The In Sound from Way Out!Matmos, Supreme Balloon, Matador(7.9) The world is filled with instrumental alt-rock acts, most ofwhom fall into distinct categories. Mogwai and Explosionsin the Sky have that cinematic thing down to a science (hencetheir inclusion in numerous movies and television shows).Groups like Pelican and Belong trod a more metallic path.Then there's the textural Tortoise and their various off-shoots.Matmos, an electronic duo formed in San Francisco andbased in Baltimore, sounds nothing like any of these outfits.That's because they have little interest in traditional instrum-entation, and their eighth album builds on their reputationfo

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Dark Bars and Long DrivesHalf Light, Sleep More, Take More Drugs, Do Whatever We Want, Groove House Records [6/3/08] Half Light plays dreamy rock. Good for dark bars, candlelit basements, long drives; some enjoy making cookies. -- From the band's MySpace PageSeattle singer/guitarist Dayna Loeffler has loggedtime with Voyager One and the Purrs, two ofthe town's finer music purveyors, but she has herown thing going on with Half Light. Not that it'sa world away from her other outfits. She's stilldoing the space-rock thing and doing it well.This nine-song debut presents a harmonious array of effer-vescence, a blissed-out cross between vintage shoegaze and

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Gangster, GangsterGangsta, gangsta!It's not about a salary,it's all about reality.-- N.W.A., "Gangsta, Gangsta" (1989)I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER / J'ai Toujours Rêvé d'être un Gangster (***1/2)(Samuel Benchetrit, France, 2007, 113 mins.)The array of bumblers at the heart of I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster stand in opposition to the snap-brim sharpies play-ed by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in the 1960s. ThoseGallic gangsters had smarts and savoir faire; this group has a giftfor gab, and that's about it. The only similarity is that writer/dir-ector Samuel Benchetrit (Janis and John) shot his heartfeltvalentine to the crime films of yore in

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Accidentally on PurposeD+, On Purpose - 1997-2007: Hits, Rarities andLive Cuts [5/27/08] (7.8)Lunsford's droll vocals are charming, as is the self-deprecating wit which drives many of his songs.-- Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****You wouldn't expect slick from bass player Karl Blau, guitar-ist Bret Lunsford (Beat Happening), and drummer Phil Elver-um (Microphones, Mount Eerie), and this D+ collection isn'tslick, but who wants that anyway? These 15 tracks may qualifyas "shambling"—an irresistibly over-used term when it comesto indie rock—but there's enough charm, sincerity, and insightthroughout On Purp

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Eerie ResurrectionIn light of Mount Eerie's upcoming CD, I've excavated my 2002 Tablet re-view of Micro-phones' Mount Eerie (Phil Elverum oversees both projects). Microphones, Mount Eerie, K Records [7/10]K Records may have released Mount Eerie, but thatdoesn’t mean it’s pop, punk, funk, or folk like many of theirreleases—or even some combination thereof. It isn't rockeither, at least not in the traditional sense of the word.Instead, this concept recording from busy Olympia musician/producer Phil Elverum (Dub Narcotic Sound System, C.O.C.O.) harkens back to late-1960s/early-1970s Europe in the form of England's jazzy Soft Machine and Germany's forward

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An American BandThe Dirtbombs live at Neumo's on Tues., 5/13/08.Ko Malina (formerly of Ko & the Knockouts) on bass and backing vocals.Mick Collins (formerly of the Gories and Blacktop) on guitar and vocals.Malina and Collins rock the house. Not pictured: bass player Troy Gregory and drummers Ben Blackwell and Pat Pantano. Endnote: I was either gonna title this post "An AmericanBand" (Grand Funk Railroad) or "Some Kind of Wonderful"(Marvin Gaye by way of GFR). Images courtesy my low-techweapon of choice, a B&W Kodak one-time use camera. Memor-ex traveldrive from my Mom; Adobe Photoshop digitizing byway of me and Fedex Kinko's. Click here for Fu

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You AreInvitedMt. Eerie, Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, P.W. Elverum & Sun [5/27/08] (7.7)I think it would be a lot different. I played in a band and had my own creative projects before I met Bret as a teenager but it was meeting him that made me realize I could ACTUALLY do these things all the time and that it was legitimate and that I didn't need to worry about being invited or not. He introduced meand my friends to the punk idea of "just do your thing, what-ever it is, and ignore doubters." I am still living by those ideas.-- Phil Elverum on Bret Lunsford's affect on his life ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****The a

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