Bob Gendron

Johnny Cash remained active until the day he died, determined to finish his last record. In the weeks ahead, he was scheduled to return to Los Angeles to meet with...

Pop Broken Social Scene You Forgot It In People (Arts and Crafts) Canadian collective Broken Social Scene isn't just another one of those indie rock "supergroups" cobbled together from underground...

Father (Kitty-Yo/XL) Peaches kicks off her sophomore album by shouting obscenity-laden boasts over a sample of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation." Though catchy, it's one of the few times the ex-schoolteacher...

Quasi Hot (Touch & Go) On its most overtly political album, Quasi celebrates rock-music cliches while playing indie prog-rock in the tradition of Pavement and Built to Spill. Hence, the...

Fake Songs (S-Curve) How many thinly veiled music parodies can one album hold? Audio-visual artist Liam Lynch pushes the limit with "Fake Songs," his convincingly executed but somewhat irksome debut....

Lead Us Not Into Temptation (Thrill Jockey) David Byrne posits that this, his score for the film "Young Adam," may seem musically invisible. In that it moves incrementally, burrows into...

Electric Six Fire (XL) Years from now, this tongue-in-cheek Detroit sextet will be remembered solely for its smash single "Danger! High Voltage," featuring the irresistibly madcap "Fire in the disco/Fire...

Turbonegro Scandinavian Leather (Burning Heart/Epitaph) Five years removed from a premature breakup, the sextet returns with "Scandinavian Leather." Bigger sounding and sonically slicker than its four predecessors, there's no denying...

The Derek Trucks Band Soul Serenade (Columbia) On its second release inside a year, The Derek Trucks Band uses blues-rock outlines as an instrumental springboard into reggae, Cuban jazz and...

Classical Schumann Four symphonies, etc.: Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor (Philadelphia Orchestra, 3 CDs) Add the Philadelphia Orchestra to the growing list of orchestras that have chosen to produce their...