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Please check back January 2009.

These Familiar Days presents a familiar departure for steadfast Boston singer Max Heinegg. Those who knew Max’'s first band, The High Ceilings, (in which, yes, I had a cup of coffee on bass) could sense that quieter elements were percolating under the surface of the bombast. 2004’'s By June came closer to realizing those Nick Drake and Neil Young influences. With this latest release, Max takes yet-another step away from psychedelic-emo-band-leader toward folk-rocker poet. What is surprising is the depth of new instrumental color, namely keys and sax, which appear here. I’'m not sure it ...

Everything old is new again. Something Unknown will remain in your juke for some time to come, thanks to the waves of nostalgia it induces and the modernist directions that nostalgia rides off in. Singer Leah Callahan is a Boston vet with a varied body of work on the books. (Turkish Delight, Betwixt, et al.) Her experience filters those old Joy Division and Missing Persons influences into a set of sharply crafted nouveau-Brit nouveau wave that keeps pace with the Foo Fighters and U2. Guitarist Joel Cohen and drummer Allen Esser handle every turn, from flat-out to ...

There are several ways to approach The Wheel: listen to enjoy, listen to hear strong components, or listen to know what could be done a little better. Jennifer Matthews is a fierce talent, a folk chanteuse that can rock with definitive conviction. She is also an apt songsmith with a full toolbox at her disposal. Layers of crisp acoustic guitars and snarling electrics are informed by tasteful placement of baritone guitar and mandolin and organ, painting a sonic landscape owing as much to Zeppelin III as P.J. Harvey. This great work, however, is almost obscured by a ...

First of all, apologies from Low Budget Superhero to Rude Toys. It seems that our list of New England bands (the "MASSive Band List," under Resources) is not only out of date, it erroneously listed Rude Toys as defunct. Their press kit arrived with a note saying "we're not defunct!" They proved it by enclosing Feel No Guilt, a 13-song follow-up to 2004's Cry Out. Rude Toys are Tammy Schatz and Mike Myles on lead vocals and guitar respectively, CJ Cunningham on bass, and on drums the juicily-named Todd Cantalupo. Tammy and Mike write supremely confident ...

Why the hell am I hearing The Pretenders here? Okay Thursday owe more to the sunny Cali-twang of Jenny Lewis (with and without Rilo Kiley) than to that post-punk band from Ohio. Singer Sarah Korval reminds me much more of a sedate Johnette Napolitano than a sedate Chrissie Hynde, and there is no echo of James Honeyman-Scott’s signature twelve-string-with-chorus sound. And yet…and yet. Subliminal channels run shallow, I guess, because there, in addition to the aforementioned Jenny Lewis sound, is the sound of the early Pretenders. Honestly? I can’t explain that ...

Sabbath and Sunny Day Real Estate would be proud. The Vital Might channel both bands and go beyond into original territory on Obsidian, a release that reinforces its own urgency and import over 13 strongly crafted and performed songs. Singer/guitarist Andy Milk, bassist/singer Ben Didsbury and drummer Evan Kraker form a tight unit, able to pull off myriad stylistic considerations without collapsing into pretension. The songcraft is evident: while the band can veer from sustained wall-of-sound bridges to gentle clean chords and rim shot choruses on a dime, all transitions are logical, orderly and perfectly placed. No throwing ...

I don’t do cutesy. I don’t see any artistic merit in changing a perfectly good C to a K, and I’ll leave my punning to Will Shortz and the Times Crossword. What, then, am I to make of this Kill the Precedent from Kalvin Koolidge? Based on the band and album names (what precedent, exactly, are you killing here, Kalvin Koolidge?), I wasn’t expecting much. And the music didn’t do much to change my mind. Oh, there are some bright spots. Singer/guitarist Tommy Koolidge has a really good voice; sort of a cross between Paul Westerberg and Linkin ...

Sometimes the old "judging a book by its cover" adage comes at you full blast. With a press kit that makes a huge fuss over their multi-race band members (like it's groundbreaking), plus song lyrics that contain the band name (as annoying as spelling out words in lyrics, which they also do), I fully expected to hate Newmerika. Hate 'em like I hate jelly shoes. But I could not have been more wrong. With just one listen, Newmerika proves that accessible, refreshingly tuneful rock rap is possible if you just focus on the groove, strip out ...

In the music and lyrics of 80s glam rock gods and today’s coiffed, vinyl-clad revivalists who worship them, there’s an obvious penchant for a sleazy, swaggering sort of kitsch. This is, after all, a gloriously androgynous subculture where sometimes, musically, style trumps substance, much the same way certain young men spend a ton of money on hair products to look like they don’t spend any money on hair products (you know who you are, Bedhead boy). That being the case, then The Daily Pravda should be filed under something other than “Brit pop revivalists.” There’s no shortage ...