Okay, before we begin, there are some things we must know about El Guincho. First of all, El Guincho is one man, Pablo Díaz-Reixa, and he named his album after the uninhabited island of Alegranza, which is at the northeastern tip of the Canary Islands, which are—of course this is common knowledge—an autonomous domain of Spain located on the west coast of Africa. Díaz-Reixa is from these Canary Islands, and, via Barcelona, he creates swirling and excitable indie pop using loops and samples and an amalgam of musical influences ranging from Benga (Kenyan traditional music) to Bhangra (Indian folk) to any brand of tropicalia that flies well above the head of our good friend Jimmy Buffett....

Dear reader, we’re sure you’ll agree that it’s been too long since we’ve heard from our favorite Bear Den/music venue, The Chain Drive, up there on Willow Street. ...

Belaire'sExploding Impacting is an album that very well captures the essence of summer madness: the spectral emotional range goes from playful romanticism ("You Really Got Me Goin'") to the deeply reflective ("Waiting Patiently" and You're Not A Kid Anymore". ) The band's sound is somewhere between '60s Brazilian Tropicalia (Caetano Velosco, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes) and early '80s synth-pop (Gary Numan, Talking Heads, OMD) taken in a new direction. Though twin sisters Cari and Christa......

After an incredibly (too) long hiatus, the lovable local kaleidoscopic synth pop band Belaire return with a brand new album titled Exploding, Impacting, despite the non-stop touring schedule of members Jason Chronis and Matt Simon (thanks to a little side project they have called Voxtrot) and twin sister (and singing partner) Christa Palazzolo now living in New York City. The album is a tour de force of Cari Palazzolo, who, with this release, has emerged......

We've been fans of Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche ever since happening upon his spectacular 2004 release, Two Way Monologue. Lerche (that's “Lurk-uh”, not “Lurch,” or "Lur-chey") credits his heartfelt, folksy pop stylings to a veritable goulash of decades-spanning influences, from Brazilian psych-rockers Os Mutantes and Elvis Costello (whom he recently toured with) to XTC and Fleetwood Mac. His latest album, Phantom Punch, was released a few weeks ago, and brims with the same youthful......