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Check out the CDs on Mr. Hipster's shelves.
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Ra
Ra Riot
[ra
ra riot website]
The Rhumb Line

It's hard to believe, after spending four
years there, that anything good could come out of Syracuse.
It's a gray city cursed with some of the worst weather in the
country, and a serious lack of anything even approaching cool.
Until Ra Ra Riot came along, of course. Unless you don't consider
a band whose melodies are mostly formed by two chicks with a
cello and a violin cool. And it's just that that gives Ra Ra
Riot something more atmospheric, and a different little spark
than the glut of vaguely Brit/Scott-sounding indie bands out
there. Imagine Belle &
Sebastian having a party with That
Dog and Someone Still Loves You
Boris Yeltsin while hopped up on caffeine and falling down
stairs with a couple of the dudes from Vampire
Weekend. But less controlled. Yeah, that's it. To listen
to this lead singer and think he's from anywhere near Central
New York is laughable, but I guess making the word "dollar"
sound like "daahler" isn't such a great thing, so
you might as well go with any accent outside of Upstate. I think
this album is definitely a grower, as it seems to morph with
each listen. I keep expecting the guitars to kick in and really
put some edge into the music, but it never comes. Part of me
is disappointed with that, but the other side likes the originality
in not going for the easy umph that most indie bands would go
for. Well we may not have had a national band on the scene when
I was at SU, but at least we had Clavin's Mother and Professor
Spoon. |
The Raconteurs
[the raconteurs website]
Broken Boy Soldiers
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Radar Bros.
[radar bros. website]
Radar Bros.
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Radio 4
[radio 4 website]
Gotham!
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The New Song and Dance
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Stealing of a Nation

I'm not really sure what happened to these
guys. Some might say that nothing happened to them and that,
in fact, they've always sucked. I'm also not sure what makes
bands go increasingly electronic with each album instead of
adding more, say, real drums. There are points in this
album that you'd swear you were listening to some awful 80's
techno hybrid. Although, come to think of it, that's what this
dancepunk thing is all about. Of course, these guys still wear
their love of The Clash on their
collective sleeve (the song "Nation" sounds pracitcally like
a cover), but this is their dramatic shift towards Big Audio
Dynamite. Despite all this, I swear multiple listens has endeared
me to this mess, rather than repelling me as it should. The
nostalgia in the non-techno-y tracks is palpable, and I'm a
sucker for recalling the past. God, who knows, even the shittiest
albums get their day in the iPOD. |
Radiohead
[radiohead website]
The Bends
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Hail to the Thief
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Kid A

This has to be one of the most overrated albums of all time. It's ''brilliant'' the way an episode of PunkÕ®d is brilliant. I'd honestly rather listen to a hamster running on its wheel for an hour. Did Thom York have nodules when they recorded this thing, or was he just like ''don't worry about the singer, guys, I'm cool just hanging out in the corner pretending there was never a song entitled 'Creep.' I know I was stealing too much of the spotlight, so why don't you guys just turn on the reverb machines and noodle away for a while sotto voce.'' Maybe I'll come to my senses several years from now and realize what an amazing album this is, but those odds are longer than Aqua having another hit in their lifetimes. |
OK Computer
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Pablo Honey
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Rahim
[rahim
website]
Ideal Lives
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Rainer Maria
[rainer maria website]
Look Now Look Again
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The
Rakes
[the rakes website]
Capture/Release

Fooook, this shite is hot! This definitely
is at the top of my 2006 list so far. Falling somewhere between
the Brit snot rock of Art Brut
and the raw energy of McLusky,
these dudes know how to write a catchy tune. I'm not sure why
having a sense of humor and actual song structure seems to be
frowned upon these days, but one listen to these louts and you'll
remember why pop is in fact based on the word 'popular.' Lush
and beautiful it isn't, but the baselines and snappy drums will
make you feel like you're in Clash
heaven. |
Rakim
[rakim website]
The 18th Letter - the Book of Life
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Ramones
[ramones website]
All the Stuff (and More) - Vol. 1
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All the Stuff (and More) - Vol. 2
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Rancid
[rancid website]
. . . and Out Come the Wolves
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Indestructible
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Let's Go
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Life Won't Wait
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Rancid
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Rancid (II)
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The Rapture
[the rapture website]
Echoes

