The Rapture – Pieces of the People 
We Love
After a long three years since the New York City quartet’s first LP, Echoes, the band returns with Pieces of the People We Love, released 9/12/2006 on Vertigo/Motown. The Rapture decided to drop their former producers, The DFA, and team up with Paul Epworth, who worked with Bloc Party, Ewan Pearson, and the DJ Danger Mouse, which was a very smart move for the band. In between an 18 month, hectic touring schedule, the Rapture recorded their sophomore full length and the ruthless efficiency shows through the straight up hipster dance attack that is Pieces of the People We Love, which makes the three-year hiatus well worth it. The first single off the album, “Get Myself Into It,” might be The Rapture’s best single to date. It is smooth and ultra danceable, with large amounts of bass and a horn hook that is impossible to ignore. Although the album isn’t very deep, with song titles like “Whoo! Alright – Yeah…Uh Huh,” but for what the album lacks in lyrics and profundity, it makes up for with fat bass, retro keys, and a funky dance record with guitars. Entertainment Weekly says, “It’s good to hear these hip-shaking hipsters cutting loose with such abandon” While Rolling Stone says, “Lots of cowbell. Lots of Bass.” Pieces of the People We Love was worth the wait.
http://www.therapturemusic.com/ - Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/therapture - For tour dates, band information, etc.
http://www.amazon.com - To purchase Pieces of the People We Love
TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain
TV on the Radio’s highly anticipated sophomore LP was released on 9/12/2006 on 
Interscope Records (which is also their major label debut). The band, based out of New York, is constantly changing shape and exploring endless possibilities, which makes it hard to pinpoint the band into a certain genre. Whatever type of music you classify the band into, it is obvious that TV on the Radio has talent and a sound that makes the listener lose themselves, and this not any different on Return to Cookie Mountain. The opening track, “I Was a Lover,” establishes that there are no rules on this album. At times, the experimentalism of the song seems almost improvised, but the sound just seems to click. On track five, “Wolf Like Me,” the song is more organized, with steady drumming and melodic chord progression. Return to Cookie Mountain continues throughout this way, with an experimental song that lack rules, and then a complete contrast into a song that has structure and melody, keeping the listener on their toes. The album even includes the song “Tonight” which features David Bowie. According to the New York Times, “It’s more experimental yet catchier, more introspective yet more assertive, by turns gloomier and funnier, and above all richer in both sound and implication. Return to Cookie Mountain is simply one of this year’s best albums.”
http://www.tvontheradio.com/ - Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/tvotr -For tour dates, band information, etc.
www.amazon.com - To purchase Return to Cookie Mountain
Cursive – Happy Hollow
Tim Kasher, Cursive’s frontman, has always had change on his mind, and Happy 
Hollow released on 8/22/2006 on Saddle Creek Records is no different. The post-punk band has reinvented itself a few times over the past decade with the changes usually coming after a short-lived breakup. However, as seen with 2000’s Domestica, which transformed the band from a typical emo band into a forceful, D.C. style post-punk band, and then again with 2003’s The Ugly Organ, which added a cellist and the songs grew more complex with subtle experimentalism, the change continues with Happy Hollow. Now, after a Cursive breakup that allowed Kasher to focus on his side project, The Good Life, the band reconvened in summer 2005, which resulted in another fiery and intense album with a lot of change: the cello has been replaced with horns and the personal, emotional lyrics that have been seen in prior albums have been replaced with a concept that hits close to every listener’s heart; about the perils of religious fundamentalism in a small town. With Kasher’s folky background, each song tells a story about a controversial topic, like the origins of the Earth in “Big Bang” or war in “Flag and Family,” and others. However, with the horns and dynamic post-punk guitars, Happy Hollow is dark and far from folky. Alternative Press says, “Even if you can’t fully grasp the disc’s existential subject matter, Happy Hollow is still a pleasure on the ears.”
http://www.cursivearmy.com/ - Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/cursive - For tour dates, band information, etc.
http://www.amazon.com - To purchase Happy Hollow
