Album reviewing isn’t that glamorous: we get so many submissions that literally, all we want to do is curl up in the shower naked like Glenn Close in the beginning of The Big Chill because we just feel so defeated and confused, without answers to the meaning of it all! By providing us with those answers, you also provide yourself with a big leg up against the competition.

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All photography by Debi Del Grande “The first time we played here was a disaster,” singer Jon King admitted early into the night. Apparently last time U.K. post-punk legends Gang of Four came to the Music Box, their bass player ran into a steel pillar, shattered his nose to pieces, and the blood poured thick. [...]

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Music & art collective Heard of Elephants’ February residency at Synchronicity Space was a multimedia explosion of art, photo, video, experimental bands, some comedy, and free drinks.

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On the surface, We Be Xuxa almost seems like a retread of old school American punk, but actually it evokes without constant copying—it’s fresh-faced punk, yet my heart hears Born Innocent-era Redd Kross in their sisterly choruses, and early early Black Flag or even Ramones in their strumming (minus Greg Ginn’s noodling) and Wipers downturns on the chords, and a Darby Crash-like insistence on writing lyrics too self-referential and profound to sing straight into the microphone. And there’s even a Urinals cover!?! And there’s a Beach Blvd-esque melodicism to Jessie Clavin’s bass lines, one that perfectly matches their Descendants-like love of making up pragmatic gerunds such as “Totion.” A lot of reviewers have said these gals (et dude) sound like X-Ray Spex, but that is a lazy lie!

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The Warlocks have been panned for both self-similarity and for trying different sounds, for taking drugs and not taking drugs, for their chaos and careerism. At this point in their career, if they made a fantastic album, would anyone stop coming up with memes long enough to notice?

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[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP2YydjRRUk] Cameron of Glasser (interviewed here and reviewed here) sends us her new video for “Apply,” directed by Jacinto Astiazarán. Watch for Glasser’s EP soon on True Panther Sound!

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The Monotonix threesome is the hairiest, sweatiest 3-headed creature since mythological times. There’s a blues-riffing guitar and a rousing drumbeat, but the physicality of the band’s performance overshadows everything else. The look in singer Levi “Ha Haziz” Elvis’s eyes, wide open and peering about, is louder than the English and/or Hebrew words he’s growling into the microphone.

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This is an album to listen to in the dark, and to listen to LOUD. By the time you get to the last track, and Timms starts screaming like Cronos from Venom, you’ll realize that while these guys are playing their cards a bit close on their first release, they’ll probably be doing some really original and evil stuff in the years to come.

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Some reviewers seem to be approaching Nathan Williams’ band Wavves with caution because of his similarities to more successful noise bands, when what this dude really needs is a high-five and some nurturing love to help him move into the more original style he hints at—and sometimes really nails—with Wavvves. Some songs on here are repeats of what we’ve seen before—even repeats of each other. But the album still really rocks and shines, and could shine more if Williams could be encouraged to dive head first into his own headspace.

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On Le Switch’s latest 3-song EP, The Devil Needs a Cough Drop, singer Aaron Kyle sounds like he could use one as well. Kyle sings with an extreme urgency—a vocal style that falls somewhere between Memphis soul and death metal. It’s a voice that can overwhelm a recording, but Le Switch has a tightness and a confidence that you would expect from a band that has been one of the best and most prolific live acts in the Silverlake scene.

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