Posts by Brian Palmer

The Brooklyn-based country rock trio The Lone Bellow is making some waves with their debut self-titled album, and it is easy to see why. Zach Williams, Kanene Pipkin and Brian Elmquist have created a nifty little record that will soothe your soul or help you drown your sorrows, depending on your preference. They make either choice sound appealing and you’ll want to experience it again and again.

With Wolf’s Law, The Joy Formidable have released what is sure to be a contender for year-end album best of lists. These might be bold words for an album that is only being released in January, but Wolf’s Law improbably fuses together epic rock with gorgeous melodies, swelling choruses, singer Ritzy Bryan’s both pixie-ish and ethereal vocals and all the dramatic sweep and scope of a concept album without imploding under its own weight like most concept albums do.

As one of the tracks on Signed and Sealed in Blood declares, Boston’s favorite Celtic punk rock sons the Dropkick Murphys are back and they’re looking for trouble. Signed and Sealed in Blood is loaded with the kind of energy, passion and raucous chorus-like chants that have been somewhat muted on their past couple of releases, and it is a welcome relief for those who have been missing some of the pump your fist spirit that filled the band’s earlier records.

Southern crooner and lyric scrawler Matthew Mayfield is a gifted and prolific storyteller (he has released eight EPs and one full-length album in less than four years). Of course according to his Facebook page he is also a “two-faced son of a bitch,” so take that for what you will. Maybe he’s just a tortured artist or maybe he’s just yanking our chains; either way, the man knows how to write and his tales are evocative and picturesque.

The powerpop of Sacramento, California-based sisters Sarah (guitars and vocals) and Stephanie Snyder (drums, background vocals) is a joy to listen to. They fill their songs with a kinetic energy that is palpable and likely to make you dance. With help from the Bissonette brothers (Matt produced the EP and famed session drummer Gregg guests on the track “Millionaire”), this collection of ditties will make you think as much as it will get you moving.

While Amos Lee managed to give the world one of 2011’s most notable releases—Mission Bell—he didn’t give us everything. The As the Crow Flies EP features six more cuts from the Mission Bell sessions and if nothing else, these tracks demonstrate just how fruitful and creative those sessions were because any of these songs could have justifiably landed on the original release. More of a companion piece than a separate album, fans who dug Lee’s Billboard Top 200-topping Bell will enjoy Crow because it plays to the same strengths.

Landline may not be the absolute best album in Laswell’s already impressive discography, but it’s pretty damn close. Landline is an emotionally resonant, musically diverse and vocally superior record that is easily one of 2012’s best.

As Edwards begins her career as a full-time musician, she talks about her writing process, how she handles the whole “Art versus Faith” discussion, how relationships have proved to be fodder for songs, and why music means so much to her.

Part of the thing that makes the Swedish indie pop trio Miike Snow so intriguing is their unflinching love of variety. Not content to simply make great dance cuts like “Sylvia” and “Black and Blue” as they did on their first release, they dip into the surreal with equal aplomb and dabble in a host of sounds and genres. This is the sort of creativity that helps define bands’ greatness and the desire to try new things is what makes their music noteworthy.

Sometimes the fun of scouring the Internet to discover unsigned talent is to see how long it will take for a particular diamond to get snatched up by a label because it is so obvious the singer or band is inches away from achieving this goal. It is just a matter of which label gets the clue first. Jillian Edwards is one of those artists and her latest release, Headfirst, is going to catch ears sooner rather than later

The debut release from two of Nashville’s better singer-songwriters, Amy Stroup and Trent Dabbs, is meant to be something of an odd bird. From the sometimes coy lyrics to the jangly rhythms and grooves, the album’s eight tracks are straight out of the 50s and 60s, and in a time when it would be easy to write commentaries on the woes of the world 2012-style, they choose instead to give things a more upbeat perspective. It’s something of a departure from their solo material, but it works pretty well when all is said and done.

Beatles and or John Lennon covers can be horrifying to behold. From the band who plays a song note for note with all the imagination of an accountant, to the performer who absolutely wrecks a classic by making it sound kitschy, the world is littered with songs that have been given something less than the royal treatment. But when placed in the hands of legendary maverick guitarist Bill Frisell, an album full of such John Lennon songs is engaging because the tracks become lyric-less re-imaginings rather than bland retreads or ridiculous send-ups.

One of the most notable artists to come out of the 2010 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest was Minneapolis-based soul roots rocker Heatherlyn. Although she didn’t win the contest, she was voted into the Midwest Regional finals by popular vote so that has to count for something. And after taking a listen to her debut full-length release, Storydwelling, it is easy to understand why people like her so much.

Encompassing the genres of trip-hop, dance, poptronica, piano pop and down tempo, Breathe Me In is quite the calling card for anyone who is just learning about this promising singer-songwriter.

After releasing three successful electronica albums, having his tracks featured in a number of popular movies and TV shows, developing a worldwide audience and even helping to score a film, you might think that Andy Hunter would have no trouble getting enough support to make another album. This was not the case, however, and the creation of his latest EP, Collide, took a much different path than he expected.

Fans of down-tempo piano electronica, trip-hop and dream pop will dig this, and if you want to get hip to an unsigned artist who is about to blow up on the dance scene, then you owe it to yourself to check out Mimi Page’s work.

Rootdown’s latest CD is a bit of a departure from their previous releases—but only slightly—as the sound is more mature as is some of the content. This is after all the band who has sung about the beach, flip flops and their love of the Oregon Mexican food chain Burrito Boy on previous releases.

Some people say that variety is the spice of life – doing the same thing over and over can get pretty boring after all. Maybe that’s why Paul Wright, lead singer of the reggae dance rock band Rootdown and someone who has had a lot of success in the Pacific Northwest with his solo work over the years, likes to run the gamut when searching for lyrical content for the band’s songs.

The beauty of live performances is you take everything as it comes. If an artist flubs a line, misses a chord or hits the wrong key vocally, there’s no going back. A lot of “live” albums, however, fall short because they use a number of production tricks to cover over mistakes, or to make the audience sound louder than they really are, so they end up sounding disingenuous and in a way are a waste of time. Brandi Carlile’s new live album, thankfully, does not use these tricks and the performances are pretty damn great as a result.

Pittsburgh-based singer-songwriter Brooke Annibale certainly knows a thing or two about getting help from her friends. Her fourth and latest release, the phenomenal Silence Worth Breaking, might not even exist were it not for the support she received from a Kickstarter.com campaign last fall.