There’s something like three inches of ice coating my driveway this morning, a thick, angry rime of winter caking the windshield of my car.  As I listen to the drone of a thousand ice scrapers (shck, shck, shck), clearing the way for the morning commute, I find my mind wandering to thoughts of warmer locales.  [...]

I don’t have to say much about our deep institutional love for Dr. Dog at this point.  I’m about as excited for their soon to be released ANTI debut, Shame, Shame as I am for any other record this year.  The first taste of the record bodes well.  “Shadow People” is a little less ornate [...]

(Editor’s note:  That’s not my living room up there.  It’s a photo of The Who on a huge TV in an immaculate entertainment room that I found on Flickr.  Pretty good visual metaphor for the current state of the band that recorded The Who Sell Out, no?
Three quick things on the Super Bowl before we [...]

Recently, French Kissing sent us an mp3 of their new single “Oh Suzanne”. At first, French Kissing seemed like a provocative name for a grade-school band. A few moments later, I came across the above photo being used as their avatar on Myspace.  Since I’m part of a generation jaded by internet porn (where do [...]

The fellas in Man/Miracle, especially frontman Dylan Travis, have one of those near-tragic backstories of suffering yielding great art that any other band would love to fill their press releases with. My hunch, however, is that Travis et al. could have done without the broken bones, insect infestations, and all the other indignities suffered between [...]

If there is a record I feel most sheepish about not covering on these pages in 2009, it is The Rural Alberta Advantage’s brilliantly pastoral Hometowns.  OK, I’ll throw Merriweather Post Pavilion on there, too, but I feel way worse about Hometowns because I liked it way more.
As good as it is, and it is [...]

I gotta be honest, folks. I know it is still way early in the year, but I’m a bit more excited about Canadian indie rock than our own domestic output. Between the new Besnard Lakes track and an upcoming weekend visit from The Rural Alberta Advantage, I’ve found myself watching a lot more hockey (did [...]

Sometimes you never really know what is gonna get you to listen to a song. A catchy title? A smart commercial? A publicist’s email? A random mention by a hipster you are crushing on? I think we all probably want to have great and, let’s be honest, self-righteous explanations for where we find our music. [...]

Occupying the nice piece of virtual property between El Guincho’s Alegranza! and El Perro del Mar’s Love Is Not Pop in my iTunes folder is a solitary track from Lara Meyerratken. The first single off the forthcoming self-titled debut, released under her nomme de artiste, El May, “Don’t You” is a tasty amuse-bouche destined to [...]

With an instrumental sound that is something akin to Deep Purple meets Motorhead meets Black Mountain meets Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with a huskier Jim Morrison on vocals, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor rocks hard and deep. The Detroit band possesses a heavy glam tread that only barely makes it to this century, much less [...]

In 2009, The Dirty Projectors not only put out an album (Bitte Orca) that hovered near the top of many of the more influential end-of-year rankings (e.g., Pitchfork, Pop Matters, Rolling Stone, etc.),  they did something much more difficult. That is, they put out a record that – like, love, or loathe – a writer [...]

Danish art pop. A delightful band name that amounts to a pun about one of the most infamous women in rock history. Killer haircuts (well, at least the dude on the right). What more could you really ask for from an indie band these days?
How about a good song?
Well, Oh No Ono certainly has one [...]

You’ve no idea how stoked I am about this new Besnard Lakes album. Their last full-length release, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, was my co-favorite album of 2007 (along with Unsparing Sea’s A Cloud in the Cathedral), and while I’m admittedly a man prone to superlatives, I sincerely cannot think of an album [...]

Here in Cleveland, the sometimes vaguely accurate weather gods we call meteorologists are calling for a foot or so of snow to dump on us over the next day. Hardly of epic proportions, but a pain in the ass nonetheless. In the very least, cause enough to void the social calendar (and work, if one [...]

Periodically, an exciting release slips past the entire Citizen Dick staff, resulting in much sheepishness and humility at our home office. Most recently, we missed the boat on November’s debut release from Lexington, Kentucky’s Thee American Revolution. This was a total ball-drop on our part. I mean, it isn’t like there is a shortage of [...]

I don’t know the guys in Worker Bee, nor have I ever communicated with them in any form, but I’m gonna go out on what I think is a pretty solid limb and say that they listened to a lot of Radiohead growing up.
The quartet originally came together in San Jose, CA, in 2006 and, [...]

A little more rawk than we usually get into here on Citizen Dick, there’s something impressive in the earnestness and, especially, in the guitars, on this track by Norman, Oklahoma’s Over Stars and Gutters that I dig. Something that reminds me of my high school years, when I started branching out more and more in [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another repeat performer in the Singles Club ranks. This time, it’s my pleasure to bring you a second dip for your Scott Sosebee (aka The King of Rocksprings) cone; click here for that first scoop in case you missed it the first time around. The second track off the recently [...]

Ever find yourself wondering what those loud as hell, feedback-driven, distortion crazy rockers really sound like? I sure do. I mean, I dig a wall of Marshalls as much or more than anyone else, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t wonder what it’d be like to hear J Mascis do an unplugged set. Thing [...]

When I listen to Elaine Lachica, I can’t help but think of Jessie Torrisi.
Strike that – when I listen to Elaine Lachica, I can’t help but think of her music in the same way I think of Jessie Torrisi’s music. Clearly, Lachica’s careful big city lounge sound is as different from Torrisi’s earthy Texas swing, [...]