Posts by Jeff Strowe

Sondre Lerche’s latest new self-titled release is a musical kaleidoscope filled with a plethora of stops, starts, and turns.  Filtered through his trademark classical pop sensibilities, Lerche’s album will ring a few bells of familiarity to listeners.  He pays homage to McCartney-esque Beatles:  the dreamy “Coliseum Town”, Belle and Sebastian theatrical leanings:  the lead single, “Private Caller”, and even hits a Chris Martin type falsetto on “Domino” before borrowing Wilco’s searing guitar squeal for the song’s ending. 

News of their split took many by surprise, but like a number of talented and introspective songwriters that have come before them, Ivan and Kelly have taken their unfortunate circumstances and turned them into a work of great art, emotion, and perhaps even catharsis.  The result is Loud Planes Fly Low, ten bouncy, yet emotionally stark tracks that acknowledge, critique, and examine the delicately affecting emotions that result from a relationship in crisis. 

For the past several months, The Kinks have been in celebratory mode as many of their albums are being re-released in the deluxe format that has been all the rage amongst record companies of late.  The latest installment here presents three of the band’s strongest ‘60’s releases into a repackaged format: 1966’s Face to Face, 1967’s Something Else, and 1969’s Arthur. 

Few artists have achieved the type of glowing recognition in such a short period of time as has Justin Vernon over the past three years.  By now, his back story is well-known: fronted DeYarmond Edison with members of Megafaun in North Carolina, became disenchanted with life there, left the band, moved back to Wisconsin, and […]

Dum Dum Girls’ leader Kristin “Dee Dee” Gundred is a rock star.  One glance at the cover of her band’s new release, He Gets Me High, makes this clearly evident. However, don’t mistake the look for nonchalance.  If other musicians put as much effort into their full-length releases as she has for an EP, then the music scene would be an even more interesting place. 

Kurt Vile has put together a release worthy of an early candidate for Album of the Year with Smoke Ring For My Halo.  By including his touring band, The Violaters, here Vile has upped the sound quality and density, forgoing the low-fi aesthetic that had somewhat muddied his previous albums by giving them a little too much of a DIY-feel.

Drawing heavily from their forthcoming album, Nothing Is Wrong, Dawes wowed the room, getting people shaking and pumping their fists and even inspiring a sing-a-long during the set-closing “When My Time Comes”, no easy feat as Cradle patrons are usually a bit sedate in showing their enthusiasm.

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With their new release, I Am Very Far, Okkervil River has made a musical slow-burner.  Unlike some of their previous work, there is no immediate song that blasts out and catches the ear

Hayes Carll and Jason Isbell are modern-day troubadours, constantly crisscrossing the country while becoming distinctly familiar with the beer-stained walls and sticky floors of rock club dressing rooms, not to mention the occasional belligerently drunken fan such as the old-enough-to-know-better jackass that doused Isbell and his bandmates almost as soon as they took the stage this night.