Reinventing the label

Published: Monday, August 30, 2004

Mission to Mars

From the ramshackle, Replacements-like synergy of “Violet, Hello” and the chunky, chugging riffs on “Don Drysdale,” there’s no doubting that the ancient spirits of ’90s college rock are alive and well in Mission to Mars, the Portland-based band helmed by UCLA alumnus Philip Golden. But there’s more to the band’s latest album, “Lasterday,” than

throwback nostalgia. There’s also a timeless, freewheeling abandon that perfectly suits the epic grandeur of singer Golden’s lyrics.

-Andrew Lee

Rick Stone

Released on Stereotype last June, Rick Stone’s first solo full-length “Turn Me On, Turn Me Out” is brimming with psychedelic treatments and quirky production tricks, creating an oddball fusion of indie rock and cut-and-paste electronica. The longtime studio engineer pairs technical wizardry with conventional, passionate croon, providing a mix that raises the album’s strangeness-quotient above anything else currently on the Stereotype label. More impressive is that the record’s sonic palette was concocted in Stone’s own home studio: Bedroom recordings don’t always have to mean four-tracks and fuzzy analog anymore.

-Andrew Lee

Knee Jerk Reaction

The band’s first release since 1998, “State of Matter” brings together some fairly similar genres (power pop, retro-soul, electro-groove), but it’s one of those records whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Many of the band’s songs incorporate the relationship between science and the more emotional matters of the human heart, a move that inevitably leads to lyrics like “And if our love feels faint, breathe in. / It’s all around you. / My love’s the oxygen that fills the sky” (“Oxygen”). Judge for yourself.

-Jake Tracer