I know I'm supposed to
love this album. And to some extent I really do like its weird
Cure
aesthetic, but too much dance shit almost ruins it for me. I
honestly can't tell if they're being serious or ironic with
some of this stuff. Considering their hipster pedigree, it may
be the latter, but my heart is telling me otherwise. The lead
singer has a voice that might cause dogs to howl and the squeamish
to go running for cover, but it's affective for the somewhat
jarring genre of "dance punk." The music, with its bass kick,
rapid beats, and cowbell just kind of grabs you and shakes you
and screams at you to pay attention. Unfortunately, it also
tells me at points to look away from the horror with my headache
in full bloom. The music in and of itself is fun and energetic,
but the lyrics are as insipid as most funk and dance music.
Overall I like it, but really only in very small doses. |
Ratcat
[ratcat website]
Tingles
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The Raveonettes
[the raveonettes website]
Whip It On
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Reacharound
Who's Tommy Cooper?
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Red Five
Flash
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Red Hot Chili Peppers
[red hot chili peppers website]
The Abbey Road ep |
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
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Californication
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Freaky Styley
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One Hot Minute
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Red Hot Lover Tone
Red Hot Lover Tone
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Redman
[redman website]
Malpractice
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Whut? Thee Album
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Reggie and the Full Effect
[reggie and the full effect website]
Promotional Copy
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Reggie and the Full Effect: Greatest Hits '84-'87
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Under the Tray
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Regurgitator
[regurgitator website]
New ep
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R.E.M.
[r.e.m. website]
Automatic for the People
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Eponymous
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The Rentals
The Last Little Life EP

What happened to the fun robotic thing? This ain't Cold War music anymore; it's mid-nineties prog rock. It's mellow folks in their mid-thirties making music for I don't know who. It sounds like a less dynamic Traveling Wilburys with some keyboard. I'd almost say it was kid-friendly in its sing-songy cutesiness. Totally inoffensive and boring, my wallpaper might enjoy mating with it. Take like a later Ben Lee album and beat it within an inch of its life and you have this EP. I'm not really sure what that means, but it isn't good. I hope this was just kind of them testing the waters, and that when/if they put out their next LP that it'll have more life than this puny attempt at cliched barfiness. |
Return of the Rentals

Weezer really
never was the same after Matt Sharp left the band. Sharp took
with him all the quirky fun--and those wonderful keyboards.
The Rentals, in fact, are pretty dependent on those same Moogs,
which give them a kind of distinctive retro sound that when
paired with fuzzed out guitars and some sweet girl harmonies
make for a sound that was actually ahead of its time. It really
wasn't until several years after this album came out that the
80s revival hit its full stride, but these guys took the more
throw-back sounds of Weezer, paired then with the cuteness of
that dog and came out the other
end with this funny 80s meets Sputnik space-age persona that
was hipster before people really knew what hispsterism was.
Nerd-chic, maybe? "Friends of P" was their kind of one minor
hit, and even listening to it today brings waves of nostalgia
flowing back into the mushy parts of my brain--and makes me
want to see a Weezer reunion now worse than ever. C'mon, dorks,
unite! |
The Replacements
[the replacements website]
All for Nothing
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All Shook Down
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Let It Be
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Pleased to Meet Me
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Tim
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The Reverend Horton Heat
[the reverend horton heat website]
It's Martini Time
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Rites
of Spring
[rites
of spring website]
End on End
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Rival Schools
[rival schools website]
United By Fate
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Rocket from the Crypt
[rocket from the crypt website]
Circa: Now!
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Scream, Dracula, Scream!
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The
Rogers Sisters
[the
rogers sisters website]
The Invisible Deck
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The Rolling Stones
[the rolling stones website]
Exile on Main Street
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Hot Rocks I
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Linda Ronstadt
[linda ronstadt website]
Greatest Hits Volume Two
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Rosey
[rosey website]
Dirty Child
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Royal Crescent Mob
Midnight Rose's
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Rule 62
Rule 62
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Rumpletilskinz
What is a Rumpletilskin
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Run-DMC
[run-dmc website]
Greatest Hits
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Ruth Ruth
[ruth ruth website]
Laughing Gallery |
Rye Coalition
[rye coalition website]
Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet
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Lipstick Game
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On Top
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RZA
[rza
website]
Digital Bullet
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RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo
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