Childish Prodigy
Drawing heavily on road-weary classic rock and folk-rock, Kurt Vile makes the leap from lo-fi all-star to Matador's impressive class of 2009.
Kurt Vile might be mistaken for any number of heady garage-rock acts that write songs about weed, man. A 7-minute-plus song called “Freak Train” lends credence to the proposition, and a subsequent soundscape titled “Goodbye, Freaks” does little to refute it. But Vile’s second full-length is notable for accomplishing a…
Kurt Vile's long-haired hippie appearance may suggest West Coast roots -- even though he's actually a Philadelphian -- but his sound comes straight out of the underbelly of the Big Apple.
Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty were referenced in reviews of last year’s compilation Constant Hitmaker, but on the evidence of this record Kurt Vile is a far more interesting proposition than that.