Email Author Johnny Loftus

2009 Stories by Johnny Loftus

• Bryan Scary & the Shredding Tears+Jersey Band

  published December 29, 2009

  Bryan Scary is one of these do-everything guys, and this corresponds to his being pop-obsessed: The music, the production, the flouncy scarves.... More >>

• Hatebreed

  published December 15, 2009

  A mighty diesel engine hacks up a lung. It turns over and begins to chug. A heavy-duty forklift is affixed with a ram pole and pulverizes boulders... More >>

• Love as Laughter

  published December 8, 2009

  The tale of the tape might not have predicted Love as Laughter's conversion. From making lowest-fi pop spazz back there in the '90s, K Shield... More >>

• Keren Ann

  published December 8, 2009

  Maybe it's the New York aroma that's soaked steadily into Keren Ann's leather jacket. After all, Nolita has been one of the borderless... More >>

• The Shaky Hands

  published December 1, 2009

  Tremors, the desert worm B-movie featuring the dad from Family Ties as a survivalist with a heart of gold, is always on TV. It's... More >>

• Pelican

  published November 24, 2009

  We can all smell what Pelican is cooking. What We All Come to Need, the instru-metalists' fourth full-length, finds them on the flesh side... More >>

• Loney, Dear

  published October 13, 2009

  When Swedish guys cry, their tears turn into little dollops of cute. That's the only (only!) answer for how the music of Emil Svanängen,... More >>

• The Warlocks

  published August 11, 2009

  Who is Bobby Hecksher's dark master? The answer is concealed from the view of civilized man. Don't bother questioning his bandmates; the chief... More >>

• HEALTH+Awesome Color+Kid Congo Powers

  published June 10, 2009

  On "Die Slow," the lead single from their upcoming second album, HEALTH return like a less brainy Battles banged into the shape of vintage... More >>

• Mika

  published June 10, 2009

  In 2007, Mika's fluid, silky falsetto and bright-minded lyrical outlook made a worldwide hit out of Life in Cartoon Motion, the... More >>

• 'Northside Festival: Ninja Tune Showcase with Daedelus'

  published June 3, 2009

  He's a yeoman, this Daedelus. Live, he's accessorized with an ascot, a Mac, and racks of the LED bizarre. Our collective memories of analog '80s... More >>

• Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band+Disappears

  published May 27, 2009

  Anchors Dropped, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band's debut, drops via Dead Oceans, whose roster includes such wooze-pop alchemists as... More >>

• Melissa Ferrick+Hesta Prynn

  published May 27, 2009

  Prolific Boston-based singer/songwriter Ferrick is back with a new album, and if the polish and additional instrumentation on 2006's In the... More >>

• Jessica Lea Mayfield+Among the Oak & Ash

  published May 20, 2009

  Young Jessica Lea Mayfield has Dan Auerbach riding shotgun on With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, but the Black Key hangs back, sprinkling flecks... More >>

• Thrones+Blues Control+Lake+Popped Blimp

  published May 13, 2009

  With time served in Earth, Melvins, and SunnO))), Joe Preston is the 10-and-5 man of noise music, a wily noisenik veteran who just won't leave the... More >>

• The Bangles

  published May 13, 2009

  Nowadays the Bangles' core remains: Susanna Hoffs and the Peterson sisters, Vicki and Debbi. Said to be working on a new album, it's crazy talk to... More >>

• Azita

  published May 6, 2009

  Azita Youssefi has brushed away most of the no-wave burrs that stuck to her tunic during the Scissor Girls and Bride of No No years. But not all... More >>

• Monotonix

  published May 6, 2009

  Monotonix, the Tel Avivian blunderbuss, live forever torch to fuse. Garage rock razor wire, boogie with a bad attitude, and chest hair sweat with... More >>

• Ghost+Magik Markers

  published April 29, 2009

  It's been over two decades, but Ghost is still in the machine, likely replanting the guts so that weird green sprouts might one day shoot from its... More >>

• Elizabeth Harper

  published April 29, 2009

  Elizabeth Harper says she chucked the piano for her second album with the Matinee, instead centering its songs around electric guitar. Oh, and... More >>

• Peter Bjorn & John+Chairlift

  published April 22, 2009

  What's that kid's choir saying in "Nothing to Worry About," the lead single from Peter Bjorn and John's Living Thing? "Octo-Mom in a... More >>

• Lady Gaga

  published April 22, 2009

  When the world finally ends, the detritus of humanity's YouTube files, credit card slips, cellular ringback tones, and forgotten MySpace layouts... More >>

• Quintron+Miss Pussycat

  published April 15, 2009

  Dancers, don't trip over the roots. At Quintron gigs, they snake across a floor that's suddenly made of dirt, thick tendons of Cypress cultivated... More >>

• Julie Doiron+Katie Stelmanis

  published April 15, 2009

  She collaborated with ex-Eric's Trip bandmate Rick White for I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, her latest solo effort. But as Julie... More >>

• The Drones

  published March 25, 2009

  2005's Wait Long by the River was the Drones' U.S. breakthrough, and that shit was ferocious. But the Australian quartet's humbucker scrawl... More >>