Steaming on through the weekend, Free Week at Emo's continues Monday night with a mostly local smattering of acts at the lounge and inside stages. more ›

Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The UK (Astralwerks): If Talking Heads were last year's band to emulate, The Boss is certainly the sound of 2006. After seeing a great Springsteen record from The Hold Steady and a suspect one from The Killers, we now find Brit Damon Gough wrapping himself in the English flag and turning up the shiny, Human Touch-style production. Unfortunately, Badly Drawn Boy's main charm were his lo-fi early songs... more ›

Primal Scream - Riot City Blues (Columbia): The Primals seem to have found a time machine. This disc sounds more like a follow-up to 1994's Stones-rock Give Out But Don't Give Up rather than anything they've done in the decade since. The electronics and experimentation from Vanishing Point on are all gone, replaced by throwaway lyrics like "Gotta keep on keepin' on," Rod Stewarty 'Maggie May'-style mandolins, and blues shuffles that place them firmly in Dadrock territory. While there's no doubt that the noisy sample-heavy phase of the Primals had run its course, it's hard to see this album as anything but a placeholder or (worse) a retreat. It sounds like it could've been made in a week, and while the songs are mostly fun, there's a lot of filler. Our advice: Primals fans should head for iTunes to grab 'Country Girl', 'Dolls', 'When The Bomb Drops' and 'Hell's Comin' Down' for four bucks, and let the rest of this one be. more ›