The members of the California indie-psych band Beachwood Sparks must get sick of being compared to the Byrds, but Make the Cowboy Robots Cry will once again remind astute listeners of nothing less than Roger McGuinn and company during their most aerodynamically challenging period. There just aren’t too many bands…

Previous albums by these Northwest mofos have seen them taking a more knockabout approach, but Strangest Parade, their latest, is a much more dressed-up — and consequently less mundane — affair. A “concept” album that works like a suite in 13 parts, it’s reminiscent of such swirling pop masterpieces as…

This final send-off ain’t the half-realized piece o’ pap it could’ve been. In fact, it’s the album that Joey Ramone was destined to make, even if he hadn’t succumbed to cancer: a perfectly agreeable disc of bubblegum punk, not all that different from the last Donnas record or previous Ramones…

Hard to believe it’s been a decade since Teenage Fanclub first graced the world with its shimmer-pop, son-of-Big Star opus, Bandwagonesque, when the band held the distinction of being the “hip” Geffen band between Sonic Youth and Nirvana. While the days of major-label conquest may be over for these melodious…