Posts by Shawn Donohue

It has been over a decade since funk legend George Porter Jr. gathered his Runnin’ Pardners for a full-length studio album and their return, Crying For Hope, is a rock-solid showing of the funk which has been the basis of Porter’s sound for over half a century.  The record opens with the topical title song […]

Back in 2002 when Built to Spill were on hiatus, Doug Martsch decided to invite some local players to his house to jam. The results were captured as the Boise Cover Band who recorded a collection of cover songs in an extremely relaxed setting and titled it Unoriginal Artists. The album was initially only sold […]

Instead of resurrecting his old band Soul Coughing as he had planned to, Mike Doughty teamed up with longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston to form something new, yet in the same spirit of his previous act with influences from his long solo career. Ghost of Vroom’s debut full length has splashes of electronica, hip hop, […]

The eighth album released by Fruit Bats finds Eric B Johnson and crew dealing with unsettled times in familiar ways and while the majority of The Pet Parade was written pre-pandemic the songs can’t help but flow through that collective experience and gain a new perspective.  Basically a Johnson solo project at this point, Fruit […]

The newest release from the Philadelphia-based artist Ron Gallo is perfectly titled. Peacemeal takes a pop patchwork musical approach, sprinkling worrisome observations around various genres with oddball stitching, all the while trying to stay positive during tough times.  Opening with the album’s second song done in reverse, a lighthearted playful spirit bounces around but things […]

The Amsterdam-based Altın Gün’s newest album, Yol was written and recorded with its members scattered all around Europe. This distance allowed them to experiment for their third studio release, adding sleek synths and more dancefloor-ready cool jams to their established worldbeat sounds which earned them a Grammy nomination in 2019. In the Anatolian rock style, […]

It has been over ten years since the Menahan Street Band have released an album but The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band is an aptly titled return for the group.  Consisting of members of The Roots, The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields and the Expressions, The Black Keys, and Budos Band, Menahan Street Band’s Thomas Brenneck […]

Multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana’s sophomore effort Terra Firma bumps along, dripping with layers of early 90’s R&B, indie rock, and dream pop escapism. Playing all sounds while delivering floating vocals, Sultana is a musical force over the fourteen neo-new jack swing and soul/pop offerings.      The record starts on the acid jazz high note of “Musk”, a […]

Since 2014’s underwhelming Teeth Dreams, The Hold Steady has released just one record, 2019’s Thrashing Thru The Passion, a strong return to form for the Brooklyn-based sextet. However, during those years lead singer Craig Finn delivered three solo records (as well as a collection of outtakes, a comic book, and more) remaining busy with his […]

Paul Leary’s first solo album, The History of Dogs, was released way back in 1991 and now the follow-up Born Stupid arrives during the strange haze of early 2021. The Butthole Surfers guitarist waited 30 years to use his dark humor, creepy carnival vibes, and orchestrated sweeping sounds to address everything from mass consumption to […]

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets newest release SHYGA! The Sunlight Mound opens with a bizarre (brief) introduction to their freaky world. The track is titled “Big Dijon” and it does just enough to disorientate, before blasting the listener off into the cosmos with what follows.   The Perth, Australia based band, lead by Jack McEwan on guitar/vocals, have […]

It is a strong time for British post-punk acts as groups like Fontaines D.C. and IDLES ride high. Adding to that tally Shame propagated the success of their debut with their strong second album, Drunk Tank Pink. Their mix of clashing guitars and dance laden rhythms, shooting around spoken/disenchanting vocals congeal into sticky sweet and […]

The Grammy-nominated artist Corey Ledet is back with his fourteenth release simply titled Corey Ledet Zydeco on Nouveau Electric Records. While rooted in the Southwest Louisiana style of zydeco, Ledet also embraces blues, gospel and rock and roll as warm original tunes and covers bubble and bounce with energy.  Singing, playing accordion and at times […]

The co-founder and drummer of Soulive, Alan Evans has started a new endeavor Vintage League Music which plans to showcase that smooth funk sound he became known for. The most recent offering is a sampler album of unreleased tunes titled Family Album Vol 1. showcasing familiar and new players on the scene who are part […]

Think back twenty-three years ago to August 14th, 1997. The Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death, Google.com was a month away from registering their domain name and the billboard charts were dominated by Puff Daddy, The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and Third Eye Blind. Also on that day, at the Golden Dollar […]

The Jimi Hendrix Experience concert played on July 30th, 1970 during The Cry of Love tour dubbed Rainbow Bridge has always been a bit confusing for Hendrix fans. The 1971 film only contained a bit of Hendrix playing while the album titled Rainbow Bridge actually had no music from this concert at all. Now a […]

Twenty-five years ago Goodie Mob released the hip hop classic Soul Food introducing the dirty south to a world wide audience, now they return with the powerful Survival Kit devised to help weather the storm of 2020 and beyond. The Organized Noize produced effort proves Big Gipp, Khujo, Cee-Lo, and T-Mo are older, wiser and […]

Celebrating fifteen years since their debut release, The Budos Band is keeping the party rolling with their newest offering on Daptone Records, the eleven-song collection titled Long in the Tooth. While they have been at this for a while, the group’s commitment to funkified instrumentals has remained razor sharp. Their previous effort, the excellent Budos […]

Atlas Vending, the newest release from the Canadian noise trio METZ, aims to broaden their style and appeal while staying true to their junkyard screeching, wailing, and car crusher power. The changes they incorporate work incredibly well and while longtime fans may fear a grown up softening creeping into the band’s sound, there is still […]

Back in January Drive-By Truckers dropped an incredibly timely album, The Unraveling, which examined current American life, addressing topics such as children in prison at the border and mass shootings via direct lyrics and excellent musicality. Amazingly, less than ten months later, inspired by these unprecedented times, one of the greatest acts at chronicling our […]