Most Popular
-
The Talk of the Green Iguana
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
-
The She-Zebra
Will Erin Meehan be the first female ref in the NFL?
-
Are We There Yet?
Jeez, can we just embrace the electric car already?
-
Guitar Zero
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
-
Accidental Hit Man
Sure, Paul Brandreth talks like a wiseguy. But is he a cold-blooded killer?
-
Your Mom Thinks He’s Hot (6)
-
Man-Child in the Promised Land (5)
Pop star Sean Kingston hopes the party's just begun
-
The Talk of the Green Iguana (3)
Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
-
Guitar Zero (2)
Maybe the next generation won't even play instruments. Clapton and Hendrix? So passé.
-
Shooting the Moon (2)
Aim high or aim low, you're bound to hit something, even if it's the sleep button
-
Cheat Sheet to Langerado
-
Licensed to Chill
How the Beasties went from hip-hop pranksters to musical renaissance men
-
Paul Potts
-
Not Your Father's N Word
Eight months after its "burial," the world's most dangerous epithet is more popular than ever in hip-hop
-
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
-
Owen Wilson And His Hat Visit FTL
09:18AM 03/08/08 -
Pruitt Egged By CNBC's Cramer
02:57PM 03/07/08 -
Palm Beach Post Publisher Giuffrida Stepping Down
10:18AM 03/07/08 -
G. Love and Special Sauce Hit Langerado
07:45PM 03/09/08 -
Langerado Last Night: Matt Pond PA and the Walkmen
04:56PM 03/08/08 -
Langerado: No Vampire! Denied!
04:45PM 03/08/08
What we are writing about
- Anoushka Shankar and...
- anything goes here
- B-Side Players
- BankAtlantic Center
- Black Guayaba
- Body/Antibody
- Cate Blanchett
- Deerfield Beach
- FLIFF
- Guillermo Trujillo:...
- his landscapes feel...
- Kid Rock
- Marcus Carl Franklin
- Maroon 5
- Natalie Cole
- National Collage Society
- No World for Tomorrow
- October 11 through...
- October 19 at the Rose...
- Q&A
- Rio de Janeiro
- Sharon Jones and the...
- The Afromotive
- The Cribs
- The Darjeeling Limited
- Top DVD picks
- Transformers
- Various artists
- will.i.am
- Written and directed...
Recent Articles By Sam Machkovech
-
Outkast
Idlewild (LaFace)
-
Cex
Actual Fucking (Automation)
-
They Shoot Horses Don't They
Boo Hoo Hoo Boo (Kill Rock Stars) (Mute)
-
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names
#3 (Labrador)
-
Madonna
Confessions on a Dance Floor (Maverick)
National Features
-
Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Subject(s): Shapes and Sizes
In the indie-rock canon, the Pacific Northwest gets its rep mostly from its Seattle and Olympia greats. But the best Pac-NW album of the year is just a ferry ride away from Seattle, and perhaps the short distance (and free Canadian health care) was all it took for Victoria, British Columbia,'s Shapes and Sizes to craft such a captivating love letter to the region. The quartet's self-titled debut is easy to geographically spot, from the Built to Spill-like guitar hooks in "Weekends at a Time" to the Sleater-Kinney-type grrrl-gruff on "Goldenhead." But it's much harder to pin down, as songs frequently transform and shapeshift, not spastically but tastefully; it's the best pop-rock combo of ambition and catchiness released so far this year. The opener, "Island's Gone Bad," is indie-rock's Lord of the Flies, as the soft Modest Mouse-style tune about a stranded relationship explodes into a manic-depressive, trumpet-loaded romp: "I like eating fruit out of trees when I'm with you," Caila Thompson-Hannant wails while the rest of the band chants panic beneath her beauty. The bleak horn section and minor-key flicks of guitar on "Wilderness" recall the lush melancholy of the Notwist before the song transforms into a quirky, piano-pop take on the head-bobbery of the Starlight Mints. After listening to these ten dizzying songs, you might need free Canadian health care too — Shapes and Sizes could make you pass out.
