Email Author Ray Cummings

2006 Stories by Ray Cummings

• Parson Sound

  published December 14, 2006

  Eons before being a Swedish muso meant that one endlessly turned-out plasticine variations on dance cheese or lil' diva pop, Parson Sound was... More >>

• Young Love

  published November 23, 2006

  Linkin Park and Evanescence achieved massive success in the earlier half of this decade for two reasons: inflated, therapy-session-worthy... More >>

• Animal Collective

  published November 9, 2006

  Some treasures are better left unearthed, lest the cold light of day reveal them to be something less than life-changing and invaluable.... More >>

• Battle of Mice

  published November 9, 2006

  Splitting the difference between postrock and ambient metal, Red Sparowes' tired, portenteous seltzer-soaks barely register, and Made Out of... More >>

• Swan Lake

  published November 9, 2006

  You'd think Dan Bejar had enough work on his damn plate already. Yet downtime from the New Pornographers (where he is a bit player) and Destroyer... More >>

• Ovo

  published October 19, 2006

  Metal signifiers prominently figure into the music of Italian duo Ovo: Bruno's snare 'n' tom bash-dash underscoring Stefania Pedretti's strained... More >>

• Ensemble feat. Lou Barlow

  published October 5, 2006

  Olivier Alary — a.k.a. Ensemble — cobbles a Rotoscoping four-poster bed for lover-boy schlub Lou to project from, all digitized... More >>

• Lithops

  published September 28, 2006

  This extended fit of arrhythmic bit-crush, courtesy of Mouse on Mars' Jan St. Werner, is a lot like listening to someone make an IDM martini... More >>

• Pit Er Pat

  published September 21, 2006

  Less constrained than last year's rousing but rigid Shakey, Pyramids nonetheless feels cut from the same jib, snorting of goth... More >>

• The Places

  published September 21, 2006

  "How I longed to kiss those sweet lips/Those sweet lips, the mouthpiece for a dick," Amy Annelle muses at the close of the sort-of pop-basic,... More >>

• So Percussion

  published September 21, 2006

  Forget about Mick 'n' Keef, Autechre, Cam'ron, Tortoise, whomever — all gentlemen among many who have shown the world at large a... More >>

• The Killers

  published September 21, 2006

  Gratuitous religious referents plus a pointedly populist, world-beating hook that could take down the Taj Mahal equals yet another gang of young... More >>

• Yo La Tengo

  published August 31, 2006

  A rocked-out brawn-versus-hazy beauty dichotomy has always been key to this Hoboken, New Jersey trio's Sonic Youth-meets-Velvet Underground M.O.... More >>

• Dosh

  published August 31, 2006

  Anticon, undie? Not really, anymore: cLOUDDEAD was barely hip-hop to begin with, and Why? came out as Pavement Mach 2 last year. So here's... More >>

• Sugarcult

  published August 31, 2006

  Having shamelessly pleaded for nookie last year — in the Latin-tinged solo single "Lonely No More" — Matchbox Twenty heartthrob Rob... More >>

• The Blow

  published August 24, 2006

  Has Khaela Maricich fallen in love? The zippiest, kickiest tune on Paper Television, "Parentheses" keyboard-bops with an ear-to-ear grin... More >>

• Weird Weeds

  published August 10, 2006

  Austin, Texas trio the Weird Weeds are likely to get their due in another decade or so, when some upstarts stumble upon their catalogue and —... More >>

• Sufjan Stevens

  published August 10, 2006

  In a nutshell: A glob of autumnal piano dolor inches tentatively forward into a wasp's nest of teed-off, antsy guitars, bells, and violins,... More >>

• Wolf Eyes

  published August 3, 2006

  A vile slaughterhouse hostility emanates from Michigan's Wolf Eyes. The clanks, hisses, scrapes, and flayed vocal disarray of their music is... More >>

• Tapes 'n Tapes

  published August 3, 2006

  No band lives up to its hype when said hype has reached fever-pitch, blog-to-blog pinball proportions, but it should be noted that a number of... More >>

• Lupe Fiasco

  published August 3, 2006

  Chicago MC Lupe Fiasco achieves a remarkable duality on his first single, a soulful, summertime love letter to skateboarding (wherever you can,... More >>

• The Cairo Gang

  published July 13, 2006

  Chicago quartet the Cairo Gang represents pathos in its many forms — sometimes enraged, other times outwardly tranquil, mostly just sorta... More >>

• Peaches

  published July 6, 2006

  "I'd rather fuck who I want/Than kill who I am told to" are the first words Peaches (a.k.a. Merrill Beth Nisker of Germany) hollers, like a... More >>

• Grizzly Bear

  published July 6, 2006

  "What now?/What now?/What now?/What now whaaaaaaaaaat?" wonders this Brooklyn boy's choir, ethereal and cosmic, from a rosy, wavering... More >>

• Tam

  published July 6, 2006

  All over her self-titled debut, Tam sings like she's loaded or a few hours removed from that state, and the music is just as drunk — a... More >>