AU “Both Lights” Album Review – 3/27/12 – Prefix

“As a musician, Luke Wyland wears his classically trained chops on his sleeve. Listen to any track from the catalog of his Portland-based, experimental folk-pop project AU and it’s fairly obvious the guy is an immensely talented vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Marked with equal parts jazz-influenced and indie rock bombast, each of AU’s first three releases (2007’s self-titled debut, 2008’sVerbs, and 2009’s Visions) featured a talented, small village of collaborators that admirably buoyed Wyland’s seismic musical vision. He knows how to mess with a time signature, his arrangements are almost always impressively grand, and the AU modus operandi revolves around crafting sprawling albums that are both borderline virtuosic and unapologetically dense. ” AU Both Lights album review – Prefix.

La Sera – “Sees the Light” – Album Review – 3/21/12 – Prefix

“I’m almost positive “Kickball Katy” Goodman is an innocent. For all the posing, quasi-ironic naivete that gets batted around amongst the female indie rock set today (Bethany Constantino of Best Coast is probably the brightest example), Goodman’s endearingly precious persona never seems feigned or detached. As a result, she’s always been a terrific foil for her Vivian Girls band mate Cassie Ramone, who’s unpolished singing voice, guitar work, and aggressively apathetic stage presence are perfectly complimented by Goodman’s cooing, fragile back up harmonies, nimble bass lines, and blissful dreamer aura.

Subtract Ramone from the equation and you get Goodman’s solo project La Sera which, as expected, resembles a gauzy Polaroid of a Vivian Girls’ record on the self-titled 2011 debut, sanding down any punkish, riotgrrl inflections and replacing them with waves of sparse, C86-inspired noise pop. The album was undeniably pretty (and Goodman was up to the task of being a lead vocalist) but still felt slight and ephemeral, clocking in at only 26 minutes. In the end, little room was left for Goodman to slide out of her comfort zone.” La Sera Sees the Light album review at Prefix.

Tanlines – “Mixed Emotions” Album Review – 3/19/12 – Prefix

“It’s been extremely intriguing to watch the evolution of Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen’s Brooklyn based, indie dance project Tanlines since their first single “New Flowers” appeared from the music blogosphere ether in 2008. And while, almost immediately, there was discussion regarding the supposed dissonance in sound between Tanlines and Emm and Cohen’s former projects (math rock legends Don Caballero and jittery dance punk outfit Professor Murder, respectively) “New Flowers,” a swift, bongo and synth laden dance tune accented by wordless harmonies, was actually an example of how the duo combined the intricate, jazzy flourishes of Don Cab with the pulsing sheen of contemporary dance music to forge a more cerebral, less ephemeral version of the Tough Alliance.” Tanlines Mixed Emotions album review at Prefix.

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