Our team of writers share their thoughts and feelings about music they, generally, like. Where possible, we present tracks for you to listen, download, and decide for yourself. Register with groovemine.com to join the discussion below and throughout the site.



Root for Ruin by Les Savy Fav
TEXT: MICHELLE McGLYNN
It’s a rare occurrence to still be deemed a culturally relevant band well over a decade into your career, but it’s even more of an oddity to be pushing forty and releasing what is probably your best album to date. This is exactly the kind of accomplishment Les...  [continue reading]


The Monitor by Titus Andronicus
TEXT: ADAM SHANLEY
When it comes to Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor, there is no such thing as hyperbole. There’s simply isn’t a way to describe this album well enough to get across the point of how amazingly complete, perfectly executed and complex it is. There is so...  [continue reading]


Questioner (self-titled)
TEXT: NEIL LEVENS
It seems a persistent reality that most metal is like a royal family: lots of inbreeding. And with very few variations being introduced into the gene pool, everything stagnates, and even regresses. Bands like Meshuggah, Mastadon and Tombs have done...  [continue reading]


1 Inch/½ Mile by Grasscut
TEXT: LYNN SHER
Grasscut’s debut album, 1 Inch/½ Mile, starts with the simple striking of piano keys and a sampled voice saying, “These forms exist. They simply have fallen into disrepair.” This is, at once, poignant, surreal and totally captivating. By the time the song intensifies...  [continue reading]

The Suburbs >> Arcade Fire
The most important thing to understand about The Suburbs is that it’s Arcade Fire’s least great album. Key to that understanding, however, is this equally-important...  [continue reading]



Crazy for You >> Best Coast
Perhaps, the most apt and potentially trite criticism that can be made about Best Coast’s debut LP is that it’s too simple. Thematically, the album rarely...  [continue reading]



Music For Dreaming & Playing >> Kristin Miltner
At some distant point in a much-distant future, something like this will be used to filter through the airwaves of an arboretum on Venus. The Library Catalog Music Series...  [continue reading]



Pushing Air >> Janaka Selekta
While it’s typically difficult to incorporate traditional sounds from across the globe into contemporary electronic music, it’s an even thornier problem trying to get...  [continue reading]



Pigeons >> Here We Go Magic
The brainchild of veteran Brooklyn-based indie-folkie Luke Temple, Here We Go Magic’s modest origins lie in a lambent debut recorded entirely by the artist in his Greenpoint...  [continue reading]



The Way Out >> The Books
It’s been five years since the last album from The Books. For most bands, that span of inactivity would be enough to enter them to the vat of obscurity. However, for... [continue reading]



Before Today >> Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
For an artist who never brought his songs into a proper studio, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti hits the mark with his latest record, out on 4AD. Before Today is strong...  [continue reading]



Wonder Wheel 1 >> Paul A. Rosales
With his debut solo album Paul A. Rosales creates a complex sound world that completely envelopes the listener from first track to last. With an understated guitar...  [continue reading]



James Holden: DJ Kicks
The issue of remixes is a tricky subject. Often devalued as monatizing gimmicks (not unjustly, in some cases), those who take the time to digest these interpretations...  [continue reading]



Saul >>The Whitsundays
Don’t be fooled into thinking that The Whitsundays’ second album, Saul, is solely an album consisting of ten well-written rock songs. Just below the surface of practically...  [continue reading]



The Drums (self-titled)
Maintaining an authentic sound in 2010 hasn’t been an easy feat in a year that has produced a slew of fizzling novelty genres like glo-fi and chillwave. Additionally, the...  [continue reading]



Champ >> Tokyo Police Club
June 8, 2010 saw the release of the 2nd full-length album by Toronto area band Tokyo Police Club. Champ is a big step forward in terms of songwriting and dynamics...  [continue reading]



Total Life Forever >> Foals
Occasionally a song will come along that is so sonically flawless, that short of the artist responsible committing mass murder or worse—selling their music to....  [continue reading]



Treats >> Sleigh Bells
If the Brooklyn scene is united by any one factor it would be its defiance towards pop music's standard tropes—there, perhaps, but most certainly not there. Brooklyn...  [continue reading]



Nothing Hurts >> Male Bonding
Lo-fi is an extremely ambiguous descriptor. By definition, lo-fi is “music in which the sound is of a lower quality than the usual standard.” But as of late the term lo-fi...  [continue reading]



Swung from the Branches >> Foxes in Fiction
This is the kind of music that is, essentially, perfect. Every nuance from the soothing reverb to the soft vocal delivery to the sputtering tape edits and buzz helps contribute...  [continue reading]



Expo 86 >> Wolf Parade
The 1986 Vancouver World Expo was a magical time. Miles Davis, Johnny Cash and The Beach Boys performed; a Floating McDonalds and the world’s...  [continue reading]



Perch Patchwork >> Maps & Atlases
Perch Patchwork, the new album from Chicago’s Maps & Atlases, is exactly what a true fan of the band would want it to be. Simply put, it is chock full of classic M&A’s...  [continue reading]



Spirituals (self-titled)
There seems to be a significant lack of music in the area of mainstream consumption that sounds natural. Something always seems intentional, some great effort...  [continue reading] 



Bedford Park >> The Infesticons
An intensely prolific veteran of New York's punk, hip-hop, and poetry slam scenes, The Infesticons’ Mike Ladd could be characterized as the Michael McClure to Bill Laswell’s...  [continue reading]



Topp stemning på lokal bar >> Casiokids
Usually, lyrics play a big part in the music I listen to. Bands like Los Campesinos! write obscenely clever breakup songs. The almighty Pavement frequently pen paragraphs...  [continue reading]



House of Tongues >> Elk City
House of Tongues is a culmination of the pinnacles of different eras of music. This amalgamation of era, intertwined with the exemplary vocal stylings of Renee LoBue, her...  [continue reading]



One Hundred Miles Down the Nile >> In Lunar Blue
Sometimes it feels like a breath of fresh air to be proved wrong. Some time ago, it seemed as though the Seattle's hard rock scene had become stagnant, uncreative or....  [continue reading]



Constellations >> The Picturesque Episodes
A swirling, cinematic journey through textured post-rock and cosmic-rock soundscapes, Constellations perfectly captures that blend of introspection and...  [continue reading]



A Determinism of Morality >> Rosetta
In an era where bands from across the globe are flocking to the 'post-rock' flag, the ranks are becoming thicker and the individuals less distinct. Few acts...  [continue reading]



Maniac Meat >> Tobacco
Tobacco has done to synthesizers what Iron Butterfly has done to traditional instruments: perpetuated the legend that, with the right substances, euphoric sensations...  [continue reading]



Hunger and Thirst >> Typhoon
I gave Typhoon’s second full length release, Hunger and Thirst, a few good listens before I looked online to see what their story was. It blew
my mind to...  [continue reading]



Relayted >> Gayngs
Now I’ll be honest—I was almost predestined to fall in love with Relayted. “I’m Not In Love” by 10cc is one of my absolute favorite songs, and Gayngs started...  [continue reading]



Talk Strange: A Beat Tape Inspired >> Bjork by DERT
Every audiophile, no matter the genre, shares one very universal experience. One event in our endless search for harmony that reminds us why we...  [continue reading]



This Is Happening >> LCD Soundsytem
It’s nothing new to say that falling in love with bands the way one used to has become tougher and tougher as the information super highway continues to permeate...  [continue reading]



Together >> The New Pornographers
When I was 15 years-old, I flew to Minneapolis for a week to join a music program in which I studied jazz bass. While there, I met a rock-centric guitarist...  [continue reading]