Posts by Jeff Strowe

[rating=8.00] Ten years and seven albums into their band life, Atlanta’s Deerhunter-Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and Josh McKay- are back with Fading Frontier, a new collection of tunes that finds the band shifting away from the grunge sensibilities of their last album, 2013’s Monomania, and treading in a brighter, more melodic direction. While […]

[rating=6.00] Carey Mercer, the mastermind behind Frog Eyes, took a fiercely independent route in crafting the material that has become Pickpocket’s Locket, his latest and perhaps most straightforward album. Armed with only the acoustic guitar bequeathed to him in his father’s will, Mercer challenged himself to write ten songs completely alone on that acoustic, free […]

[rating=8.00] Shortly into Poison Season, the latest release from Dan Bejar’s Destroyer, he mutters the lines: “I’ll take my chances on the road/On the inside I’m an ocean/Like a wheel set into motion into the storm”. Words like these in the hands of a lesser assured artist would likely ring hollow or vain. In the […]

Erika Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards brought forth a great degree of swagger to the Trees stage last Thursday night. As the evening marked the official beginning of the July 4th Holiday weekend, the mid-sized venue’s two stories were packed a little tighter than usual, and the air was tinged with an extra dose of […]

“You’re going to the Granada?” queried my Uber driver, as I settled into the backseat of her surprisingly roomy Kia. “I just drove by and there’s a huge line of teenagers waiting outside to get in”, she proceeded to tell me. I felt my heart sag a bit, and a slight tinge of panic swept […]

[rating=7.00] Ben Jaffe and Suzanne Santo have been making music as HONEYHONEY for close to a decade. With Santo’s strong lead vocals, banjo, and violin melding together with Jaffe’s soft harmonies and lead guitars, they’ve garnered positive press and a loyal following by playing a raw and honest blend of country-influenced Americana that tilts less […]

[rating=7.00] When putting together collections of songs, many artists fuss over the title. As it is typically a delicate process, some album titles are intentionally vague, random, or obtuse while others are a straightforward and direct nod to the thematic content represented. With his third release of material as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban Nielson went […]

[rating=6.00] Two years after their magnetic debut, 180 generated enormous buzz, British rockers Palma Violets have returned with Danger In The Club, their eagerly anticipated, high-stakes sophomore release. With the famed John Leckie handling production duties, the band sounds a little more polished this time around, but not glammed up to the point that it […]

There are several constants that we as humans have grown accustomed to in life. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Jennifer Aniston continues to churn out trite, similarly focused rom-com fares. And how the San Antonio Spurs always muscle their way to 50-plus regular season wins. In a similar fashion, […]

[rating=8.00] Filled, as usual, with both tautly constructed melodic fills and wildly improvisational guitar freak-outs, Portland via Idaho rockers Built to Spill are back with a new album, the delightfully potent ten-track collection, Untethered Moon. Twenty-some odd years into the business, Doug Martsch and Co. are like a warm bowl of your mother’s homemade soup; […]