Four-word reviews from CMJ 2010

• Marnie Stern: Mix buries guitar. Crime!
• Dent May: Despite shtick, lyrical songcraft.
• DOM: Garage-rock as vidgame.
• Baths: Falsetto humanizes wobbly chilltronica.
• The Loom: Appalachian garment, angst-y stitching.
• Lucius: Luscious, luminous, lilting lullabies.
• Wild Nothing: Name is half untrue.
• Yo La Tengo: Indie endpoint? Irrelevant: wonderful.
• The swag (not a band): Improved bag, dwindling stuffing.
• Woven Bones: Fun/evil feedback vortex.
• Times New Viking: Faster, chantier, unison-er, better.
• Braids: Patterns enthrall, tinkering offputs.
• David Vandervelde: Leon-ine, hirsute space blooze.
• Phantom Band: Perfect indie choogle + melodica(s).
• Robert Lester Folsom: Belated debut; kinda “Margaritaville.”
• Homeboy Sandman: “Ohhh, freestyle o’ mine.”
• Atomic Tom: Equipped, competent; heard before.
• Shilpa Ray: Sounded fearsome, looked weary.
• Prince Rama: Postpunk tribalism; Ari echoes.
• Shrag: More Ari. (Or Headcoatees?)
• Martina Topley-Bird: Right rasp, soul, sex.
• The Body: Cranial drill volume. Whaaat?
• Oberhofer: Designated marathonners, surfin’ Blood.
• No Joy: Haze — feedback or hair?
• La Sera: Simplicity, but not grace.
• Cloud Nothings: Basement melody liberated, bashingly.
• Viva l’American Death Ray Music: Greasepaint roar, Fall scrape.
• Lower Dens: Slow cloud, affectless cry.
• Cough: “Play slow, die ignorant”?!
• Lia Ices: (Kate + Joanna) / (Arwen − Stevie)
• Kanye West: Can he say no?