Posts by Shawn Donohue

On their previous album, 2022’s Solidaritine, Gogol Bordello shifted more towards a hardcore punk sound, driven by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 2026 doesn’t offer much in the way of hope on that front, but the band has moved back to their wide-open, global music influences, delivering tunes that mash up multiple genres and layers […]

Have you ever wondered what would have happened if Lou Reed became interested in Americana and recorded with Gram Parsons? Well, if that unlikely combination seems intriguing, then The Nude Party’s Look Who’s Back is for you.  Of course, that oversimplifies the group’s sound, but those two touchpoints are the chocolate-and-peanut combo that makes this […]

The seventh album from the Torrance, California-based outfit Joyce Manor continues their run of super short, catchy, chant-along anthems, with some added twists and turns in the brief proceedings. I Used To Go To This Bar clocks in under twenty minutes with nine tunes that sound primed and ready to explode at each junction.  Released on Epitaph, […]

The Nottingham, UK-based Sleaford Mods’ newest offering, Demise of Planet X on Rough Trade, is a screed against modern society delivered with a thick East Midlands accent, slang, and a fed-up point of view, set to electro post-punk bump-and-grind.   The duo of Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn have been at this for a long time, and the group’s thirteenth […]

King’s Day on January 6th marks the start of Carnival season, a special time in New Orleans featuring parades, revelry, and more. On January 8th, the Take Me To The River All-Stars traveled north to spread some Mardi Gras infused love in New York City at the gorgeous City Winery.   The sold-out show featured a […]

The south London-based post-punk outfit Dry Cleaning starts 2026 with a confident offering as their third studio full-length, Secret Love, successfully expands and polishes their sound.  The quartet of Florence Shaw, Lewis Maynard, Tom Dowse, and Nick Buxton stopped and started the project a few times, recording demos and jams everywhere from Chicago with Wilco […]

The newest archival release from the estate of Dr. John is a double disc of live New Orleans R&B. Directly titled Live at the Village Gate, it is a previously unissued performance of the good doctor fronting an eight-piece band that played the historic NYC venue on March 5, 1988.   The 80s were not a […]

Their first release in over 14 years, Forever, I’ve Been Being Born, finds Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter dealing with life, death, change, and renewal as the Seattle-based outfit’s fragile cosmic folk music drifts into the ether.  The band’s core, vocalist Sykes and guitarist Phil Wandscher, needed time to regroup and find inspiration after losing […]

Throughout his idiosyncratic career, it has been impossible to figure out where Mike Patton will turn next, but even his most diehard fans would have been hard-pressed to believe the announcement of a new group with folk chart-toppers The Avett Brothers was true, yet that is exactly what happened. The newly christened AVTT/PTTN worked together on a self-titled album […]

To celebrate his 2024 sold-out Luck and Strange tour, David Gilmour is releasing his third solo live album, titled The Luck and Strange Concerts. Gilmour was feeling reinvigorated this tour as he played the new album in its entirety, along with a host of his Pink Floyd classics.  The live album offers up 23 songs captured from various […]