Transcendent PanacheTy Segall, GoodbyeBread,Drag CitySomemusicheavilyindebtedto rock's past transcends its historical baggage with more panache than others.--Dave Segal, The Stranger ("Platform Boots on the Beach")If I say I love Goodbye Bread, and I do, then I'll give theimpression I think it's great, when it's closer to very good.If I had never heard Melted, my favorite record of 2010, Iwould probably be more forgiving, but Segall's previous effortwas such a thoroughly transcendent guitar-rock extravaganzathat there's no way he could possibly top it. And so he hasn't,but it's still a Ty Segall production through and through.***** ***** ***** ***** *

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Celestial EclecticAM & Shawn Lee, CelestialElectric, Eighteenth StreetLounge/Fontana [8/30/11]Los Angeles-based vocalist AM andLondon producer/beat-maker ShawnLee offer bossa nova-infused dance-pop with bleeps, bloops, and airy synths. On the aptly titled Celestial Electric, man meets machine on the dance floor, likeEric Carmen (the Raspberries) fronting Kraftwerk in São Paulo.At first, I wasn't feeling it, but the more I listened, the more Ifound myself falling for this dexterous duo. Collectively, they'veworked and/or toured with Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Caeta-no Veloso, St. Etienne, Money Mark, Phoenix, and Sigur Ros.If you always wished that

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Clear SomeSpace OutShabazzPalaces, Black Up,Sub PopClear some space out, so we can space out.-- "Recollections of the Wraith"***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****After two well received EPs, Seattle duo Shabazz Palaces re-lease their first full-length on Sub Pop. It was worth the wait: acoup for the label, city, band, and genre. After all, the Northwestwasn't really known for hip-hop until Sir Mix-a-Lot came along.Then later: Common Market, Blue Scholars, They Live, and MashHall (among others), but none of them has broken out like NYC'sDe La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, or Digable Planets (IshmaelButler's previous act). Shabazz ha

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From 638 to SlumberlandVisqueen, Message to Garcia, Local 638 Records"Three parts punk attitude, two parts pop hookiness, and one part '70s rock swagger."-- Mark Deming, All Music GuideI was a big fan of the first Visqueen album, 2003's King Me, andremain convinced that guitarist/front woman Rachel Flotard,who runs Local 638 Records, is Robin Zander's long-lost cousin(I wasn't as crazy about 2004 successor Sunset on Dateland).Like Cheap Trick's Zander, she has the definitive power-pop voice. Flotard can scream, shout, and work it on out, butthere's a certain non-saccharine sweetness she just can't lose.She's the yang to friend Neko Case's yin, and

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JulyReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Burn Notice - Season Four [4-disc set], WhoTook the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, and Gregg Araki's Kaboom.Amazon Theatricals: Sarah's Key (with Kristin Scott Thomas),Winnie the Pooh (featuring the voices of Craig Ferguson and JohnCleese), and Michael Rapaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life - The Trav-els of a Tribe Called Quest, which opens at Pacific Place on 7/29.Still playing (or yet to open): Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jane Eyre, Miral, Water for Elephants, Weekend, X-Men: FC, and The Yellow Sea.The Stranger: Line-Out reviews of Ty Segall at the Croc-odile and Blank C

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