PREMIERES

Brooklyn-based rock & rollers, Skunkmello will release their new album  Hot Chicken, out June 10, 2016. Back to the basics rock is certainly a welcomed addition in 2016 and Skunkmello hits the volume and swagger dial on all cylinders. Blending the influences of classic rockers and blues artists, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Towns Van Zandt […]

In the opening track “To The Floor” off the new album The Switcher (coming June 24th) from Seattle trio Lonesome Shack, we hear the sound of beer bottles bouncing off the floor of a barroom. This sets the tone for the slow burning rush of gritty blues that unfolds over the next 14 songs. Though Lonesome […]

With their third album, Paper Moon, Kansas Bible Company tightens its approach, adding pop hooks and sharply focused songwriting to a sound that was once wildly experimental. Kansas Bible Company haven’t lost the unpredictable edge that pushed albums like Hotel Chicamauga into Frank Zappa territory, but Paper Moon shines a light on the melodic core that […]

Summer is just around the corner, which means it’s time to start working on that seasonal playlist. If you’re looking for something to be at the top of your rotation, look no further than the new album from slowcore cult favorites Spain. On June 3rd the band will release Carolina, and today we are excited to […]

Michael Fracasso has long been a highly respected singer-songwriter both within his home base of Austin, Texas and in the world of Americana as a whole. This may come from the fact that he has always refused to be tied down by any one style of music. At the core of everything he does there […]

If there is a claim to fame for Brooklyn band The Hollows, it’s the fact that there is no frontman. Or maybe it’s that there are in fact six frontmen, all of equal rank and contribution. Whatever way you slice it, these guys – who make damn fine use of a hodgepodge of mandolins, banjos, accordions, […]

Robert Rex Waller Jr. has spent the last sixteen years fronting I See Hawks In L.A., a California group whose cult following has found an appreciation for their hybrid style of country-rock laced with folk and psychedelic sounds. At the core of the group’s identity has always been the profoundly original lyrics of Waller. His […]

Since 2009 Boulder, Colorado band Grant Farm have been touring constantly, winning fans over with a style of music that brings to mind jam band acts like moe., the Grateful Dead and Phish, but with a proper country twang. It’s the more countryish element of the band that has gives their sound a rustic, organic quality. […]

Joshua Winstead, bass player, and long-time member of critically celebrated quartet, Metric, will release his debut solo album MMXX via Royal Cut Records on June 3. After more than a decade playing with Metric, and contributing to all six of their critically acclaimed albums, Winstead set out to record his first proper solo music with a desire to “just try to establish […]

Plenty of bands try to dodge the comparisons to their influences in an effort to come off as original and hip as possible. Other bands do not make the slightest attempt to cover up the bands they are emulating. The Explorers Club fall in the latter group and we are all better for it. You […]

When Peoria, Illinois natives Austin Thompson and Collin Krause joined forces with John Williams on bass and vocals, John Merikoski on drums and percussion, and Travis Kowalsky on banjo in 2013, they lit the fuse for a musical dynamic that would ignite fast. The quintet called themselves The Way Down Wanderers, which was a fitting name considering […]

Out of the indie-punk bomb shelters of Birmingham, Ala., came the inevitable union of The Ohms and now-defunct Merge Records Verbena—purveyors of cult-favorite records that inspired scores of Southeastern kids worth their snot in rock & roll to go off on a fool quest and start their own bands. Originally dubbed Wes McDonald and The […]

Life in 24 Frames formed in Sacramento, California with one mission – to share the honesty and purity of their musical creations with as many people as possible. Since their inception, the band has fulfilled on their initial mission while opening for acts like Royal Blood, Band of Horses, Dredg, Cage the Elephant, and as […]

Sometimes bands happen to play in bars and sometimes bands are made for bars. Chicago outfit The Black Oil Brothers are the latter. This quartet seeks to draw that age old line between the Mississippi Delta and the Windy City with their own style of laid back bluesy roots music. Slider guitars, harmonicas, banjos and mandolins make […]

How much can you say you know about Northeastern Ontario? Chances are, not much. But here in this corner of Canada is where you can find the hard-hitting blues rock band Sulfur City. The quintet is fronted by the wildly charismatic Lori Paradis, a singer and electric washboard player who has drawn comparisons to legendary […]

Jared Deck seems to fit the profile of a workingman’s troubadour. He was raised on a family farm in an Oklahoma town with a population of 1,200 and grew up working in the fields and at his family’s grocery store before eventually getting a job on the oil rigs that dot the landscape of the […]

The first thing you probably wonder when you hear the band name SHEL is, what does that even mean? It may seem a little odd, but it is actually the acronym of four classically trained sisters: Sarah on violin, Hannah on keyboards, Eva on mandolin, and Liza on percussion and beatboxing. Together these sisters, who share the last name Holbrook, grew up in […]

When Billy Kingsborough put together a band that carried his last name back in 2011, his goal was to re-create the kind of big rock and roll sound that was commonplace in the 70’s. It didn’t need to be flashy or retro to the point of gimmick, just a gang of dudes willing to sweat out […]

Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Anna Tivel classifies her music with her own mash-up word “folkmericana”. Give her a listen and you’ll find this is a pretty damn accurate descriptor. Tivel’s voice is delicate and soothing yet confident when she sings of quiet love, big dreams and small town life. There is a stark beauty and vastness […]

Maybe I’m out of touch with the reggae scene these days, but if there is one thing I can note it’s the lack of acts embracing the legacy of the godfathers of the genre. While it seems like every other genre of music – soul, disco, rock and roll – has its retro purists, reggae […]