Ever come across the work of a musician who isn’t exactly new on the scene and think to yourself, “How on Earth did I not already know about this guy?!” I mean, I’m always coming across new artists I don’t know about, but usually they are young (or young-ish) and are either just starting out [...]

Barzin’s Notes to an Absent Lover isn’t typically the type of album that would make it onto my short list of favorites, but there is something about the delicate nature of the record’s near-perfect arrangements that really took a hold on me in 2009. Not to say that I shy away from quiet folk, in [...]

Every year or so I stumble upon a somewhat obscure album that I fall completely in love with and spend the next several months trying to force on all of my friends and anyone else who will listen. I become “that guy,” singing the praises of some band that you have never heard of and [...]

The Builders and The Butchers leading the crowd at the Beachland out into the Collinwood streets to communally sing “Find Me in the Air” was the best thing I saw live this year.  It was spontaneous and authentic, raucous and moving.  Thank god that Rob was prescient enough to take video as the band and [...]

I don’t know that we intentionally try to be iconoclastic here at Citizen Dick, but I think we pride ourselves on finding things that other people don’t find, on making connections that other people don’t make.  In our rapidly expanding Best of the Year list, we didn’t actively try to include records that other blogs [...]

Our first mention of Pale Air Singers came way back in May when I dropped a drunken review of their debut album into the Citizen Dick ether. Since then it has been one of a very small handful of albums that I have made a point to squeeze into my regular rotation this year. I [...]

The infectious rhythmic strum of “Two” hit the blogosphere like a wildfire earlier this year, and, fittingly, the rest of the album wandered into the stratosphere just as quickly.  We’re hugely aware that Hospice is on nearly every major year-end list, and our inclusion isn’t obligatory.  The album is simply that good.  The soft underbelly [...]

Mrs. Citizen and I braved the suddenly fierce Cleveland winter last night, trudging to The House of Blues to see Rusted Root.  As I’ve written here before, Mrs. Citizen and I have a strong emotional connection to Pittsburgh’s finest neo-hippies, so we were well-primed for a killer set.  We weren’t disappointed.  It’s been seventeen years [...]

Hardly Art put up a little stand underneath the tent at The Pitchfork Festival this summer, and while there’s not a lot of time to scurry back and forth between acts on each of the three stages, we were able to stop and talk to Sarah who was peddling all sorts of merchandise and promoting [...]

Bear in Heaven is coming to play for students at Case Western Reserve early in the new year, and even if I have to crawl inside a guitar case to smuggle myself into the show, I’ll somehow manage.  To put it mildly, Brooklyn-based Bear in Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth was a huge blast of [...]

I just thought I’d tell you.  All the demons have been slain.  Cotton Jones’ Paranoid Cocoon was softly released by Suicide Squeeze records to not a whole lot of fanfare early in 2009, and it holds quite a bit of sentimental value to most of the writers here.  I reviewed this album in late January [...]

The greatest thing about year end reviewing is that nobody sets any sort of rule about how long I’m supposed to spend with an album before I can attest to its value. Nobody’s technically allowed to question or argue my assessment process or evaluation techniques, right? It’s my list, so buzz off (hypothetically). [...]

This is, in effect, something of an elegy. Harlem Shakes’ Technicolor Health got a ton of spins at Citizen Dick’s Eastern Campus over the past twelve months (at least partially because Mrs. Citizen fell in love with it on the first listen); there are a couple of songs on the album that are composed [...]

It makes me proud to put this one on the list. It’s not homerism, but a legitimate endorsement of a really good record that just happens to be a product of Clevelanders. The Modern Electric could be from Topeka and I’d love this record. For what it is, essentially a really distilled [...]

We’ve been enjoying the holidays here at Citizen Dick, tending to the homefires and (for the most part) neglecting the blogosphere.  You, faithful reader, probably have been doing the same, making the jaunt from hearth to hearth, exchanging the gifts, roasting the Yule log and so forth.  Tomorrow, we kick our Best of 2009 retrospective [...]

Today’s Singles Club offering has got to win the 2009 award for best song title of the year. Although I went with the singular “Ovipositor” in the headline, the full name for this track is actually “I’ll Ram My Ovipositor Down Your Throat and Lay My Eggs In Your Chest, But I’m Not An Alien!” [...]

When I listen to Blackmarket, I think one thing: is anyone in this band related to the Gallagher brothers? If so, that would explain a lot. For example, how dudes who couldn’t possibly have come of age in the 90s have such a quintessential 90s sound. And if familial relations are good, it would explain [...]

Merry Christmas, friends. We here at Citizen Dick really and truly appreciate your continued support and loyal readership, and after all, what’s more supportive and loyal than tuning in on Christmas day to see what the final track for our 12 Days of Holiday Dick series is going to be.
Well, this one is a treat. [...]

It is altogether fitting and proper that this particular San Francisco band decided to release as its first single off its first record this song. Longtime Mission District veterans, Matos and bandmates Ben Reisdorph, Joe Miller, and Joe Lewis have been in the indie rock game in the Bay area long enough to be able [...]

Those of you who already have problems with the alleged “child-like” nature of Daniel Smith’s voice are really gonna hate this one. Not only does Smith sing, there are actual children on this track. If that sounds like some creepy record hipster parents would buy their toddlers for Christmas, don’t worry, it isn’t that. Rather, [...]