Well, it’s been a while since I’ve recapped the latest action on the QRO tip. We’ve been updating like monsters, so here’s as much as I can squeeze into a concise update:

Features:
Married Indie Couples
2007 Festival Guide
Day-by-day SXSW Recaps

Album Reviews:
Blonde Redhead’s 23
Caspian’s The Four Trees
iLIKETRAiNS’ Progress Reform
Kings of Leon’s Because of the Times
Andrew Bird’s Armchair Apocrypha
LCD Soundsystem’s Sound of Silver
The Go Find’s Stars on the Wall

Concert Reviews/Photos:
Menomena live in Boston
Sebadoh live in New York & Photos
Land of Talk live in New York & Photos
The Shins live in New York & Photos
of Montreal live in Boston & Photos

Added a couple more concert photo sets. Interviewed The Early Years, have another on the way. Reviews at least every day… Good times.

Our review of Sondre Lerche’s Phantom Punch
” ” of Clinic’s Visitations
Our interview with The Early Years
Our concert photos of Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
” ” of Mission of Burma

The concert photo gallery is up. A bunch more reviews are up. Tons to come. Just keep growing, and growing, and growing…

Our concert photo gallery
Our live review of Annuals in Boston
Our review of CHYSY’s Some Loud Thunder
” ” Apostle of Hustle’s The National Anthem of Nowhere
Indie songs in commercials (with Youtube videos)

As soon as I get another solid concert photographed, the photo gallery will go up. Been cranking out reviews since 2007 is full of solid releases and it’s only the second week. A quick Emily Haines interview and more features to come.

Feature: Swedish Sensations
Our review of The Eternals’ Heavy International
” ” The Apples In Stereo’s New Magnetic Wonder
” ” of Idlewild’s Make Another World

The closer it gets to 2007, the more exciting the music world becomes. It’s not even January 1st, and already, 2007 is looking better than 2006. Just cranked out a couple reviews of upcoming albums, and published a list of what to look for that’ll be updated as we go.

Feature: What To Watch For – Early 2007
Our review of !!!’s Myth Takes
” ” of The Bees (UK)’s Octopus
” ” of Husky Rescue’s Ghost Is Not Real

Last night, we went to Street Attack’s holiday party at the Other Side Cafe. We were looking forward to the whole thing, but the Guitar Hero competition really had our blood up. Mini Mickey’s were a-flowin’ and after Totally Travis did his thing, the competition was on. Funny thing is, we were the only two people the contest.

So, after a heated 2-out-of-3 battle of head-to-head action, I was soundly defeated on “More Than a Feeling”. For the prizes, though, we got a sweet Crumpler backpack and a $50 gift certificate to Hootenanny. All for basically just showing up and intimidating any would-be challengers. Completely solid night.

Good times in QRO Land. After switching the domain into my control, I now pretty much run the show entirely. Anyway, we also did our Top 15 Albums of 2006 list and each writers’ Top 9. Heh, yeahhhhhh……’bout that. And we also started a Myspace page for QRO so that we can all be friends “officially”. Lederhosen.

QRO Magazine’s Top 15 Albums of 2006
Our review of Rob Crow’s solo album, Living Well
QRO Magazine’s fresh new Myspace page. Add us, y’all!

Man, what a sloppy year. It was nothing compared to last year, and definitely no 2003. With hardly any epic releases, 2006 was full of random indie upshoots that wouldn’t really be on this list in other years. Oh well, here’s my list with some one-word descriptions. Go.

01. TV On the Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain (Complex)
02. Muse – Black Holes & Revelations (Massive)
03. Office – Q&A (All business)
04. Band of Horses – Everything All The Time (Giddy Up)
05. Hot Chip – The Warning (Bouncetastic)
06. The Foundry Field Recordings – Prompts/Miscues (Airy)
07. Stoney – The Scene and the Unseen (Laddy)
08. Love Is All – 9 Times That Same Song (Garage Punk)
09. The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief (Smoothtronic)
10. The Knife – Silent Shout (Darktronic)
11. Now It’s Overhead – Dark Light Daybreak (Roady)
12. Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That (Frenchy)
13. Comets On Fire – Avatar (Pink Allman)
14. Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block (Who else?)
15. SOUND Team – Movie Monster (Ominous)
16. Ellen Allien & Apparat – Orchestra of Bubbles (Dense)
17. Grandaddy – Just Like The Fambly Cat (Goodbye)
18. Ten Kens – Ten Kens (Gruff)
19. Beck – The Information (Prismatic)
20. Union of Knives – Violence & Birdsong (Synthos)
21. White Rose Movement – Kick (Stuffy)
22. No Doubt: For not releasing an album this year (Duh.)

My Top 20.05 Albums of 2005
My Top Albums & Photos of 2004

Just added a whole new column! Whoa now! Also put in a cool link feed of Woxy.com’s Lounge Acts and more audio previews. And some other stuff.

Our review of Harlem Shakes’ Burning Birthdays EP
My review of Robbers On High Streets’ The Fatalist and Friends EP
My other review of My Morning Jacket @ Avalon
Our interview with Electric Six
Our review of Loney, Dear’s Loney, Noir

Sweet, sweet My Morning Jacket. Despite it being about the sixth time I’ve seen ‘em, I had faith that they’d rock like never before – and they did. Even thought we got there late and missed “One Big Holiday” and “What a Wonderful Man”, we got a show that filled our stomachs like a big bowl of porridge.

There was a great mix of old, new, and random tunes that were sporadically mellow and all-outers. From the ridiculous disco ball lighting effects and woolly mammoth-tossing in “Wordless Chorus” to the bear hat Jim wore (again) to the random “Phone Went West”, this was a mind-spinning, fun show. The main set was Z-driven, but there were also great spots like “Just One Thing” and “Run Thru” that pretty much ruled. Between all of that, Jim told the story of how Avalon was a model airplane hangar in the early 1700’s and how bad & great it was that some guy got thrown out for peeing in the venue.

The encore was six songs long and for a couple of them, the band brought out the horn section of the Boston Pops, who they played with for two nights back in June. It was a completely solid way to end the show, and I can’t imagine anyone not having fun or getting their fill. Man, the Jacket just flat-out always delivers.

MMJ Messageboard post about the show

Well, in the last couple weeks we’ve added a bunch of uhh people including good ol’ Ted. Also did a logo redesign and added an awesome Olive Garden banner. Ha. Anyway, check out:

My review of Bon Savants’ Post Rock Defends The Nation
Our review of Furvis’ Carpé Carpet (The Soft Explosion)
My review of Now It’s Overhead @ Middle East
Our review of The Slip’s Eisenhower

It was over seven months ago that I saw Hot Chip last, and the desire to see them again had been rotting my brain until they finally came back to Boston on Saturday night. This time it was Paradise, and it was well worth the wait.

They kicked it off with “Keep Fallin’” and it never let up. “Boy From School” came a couple of tracks later, and was the first one that you could hear people singing back to them. By now, a vast majority of folks were bouncing around. They rocked the best tracks off The Warning and some excellent new tunes. I can’t wait to hear what they’ll lay down in the studio next.

This time around, they sounded both rougher and smoother, as effects were sandier while beats melded more together than they do on disc. They finished the main set with “No Fit State”, which left everyone cheering violently, and they came back with two more in the encore. The second one was “Over and Over”, which was absolutely ridiculous, and sent us off sweaty and mindfudged. Now I’m fulfilled for another seven months.