Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
The University of Miami Wind Ensemble Plays Sleeper, Colgrass and Syler
The Town Fox and Other Musical Tales [Soundtrack]
The Rough Guide to Brazilian Electronica
The Road Leads Where It's Led [EP]
Transmission Pt.2 [CD-single] [Import]
The Very Best of Placido Domingo
The Psychopathology of Everyday Life [Explicit Lyrics]
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Unfazed by the dissolution of Pavement in 2000, Scott Kannberg chose, for All This Sounds Gas, to return to his four-track recorder, and began work anew as the cryptically named Preston School of Industry. For a while, it looked like Kannberg was going to become the man that alt-rock forgot. Going under the pseudonym Spiral Stairs, Kannberg was the founding member of the charming Pavement along with Stephen Malkmus; it was his laconic, effortlessly gorgeous guitar lines that elevated albums such as Slanted and Enchanted above the rest of the shambolic indie-pop crop. All This Sounds Gas sounds like a real blast from the past--think the winding left-field ramble of Wowee Zowee over the refined perfect pop of Terror Twilight. Without Malkmus dripping his honey-glazed surreality over Kannberg's gliding melodic skree, it can't be denied that there's a little something missing. But Kannberg's lead vocal is more than just functional; "Whale Bones" and "Falling Away" are elegantly shrugged-off lo-fidelity beauties, "Solitare" nods slyly towards Lou Reed's "Kill Your Songs," and on the closing seven-minute "Take a Stand," Kannberg plucks up the confidence to lay on his grand Wayne Coyne impression and, impressively, just about pulls it off. Spiral Stairs lives! And this sure beats retirement. --Louis Pattison