Both in their recordings and stage performances, Los Lobos take a child-like pleasure in their playing, so it makes perfect sense for them to produce a CD exclusively devoted to music from Disney movies. Los Lobos Goes Disney is not a children's album, however, but rather an album for the inner child–and music lover– in all of us.
Fans of Chad Smith's other endeavors, the funk/punk of Red Hot Chili Peppers and the generic hard rock of Chickenfoot, will find his Bombastic Meatbats project to be a surprise to say the least. It owes more to 70s fusion artists John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock and jazz-oriented prog than it does to any mainstream rock influence.
Debates will go on ‘til the end of time itself about when the Dead was at the peak of their powers. The Winterland box set makes a pretty damn good case for the summer of ‘77.
With Power Patriot, the realigned Garage a Trois attempt to answer the musical question: "Is there life after Charlie Hunter?" The seven-string samurai has been part of this band's lineup since its inception a decade ago and his replacement by Marco Benevento fundamentally alters the sound of the quartet. This music is definitely less dependent on groove though it carries just as much visceral impact (and in your face, not through insinuation).
Some four years in the making, Mark Karan's Walk Through The Fire nevertheless sounds like it was recorded in a single inspired yet relaxed moment of inspiration. The songs, the arrangements and the musicians are all in sync and the combination of Karan's self-production and Gavin Lurssen's mastering preserves the warmth as well as the clarity of the album's sound.
When you hear the title phrase Mountain Meadows, you may think of pastoral fields growing high in the sky with peaceful ease, not so for this Canadian trio. Elliott Brood has constructed an aggressive electric folk period piece that deliberates on, or at was least inspired by, the Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857. Things kick off hot and mean with the best track on the album “Fingers and Tongues”; guitars ring with confidence over a feedback drone and ghost-like backing vocals.
Before even listening, Sonic Boom suffers from some degree of disingenuousness just because they dressed Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer up as Ace and Peter. C'mon guys, at least Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent got their own Kiss persona. And gee, the cover art looks a little familiar too.
This is not a singer-songwriter getting wasted in front of a mirror. He’s looking at all of us, questioning what is real, frankly asking what we want. In many ways, Dear Lover is Matthew Ryan’s Blood on the Tracks with a familiar idiot wind trying desperately to sweep our dreams away. Only this time, we can still win if we open our hearts and mouths.
Sam Bush, along with his trademark mandolin style and champion fiddle playing, has inspired jamgrass acts like Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon, to more mainstream bluegrass acts like Allison Krauss and the Union Station. His latest release, Circles Around Me, demonstrates the extraordinary musical talents of Sam Bush and his touring band returning full circle to his bluegrass roots.
So much stoner and doom rock tends to be an exercise in heaviness alone. While that certainly has its place, few people can take the steady bludgeoning that it offers even as it fills that need in all who really love heavy metal for the mind-numbing weight of slow, trudging riffs that take Tony Iommi to the extreme. Sometimes, however, a band offers such crushing power in a more dynamic form that respects the song as well as pushing the limits of the heavy in metal.
