Posts by Shane Handler

Despite his rough and tumble sounding first and last name, Rocky Votolato is anything but a brute -as he himself best pronounces:   “quiet is the new loud.”  Like M. Ward, Votolato echoes a timeless quality that better serves on vinyl courtesy of soulful chords and worn melodic vocals, via a discography that started in 1999.

Toronto roots rock band Enter The Haggis reached their goal and then some while nailing it in- house through their own fundraiser, where to their astonishment, $40,000 came in over just a couple months to record their sixth studio album Whitelake. Bar band, they are not.  Enter The Haggis are an established international touring act whose Amazon ratings for Whitelake kill it on two pages with five star ratings.

Although Drive by Truckers  have never been down and out like the protagonists of their songs, these musicians haven’t exactly driven an easy road either.  Last December, Shonna Tucker, their bassist since 2003 and lead singer of a handful of stellar DBT numbers, abruptly left the band.  If that wasn’t enough of a rock and roll cliché, the three guitar southern rooted rock band’s equipment truck broke down the night prior to Phoenix, forcing the band to spend the night in the snowy mountain town of Flagstaff waiting for a fix.  

Somewhere just beneath the hazy, slasher-film, psych-rock smog of Phantom Family Halo is an unassuming songwriter and a pensive band that spends as much time working with Bonnie “Prince” Billy as they do hunched over in droning dissonance. 

The Kickback is currently writing and rehearsing what will mark their first full-length release, but is taking a break for a residency at Schubas in Chicago. Each Monday in March The Flavored Players Series ft. The Kickback will take over Schubas at 8PM

On their second trip to the Phoenix area in one month, having just opened for Wilco in Tempe, White Denim, played a short one hour set to cap their road-work in support of 2011’s D.   And since D is only 37 minutes long, it was welcoming that the Crescent Ballroom performance was an hour in length.   Also it was a good night out on Valentine’s Day, seeing a no-fluff guitar rock band always keeps it real for those of us don’t buy into the Hallmark holiday.

It's stiff competition amongst artists who need to be heard in the states but haven’t earned their ears.   Steafán Hanvey is one of those artists. Steafán Hanvey & The Honeymoon Junkies was recently released here in the states on October 25th after being released in Finland in 2005 & Ireland in 2006

New Blood Live in London does what any worthy live concert feature film should: deliver a brand new experience to songs you already know by heart.

This LA based Renaissance Woman is also an accomplished singer-songwriter who has already made an artistic impact with her full length debut Spiders that will grasp the ears of both Tori Amos and The National listeners.

Although Divine Providence didn’t run list and list with Fleet Foxes or PJ Harvey for album of the year, its still one of the year’s most entertaining listens with its hard drinking rockabilly rhythms that permeates like spilled beer and cigarette butts  Just following a tour in support of Divine Providence, the always candid and witty McCauley wrote us back some thoughts…