Album Reviews The EpoxiesStop the Future (Fat Wreck Chords)ROXY EPOXY LEADS HER ARMY OF ELECTRICAL-TAPE-WEARING COMRADES IN A NEW WAVE THROWDOWN. SOUNDS EXCITING, HUH? IT AIN'T.Yodeling was never considered sexy un ...   More

Album Reviews The Mountain GoatsThe Sunset Tree (4AD)NEVER LACKING A DITTY OR A HORRIBLE STORY FROM HIS YOUTH, JOHN DARNIELLE RELEASES HIS 13TH ALBUM AS THE MOUNTAIN GOATS.Why can't every album be like this? Why ca ...   More

Album Reviews MobyHotel (V2)MOBY'S HOTEL HASN'T BEEN RENOVATED SINCE 1995, AND THOSE STAINS ON THE SHEETS JUST AREN'T THAT APPEALING.Moby's 1995 album, Everything Is Wrong, proved that electronic music could be hea ...   More

Album Reviews Crooked FingersDignity and Shame (Merge)ERIC BACHMANN STICKS OUT HIS NECK AND SINGS TO THE HEAVENS, INDUCING BOTH CRINGES AND WONDER.On every record he makes, Eric Bachmann pushes his instantly recogn ...   More

Album Reviews BeckGuero (Interscope)WHITE BOY BECK ABSORBENT AS EVER, SPEAKING FROM THE BARRIO TO THE POP CHARTS.An artist like Beck could only exist in a world where Latinos love Morrissey, American kids love Japa ...   More

Album Reviews 50 CentThe Massacre (Interscope)50 CENT GETS RICH, AND WE WILL NOW DIE TRYIN' TO GET HIM TO QUIT.A couple of years ago 50 Cent slammed onto the scene with all the right ingredients for success-a good ...   More

Album Reviews M.I.A.Arular (XL)Arular, the long-awaited debut album from M.I.A., opens with a 30-second language lesson that has the MC, Maya Arulpragasam, sounding like a cockney Harry Belafonte parodying that two ...   More

Album Reviews Shonen KnifeBurning FarmYama-no AttchanPretty Little Baka Guy712(Oglio)BANANAS AND BARBIE TOGETHER AGAIN WITH THE RELEASE OF THE FIRST 10 YEARS OF JAPANESE SUGAR-PUNK TRIO.Shonen Knife was one of Kurt ...   More

Album Reviews Stereo TotalDo the Bambi(Kill Rock Stars)BERLINERS DO BAMBI, PROVE THAT FRENCH AND GERMAN CHEESE JUST TASTES BETTER.François Cactus is French and Brezel Göring is German, which doesn't qui ...   More

Album Reviews Louis XIVIllegal Tender(Pineapple/Atlantic)SUN KINGS CRIB SEXY ROYAL 'TUDE FROM QUEEN AND THE STOOGES,CONSTRUCT CHEEKIEST ODE TO WOMANHOOD SINCE "CALIFORNIA GIRLS."When Louis XIV's Jason Hill spatters ...   More