.”  Action Painters do not sound like Tupac, but at least you know where my head’s at.  (Quick diversion:  An east coast/west coast indie [...]

Merge Records hasn’t played all of their cards this year, and a sneaky ace in the hole is about to drop on April 7th.  Seattle’s Michael Lerner, aka Telekinesis, is a one-man pop/rock wrecking ball that clearly has a finely tuned and impeccably mixed album ready to hit the shelves.  As Merge celebrates its 20th [...]

I’ll be honest.  This is a trifle embarrassing.  On Lazy Saturday, I described how stoked Kevin and I were to see The Twilight Sad and Mogwai in Buffalo on May 5th.  Mrs. Citizen, scoping that post today, pointed out that I didn’t include a Twilight Sad track for the peoples.  Ooof.  My bust.  The good [...]

The critical community seems to lock in on specific characteristics of some artists with a high degree of uniformity.  For some musicians, there’s a certain level of consistency across reviews of their work; people seem unable to write about them without mentioning the trait that seems to define the work.  Nobody writes about Pete Doherty [...]

(Editor’s Note:  You know the deal.  It’s Lazy Saturday.  Our definition of this content is evolving.  The current iteration, carried over from last week, is an old picture that doesn’t make direct linear sense and three or four live tracks that stick to some sort of loosely defined theme.  The picture above is of the [...]

Well, I think I can officially tear up my 2009 NCAA Tournament bracket.  After last night’s games I have officially lost four of my Elite Eight teams, half of my Final Four, and my eventual national champion Memphis Tigers.  Another year, another $20 down the drain that would have otherwise been spent on a few [...]

My first experience with a Marshall stack amp involved the hefty task of lugging it up my buddy’s lofted barn steps with my right arm tightly wrapped around a case of Keystone.  Inadvertently, we lost our footing and the amp toppled off the stairs about midway up, nearly crushing my buddy and breaking off part [...]

If you live somewhere other than the United States or Canada, you’ve probably already listened to the Headless Heroes.  However, for our North American readers, May 19 is a day to circle, as that’s when you can grab a copy of Silence of Love, a top-drawer collection of covers featuring the piercingly lovely voice of [...]

Heading to Ronny’s tonight for the Eulogies show, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive having never been there before and basing my expectations on the less than favorable Yelp! reviews I had read.  Needless to say, I was not all that surprised when I walked in.  The main area of Ronny’s Bar is [...]

(Editor’s note: As the title suggests, we’re going to be dedicating the entire day today here at Citizen Dick to Eulogies.  First up in Part 1 is a review of their upcoming album, Here Anonymous, which will be released on April 7th on Dangerbird Records.  Part 2, to be posted later today, will be a [...]

While performing for years as The Knife, the Swedish duo of Karin Dreijer Anderson and Olof Dreijer spanned multiple sounds while experimenting with angular and semi-accessible electronic-based auras. Numerous awards overseas and a widespread notoriety for mysterious aloofness left audiences with very little to chew on for the past few years.  Both Olof and Karin, [...]

As I’ve previously stated in other album reviews, I’m always a sucker for a straightforward rock-n-roll album. There are so many styles in the indie world that at times it’s refreshing to get an album that’s easy to grasp on first listen. Sub Pop has done an excellent job in this regard in 2009. Handsome [...]

Beep Beep’s new album, Enchanted Islands, is an often confusing amalgam of a vast array of styles and ideas.  It can be a disorienting forty two minutes.  The record features acid rock freakouts, funk beats, strange instrumental left-turns (I pretty sure that that they use David Carradine’s flute from Kill Bill on one track), some [...]

The first song on the new Great Lake Swimmers album bristles with orchestral rock energy; it’s a swirl of stringed instruments, a shuffling, brushed drum sound and an archetypal half-quiet male voice.  There’s certainly an air of some of R.E.M.’s pre-Monster material here,  but that might be my own bias towards attributing all mandolins to [...]

(Editor’s note: Live tracks last Saturday seemed like a winner, so we’re going with it again this week.  It’s being considered for inclusion as a regular feature, so if you’ve got strong feelings one way or the other, let us know in the comments. Also, that’s a photograph of Edwin Webb up there; he likes [...]

Well, it’s official: we really, REALLY wish we were in Austin at SXSW right now.  Sure we’re having a great time here in the Midwest listening to records and everything, but at the same time it breaks our hearts knowing that we are missing out on quite possibly the greatest event of the year for [...]

Kinetic Stereokids are from Flint, which kind of makes them our geographical cousins; for the people on the edges of the map, the folks in the middle kind of blend together; the lady who skinned the bunnies in Roger & Me could have just as easily been from Collinwood.  I’d argue that midwesterners in general [...]

Editor’s Note:  This film is screening Saturday night at SXSW, and if you know someone down there, highly recommend it.  The soundtrack is killer, as you’ll soon read.

Way back in the day, say 2000 years ago, our great storytellers strapped on the lyre, invoked the muses for inspiration, and sprang into the rigorous and sweat [...]

There were only five things that I listened to in my car in 1996: REM’s Document, the soundtrack to Repo Man, the first Violent Femmes album, Led Zeppelin II (all on cassette tape) and 107.9, WENZ, The End; if you were in the passenger seat, those were your options, unless you brought your own tapes.  [...]

I struggle to understand the long-reaching influence of  Tom Petty.  Granted, I enjoyed Petty in my formative years just as much as everyone else did, but “Refugee” didn’t make me want to pick up a Telecaster and start writing mediocre songs. (Somebody had to buy all of the records that dude sold; you’ve got a [...]