INDIE FOLK
“Makers”
Rocky Votolato
Barsuk
It’s so easy to listen to “White Daisy Passing,” the first track on this ambitious record, and dismiss Rocky Votolato as yet another Iron & Wine clone – albeit a very good one.
But that’s far from reality. Listen again, and it’s apparent Votolato is something different. He’s an accomplished singer-
songwriter unafraid of volume or emotion. Most of his work is much bolder and more accessible than Iron & Wine – but not in a way that makes this album pedestrian.
In some places, his folk is unremarkably written without its own character stamp. Elsewhere he’s a unique artist with obvious leanings toward the moody (the downtempo “Where We Left Off”) and contemplative (the alt-country title track) in a manner that is as moving as it is inobtrusive.
– Ricardo Baca
POST-PUNK
“Holding on to Hand Grenades”
The Beatings
Midriff
The legacy of Boston post-punk legends Mission of Burma is alive and well in The Beatings, a Brooklyn-by-way-of-
Beantown quartet that deals in snarling guitars and propulsive drumming. Melodic, melancholy vocals trade off evenly between the avuncular baritone of Tony Skalicky and the strangled-cat yelp of Frank Black sound-alike Eldridge Rodriguez, with a smattering of bassist Erin Dalbec near disc’s end.
Producer Paul Kolderie (Radiohead, Sebadoh, Buffalo Tom) imparts curious grit and analog-warmth on stompers like “This City Is Killing Me” and “Upstate Flashbacks,” two tracks on which drummer Dennis Grabowski’s bone-shattering beats have never sounded better. “Holding on to Hand Grenades” leaves you with the feeling that The Beatings are ready to annihilate the world’s post-punk poseurs, even if they have to do it with a heavy heart.
– John Wenzel
