It’s 2013, and it’s time to face the fact that deep down, everyone’s got a hipster streak when it comes to listening tastes. We’re a bunch of jaded post-modernists--obsessed with avoiding cliché, experts at calling out the shortcomings of others’ handiwork. Bubblegum pop? Boy bands? What kind of hack would ever support this drivel? But when we take a look at today’s critically acclaimed pop, we end up stumbling on a sad, inconvenient irony: As far as structure is concerned,…

The past two years have been kind for Detroit-based indie pop duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Known as much for their quirky name as their luscious harmonies, the duo of Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott have come a long way from their days of bouncing around the Detroit music scene. Their recent work, Patterns EP, is more of the same from the duo, which means to expect an experimental, but forward thinking body of work. This EP is only the appetizer for…

An opening guitar line that’s totally like that one song you loved from your favorite alternative early 90s band is how “Not Ready To Stop,” the opening track on Ghosts Go Blind first hits. It’s like your most comfortable flannel shirt that you still have in the closet. But after the initial throwback comfort, it actualizes into a recent revelation and new artistic statement, showing already that this is Ola Podrida at it’s most dynamic of incarnations. The guitar gets…

There are certain buzz words that appear over and over again in album reviews: fuzzy, crunchy, dreamy, maturing, etc. They’re not genres, necessarily, but they’re words used to almost categorize a band’s sound down to Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order-Family-Genus-Species status. They let you know exactly what you’re getting into before you even open the CD or, as is more likely, click to download. They’re useful, but some bands just deserve more.  No Joy deserves more. While all of these “buzz” words can probably…