Posts by Jeff Strowe

[rating=7.00] Los Angeles-based Warpaint have developed a knack for moody atmospherics. Over the course of the past decade-plus, the band-guitarists/vocalists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, along with bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa-have released several albums worth of carefully constructed ambient pieces delivered with a cool detachment and an understated confidence. It’s a […]

[rating=8.00] Any author or songwriter will tell you that a piece’s opening lines are centrally important. Regardless of what may follow, a colorful lead paragraph or a lively line or two of verse is often all it takes to hook a reader in. With that in mind, it will be a tough assignment to find […]

[rating=7.00] Death-its’ finality or the omnipresent spell it casts over our day-to-day existence-features as a thematic center point for Okkervil River’s latest album, Away. Over the course of the past several years following the band’s last release, the nostalgia-tinged The Silver Gymnasium, frontman Will Sheff went through a self-proclaimed “confusing time of transition”. A few […]

[rating=5.00] Why Are You Ok, the fifth studio album from amiable South Carolina rockers, Band of Horses arrives with a bit of a fresh step. In as producer is erstwhile Grandaddy frontman, Jason Lytle, both a longtime friend of BoH’ singer Ben Bridwell, and a sharp aural detour from the likes of Glyn Johns and […]

[rating=8.00] Apparently not long on the idea of reviving the band’s early 90s heyday, Mark Olson, one-half of the songwriting presence behind Americana darling The Jayhawks, decided to split shortly after the release of 2011’s Mockingbird Time, and its’ subsequent tour. That album, heralded by many as a sign that roots rock and alt-country would […]

[rating=8.00] Cate Le Bon’s songs seem to start in the middle of things. They force you to occasionally glance down at your music player of choice to see if some sort of skip has taken place. Not one for traditional song structure, Le Bon’s verses bleed into choruses at different moments, words are repeated for […]

[rating=8.00] Kevin Morby is somewhat of a man not made for these times. A folk-rock singer-songwriter who spends a lot of time lyrically contemplating mortality and the ephemeral nature of our being doesn’t equate greatly with commercial success. Neither do his lyrical references to anachronisms; the pastoral scenes he paints and the old-school methods he […]

[rating=7.00] In the fall of 2014, a variety of musicians, actors, and comedians came together onstage at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theater to celebrate the life and music of George Harrison. Under the direction of George’s son, Dhani, the evening provided an intimate and celebratory occasion for reverence and an opportunity to bring to life Dhani’s […]

Protomartyr’s February 27th show at Dallas’ fairly new, DIY-influenced club, RBC, proved to be quite the step back in time. Unobtrusively tucked away behind snazzier, trendier, and more well-attended Deep Ellum eateries, RBC greets its’ patrons with a series of shrugs; the perpetually stoned ID checker barely taking a glance at your license, the diminutive and […]

If The Pixies are generally considered to be the masters of the “loud-quiet-loud” format within the scope of a single song, then Yo La Tengo can likely be considered the same in terms of their approach to a single show. The longtime pride of Hoboken-guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew-rolled through […]