SPEAK Easy

Youth Lagoon The Year of Hibernation Boise, ID “An ambient look back at childhood” Only in his early twenties, Trevor Powers of Youth Lagoon already reminisces about childhood innocence in his debut...

Wing and Hollow Frozen Trees Los Angeles, CA “For that intimate club feeling at home” Frozen Trees, a self-released album from husband-and-wife duo Haven and Jill Lamoureux, is a melancholy, yet...

Tyler Ramsey The Valley Wind Asheville, NC “Guitars on top of a mountain…in the middle of the ocean” Tyler Ramsey might have felt like a lucky guy when Band of Horses recruited the North...

Topshelf Records 2011 Label Sampler Boston, MA “68 bands for the price of validation” It’s essentially impossible to review this sampler. To start, it’s free. For the price of clicking “like” on...

VINYL OF THE MONTH The Stone Foxes Psycho b/w Serious People San Francisco, CA “The Black Keys meet the Grateful Dead” Psycho - The Stone Foxes by SidewaysMedia Distorted vocals, commanding chords,...

Pterodactyl Spills Out Brooklyn, NY "Angular guitars, blistering rhythms, paranoid vocals” Offering one of the finest, most triumphant albums of the year, Brooklyn’s intricate trio Pterodactyl is...

Peter Wolf Crier Garden of Arms Minneapolis, MN “Tightly-woven mix of electronic beats, soulful guitar, and searching lyrics” With Garden of Arms, Peter Wolf Crier’s second album, the band has built...

Nurses Dracula Portland, OR “Fanged avant-pop” In 2009, the Portland-based trio Nurses released Apple’s Acre. Though the LP’s release did not create much buzz in the blogosphere, it did help the...

Nappy Riddem One World Sovereignty Washington, D.C. “Riddem’s stellar rhythms are undeniable” Given the name Nappy Riddem, one might expect an album with a stereotypical roots take on reggae, but...