Posts by Shawn Donohue

The Nashville, Tennessee-based art/punk outfit Snõõper shout out lo-fi blasts of directness via short snippets of fuzzed-up punk throughout their full-length debut Super Snõõper.   The group started as an oddball pairing of Connor Cummins (guitar) and Blair Tramel (vocals) that mixed in various artistic flair during their live shows, before bringing in Cam Sarrett (drums), […]

The music created by Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog is a mix of everything that makes the avant-garde guitarist tick. Different styles sit side by side on Connection, which showcases a challenging, exciting, and extremely rewarding listen from angular start to its fully inspired finish.  Joining Ribot (guitars, tres, dobro, bass, vocals) as the formation of […]

Twenty-three years ago Colonel Les Claypool enlisted an army of musicians and took flight as the Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, expanding his rhythmic, heavy, rock into improvisational lands…with a whole lot of Pink Floyd sprinkled in. While the backing members have changed, Claypool has brought this concept back on the road and pulled into Port […]

The experimental brainchild of Michael Gira, SWANS enters their forty-first year with a new double album, The Beggar. It is an expansive, confounding, migraine-inducing, sometimes rewarding, challenging album from the band as Gira grapples with mortality and existence itself on downtempo, creeping tracks that repeat and drone in various directions.  Gira was bursting at the […]

The Melbourne, Australia outfit Cable Ties’ third album All Her Plans is a nuanced blast of post-punkish rock as the group reaches scale highest summits yet. The trio of Jenny McKechnie (guitar/vocals) Nick Brown (bass) and Shauna Boyle (drums) are in the flow throughout the nine songs presented here. Sounding much larger than a trio, […]

On a gorgeous warm Sunday night on June 18th, the legendary Buddy Guy had this to say to the Summerstage Crowd in Central Park, “If you don’t like the Blues, you’re at the wrong fucking stage”. The 86 year old blues man is on his Damn Right, Farewell tour as he wraps up an astounding […]

The Providence, Rhode Island-based Deer Tick is back with its unique mix of modern-day, hard-driving Americana as the group releases its first album since 2017 as well as its first on ATO Records.  The core of John McCauley (vocals, guitar) Ian O’Neil (guitar, vocals), Dennis Ryan (drums), and Christopher Ryan (bass) worked with producer Dave […]

The Queens of the Stone Age return with their eighth studio album, In Times New Roman…, as the band (Josh Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, Michael Shuman, and Jon Theodore) rev up their choppers, plug in their fuzz pedals and scruff it up out in the deserts of California.   Their first new album since […]

When “Love Feel”, the fuzzed up, country tinged, groovy jam session track that name checks Johnny Cash and John Prine (and more) wraps up, Jenny Lewis giggles, “That’s fun!”. It certainly is and Lewis seems to be having a whole lot of fun throughout the ten tunes contained on the jaunty Joy’All, her new record […]

Incredibly, the Zamrock icons WITCH have returned with their first new album in almost 40 years. Aptly titled Zango after a phrase meaning meeting place, the group’s two core remaining members, Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda and Patrick Mwondela have gotten back to their roots, even recording in the same studio their 1975 album Lazy Bones had […]

The most recent posthumous release from Dr. John is a collection of his performances from The Montreux Jazz Festival between 1986 and 2012. The compilation, titled Dr. John: The Montreux Years, does an excellent job of showcasing the many sides of Mac Rebennack, outside of his original “Night Tripper” stage persona, which apparently never played […]

The newest outing from Tommy Stinson arrived organically as he began playing with his friend (and the uncle of his second ex-wife) Chip Robert over a decade ago. The duo hit it off and began writing songs and touring, and when they realized they were onto something, they decided to record and name themselves Cowboys in the Campfire.

Their first studio album since 2018’s Take Good Care finds the New Orleans-based, eight-piece pop-rock outfit, The Revivalists in fine form as their catchy tunes about living in the moment ring out like glossy slices of sunshine.     Working with GRAMMY Award-winning producer Rich Costey (Muse, Foster the People, Death Cab for Cutie) The Revivalists are […]

The Ironsides’ debut studio album Changing Light is a collection of eight ready-made soundtrack songs without a film. The newest release from Colemine Records is another sonically rich collection of mini-symphonic soundscapes.   The Bay Area outfit worked with Louis Robert King, a New York-based maestro, and a host of Northern California musicians to bring the […]

Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale are back with The Milk Carton Kids seventh studio album, and first since 2019’s The Only Ones, titled I Only See The Moon. Self-produced and stripped down, the eleven-song effort eases out majestically around the duo’s vocal harmonies and light acoustic instrumentation.   The Southern California-based, modern-day version of Simon and […]

Constantly active, The Murlocs follow up their 2022 release Rapscallion with the excellent Calm Ya Farm. Originally the Melbourne-based outfit thought their new record would focus on country/Americana, but during recording things took a sideways detour into catchy English pub rock, and apparently had too much fun to leave.  This also being The Murlocs (lead […]

Due to an unfortunate car accident involving members of the band, the Morning 40 Federation’s lone Jazzfest show was delayed. Thankfully a fully healthy group eventually played The Rabbit Hole in the Lower Garden District as the large crowd was treated to upbeat, brassy, party rock from the legendary New Orleans outfit on May 5th, […]

The Bohannons return with their fifth album, Night Construction, a mix of different southern rock sounds as the group deals with reentering back into the world after Covid, in their own way.   Led by Marty and Matt Bohannon, the quartet (drummer Mike Gault and bassist Justin Colburn) kicks off the record with the instant high […]

A host of musical legends took to the Joy Theater stage down in New Orleans on Saturday night April 29th as the Take Me To The River tribute showcase rolled out. While the award winning documentaries are worth seeking out, nothing beats seeing this collection of talented artists live and performing their craft.  Beginning the […]

The Nashville-based, hard-rocking Country Westerns return with their sophomore album Forgive The City, bringing with them a classic rock sound that is spiced with punk rock energy.  Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joseph Plunket and drummer Brian Kotzur form the core of the band with bassist Jordan Jones adding some oomph and producer Matt Sweeney (Zwan, Dax Riggs) dropping […]