Archive: 2014

[rating=9.00] Sallie Ford is the ultimate garage rock dream girl, maintaining her effortless badassness and sexy demeanor with every note she sings. Her voice is soulful and quivering, but strong and full-bodied. On her first record without her beloved band the Sound Outside, Ford is joined by a killer all-woman band she assembled as part […]

The layout of Higher Ground’s Showcase Lounge doesn’t much recall the late Bill Graham’s Fillmore East, but the triple bill of Anders Parker’s Cloud Badge, Blood Oranges and Waylon Speed called to mind the halcyon days the now-defunct New York venue as a haven for true music lovers. The bands  on this Halloween evening bill […]

After having spent time the prior year opening for Deer Tick, fellow New Englanders and southern-flavored blues/roots rock quartet Sunshine Riot will be releasing their new album Black Coffee Sigh on 1/13/15. Black Coffee Sigh was produced by 16-time Grammy nominated George Dussault, multi-instrumentalist, engineer, composer and founder of Galilee Productions. Dussault raves that Sunshine Riot is “a great soulful band, a favorite of […]

It was barely two weeks ago that Foo Fighters played a super intimate show at the Black Cat in Washington D.C., about which The Washington Post ran a review featuring the line “the Foo Fighters could have gigged at RFK Stadium instead of spending the night at a cozy rock club.” And now, tickets for […]

Like most bands with biting names (check, Murder by Death), The Drums’ sound does not reflect what their name brags. In fact its quite the opposite as hooks galore dominate the latest offering from the Brooklyn band founded in 2008.  Where their last album, 2011’s Portamento was short on substance, The Drums have returned with […]

What Festivals Can Learn From the Voodoo Experience It’s nearing the end of festival season, a changing of the guard now so regimented that it’s ushered in via SXSW and dispersed in a bewildered cloud of Rock the Bells and scant, smaller events. Someday that vacillating gap between large-scale live music’s downtime and its uptick […]

As if 2014 wasn’t a tough enough year already for AC/DC with founding member and rhythm guitar extraordinaire Malcolm  Young calling it a career after being diagnosed with dementia, AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd has been charged with attempting to arrange a murder in New Zealand, along with threatening to kill and possession of methamphetamine and cannabis. According to […]

James McMurtry  has returned with Complicated Game, the singer-songwriter’s first collection in six years. The recording spotlights a craftsman in absolutely peak form as he turns from political toward personal (“These Things I’ve Come to Know,” “You Got to Me”). “The lyrical theme is mostly about relationships,” McMurtry says. “It’s also a little about the big […]

Murder By Death will release a new album Big Dark Love on February 3rd, 2015 via Bloodshot Records. This is the band’s seventh full-length album and first since their 2012 Bloodshot debut Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon. Big Dark Love reflects a different, bigger, more complex side of the band. As hinted in the title, the […]

Although Halloween has come and gone, many of us are still in “WTF” mode: in awe of the performances delivered by Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, Foo Fighters, Gov’t Mule, moe., Widespread Panic and others. Halloween, running mischief and unique unlike any other night of the year, lets bands don costumes both musically and figuratively. Whether it […]