Idle Joy ‘Your Stars’ Kick Start Some Back to Basics Rock on Second LP ‘Your Stars’
Idle Joy’s second album, Your Stars, is straight rock-n-roll. There’s no affectation, waffling, or masquerading of any genre; just rock-n-roll. The California band’s debut eponymous album was released in 2019 just after changing their name from Mendonesia, which was lead singer Tom Conneely’s original solo project. Conneely started performing under that moniker in San Francisco and […]
The Coffis Brothers’ ‘In The Cuts’ Makes A Glorious Old Time Rock Statement (ALBUM REVIEW)
The Coffis Brothers’ fourth album, In The Cuts, starts with the anthemic declaration we wanted to hear. You know, it’s the kind that makes you pause the song, unplug your headphones, switch that restored-vintage-stereo input to aux, and crank the volume knob as the garage door opens to that springtime sunlight. The steady pulse of […]
The Painted Horses Drop ’70s Charismatic Folk On ‘A Heart Like Mine’ EP (ALBUM REVIEW)
“I Wanna Wake Up Now,” the first track off Painted Horses’ new EP, A Heart Like Mine, begins as if I just went to grab beers for friends and joined back in mid-conversation. I was a dreamer, singer-songwriter Denys Kozakis confesses in his affable and sonorous timbre. We all can relate: pop open the Sierra […]
‘Do U Want It?’ – Papa Grows Funk Documentary Serves As Crumpled-Up Love Letter to New Orleans Funk (FILM REVIEW)
The opening sequence for Do U Want It? is a ready-made thesis: percussion and ambient swells set to a panoramic city skyline on the opposing shore of the Mississippi River. Braids of stratocumulus purl through the twilight as an American flag agitates in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Then, cut to a pile […]