Posts by Jamie Lee

On the recently released If Never Was Enough, the quintet exudes Zepplin-esque bravado in exorcising its rock and roll demons.

Bump’s strength lies in an esthetic assemblage of layers and hooks; a sonic candy-coating for the core compositions that are overtly accessible.

The instrumental collection breaks down boundaries with each beat, turning familiar grooves into pulpits for fine-tuned, prodigious forays into music’s outer-limits.

Inspired by New York City after 4 a.m., Elefant’s sophomore release, The Black Magic Show, invokes a dark world of late nights, early mornings, lost lovers and drowned dreams.

Sludge Test, Gutbucket’s third release, finds the quartet invariably manipulating time signatures and sewing together misplaced keys with a flippant regard for concrete song structure.

Building on a laid-back, beach vibe underscored by dub and reggae beats, Australian import The Beautiful Girls has shaped a mellow collection of electric roots music in We’re Already Gone.

Ten years as a band, and Centro-matic’s newest album has been heralded as the band’s best yet by peers like Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers. Will Johnson and company show a polish that has burned brighter with each proper release.

It’s been nearly four years since dub reggae collective Dubconscious began spreading its bass-tempered sound around Athens, GA. Since then, their socially conscious sound has grown louder, and now they embark on a west coast tour to High Sierra.

With a good set of headphones and closed eyes, Elko can almost entirely deliver the Railroad Earth experience.

The band recently reissued this groundbreaking release with new packaging and three additional tracks, further affirming the sonic shift caused the characteristic tempo-bending time signatures and Vonnegut -like storytelling.

Beginning with the band’s 2001 eponymous debut, the Memphis, Tenn. quartet has maintained an irreverent blend of country and punk that, over time, has been blurred into a very cohesive and organic coupling.

Jamie McLean, known for his full-time gig with New Orleans’ funk bastions The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, is no one-trick pony, evident on his first solo release, This Time Around.

This is one of those that albums that forces you to listen and listen again, yet the sounds fend off any coalescing ideas. And it’s this uneven quality that draws me back time and time again, that glimmer of greatness that is elusive.

deSol, a band of seven musicians from New York and New Jersey with strong Latin bloodlines, are standing atop the fence that runs somewhere between the salsa flavor of Ozomatli and the Texican blues of Los Lonely Boys.

Stairs and Elevators, the band

Dave Schools is a rock and roll chameleon. While most recognized for his full-time job as virtuoso bassist for Widespread Panic, over the course of his career (and particularly in the past year while his band was on hiatus) his effortless, shape-shifting talents have bubbled freely from his fingers.

With the tour bus constantly burning up the roadways in the United States, Europe and beyond, and the crowds growing more populated and more spirited with each show, Live at the 40 Watt captures a rock fueled Molotov cocktail that ignites each time the Drive By Truckers take the stage.

Legends cast large shadows, but such observations bare little weight when speaking of Sarah Lee Guthrie, daughter of Arlo and granddaughter of Woody. With the help of songwriter and husband Johnny Irion, Guthrie has released Exploration, the duo’s debut studio recording; an acoustic, rock-and-hum album enlivened by honey-sweet harmonies and modest hooks.

Bone dry and delicately woven; the web that Vic Chesnutt has created throughout his humble career has spawned by a humorous eye, evoking the beauty of the South in wry, often bazaar imagery that is nothing short of genius. Ghetto Bells, an intricate, 11-song tapestry of color and depth, accented by multi-instrumentalist Van Dyke Parks and jazz guitarist Bill Frisell among others.

HIM’s emergence in America seems to be penned firmly to the back of skater- turned-reality show deviant Bam Margera, who immortalized the band’s heart-a-gram logo on skateboards, clothing, and even in ink on his uncle Don Vito’s back.