Album Reviews

Eclectic alt-rock veterans Garbage have returned with their third post-hiatus album and seventh overall. No Gods No Masters continues in the Wisconsin band’s tradition, melding disparate musical styles into a unique amalgamation while building in enough pop hooks to keep the songs accessible and memorable. It is very much in line with what the band […]

Places like Nashville, Austin and Bakersfield have long been part of the lexicon of country music, but for many years the Pacific Northwest has been quietly carving out its own scene. Anyone who cares to do a little digging will find a slew of serious country (and alt-country) bands dispersed throughout Oregon, Washington and British […]

Much is made about improvisation or playing in the moment. While some bands pay casual reference to those phrases, as if to think it will improve their credibility, Bright Dog Red (BDR) makes it their mantra. They are the epitome of in-the-moment playing. So, if you thought that studio recordings could give them the loops, […]

After two albums and a bestselling book fixating on her mother’s death, Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) is ready to focus on herself, and she has a lot to be happy about. So far that death has haunted her discography; Zauner’s debut Psychopomp came out back in 2016, in the midst of her mother’s death, and […]

Friends in High Places is almost assuredly the only Americana record coming out this year that takes just as much from the French indie-minimalist sound as it does from folk or country. The sound on the latest LP from Turner Cody and his band the Soldiers of Love is due in part to a prolific […]

It’s been 11 years since Crowded House last put out a record, and with band founder/front man Neil Finn joining Fleetwood Mac in 2018, it was a pretty safe assumption that the House would remain empty forever. But after an extremely successful tour with Fleetwood Mac, Finn was on a creative tear. So along with […]

Co-founder and long-time mainstay of The Church since its inception in 1980, bassist/vocalist/composer Steve Kilbey has also loyally followed his muse in a variety of different directions between the Australian band’s projects. Within the last year alone he’s released Eleven Women in September of 2020 and in March of this year issued his collaboration with […]

Guy Davis’ music lies right at the intersection of blues and folk and up until now with Be Ready When I Call You his albums have been largely packed with great interpretations of traditional material. This kind of work culminated in Davis’s previous album with harmonica ace Fabrizio Poggi, Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train, being […]

Red Fang’s first full-length studio release in five years, Arrows, runs the gamut of metal subgenres as the Portland, OR quartet decided to record whatever they damn well wanted this go around.  Hooking up again with longtime producer Chris Funk, the band (Bryan Giles – guitar, vocals Aaron Beam – bass guitar, vocals David Sullivan […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on LÆVITAS, the new album from post-hardcore Winterforever, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

The most famous Brazilian composer of all, Antonio Carlos Jobim, dubbed his fellow countryman, João Donato, as a genius. João Gilberto claims that Donato invented the bossa nova beat. Yet, the explorative Donato, who was widely hailed as one of the best musicians in Rio at age 24, was too radical for what audiences wanted […]

“Good things come to those who wait” There are, perhaps, few other current musical acts to which this old adage could more appropriately be applied than live phenoms, Goose. Since their 2014 formation, the Norwalk, CT-based group had experienced a mostly slow & steady rise that was buoyed by the release of their first studio […]

Trapper Schoepp was recording May Day in the middle of two simultaneous life-altering crises. At a recording studio outside Milwaukee, during the height of the COVID pandemic, Schoepp recalls stepping outside wearing a surgical mask to witness a line of military vehicles on their way to confront protesters expressing outrage at yet another instance of […]

On the first weekend of December 2020, three great musicians gathered at the otherwise empty Smoke Jazz & Supper Club in New York to celebrate renowned drummer, Billy Hart’s 80th birthday.  The three had never played as a unit before but took the bandstand after just one rehearsal for a series of virtual performances.  All […]

The approach couldn’t be more different. On 2008’s Vagabonds, Jayhawks co-founder Gary Louris’ only solo venture before this one, Jump for Joy, he employed a choir, a pedal steel guitar, and a cadre of versatile musicians. Here he does it all himself, producing and playing all the instruments. That should not be surprising as Louris […]

Swift Silver is the former bluegrass duo of Anna Kline and John Looney, Grits & Soul, who have transformed their sound into a stirring concoction of southern R&B, soul, and gospel; thereby changing their band name in the process. The couple, Anna, originally from Mississippi; and John, raised in Mt. Sterling, KY where they now […]

Just as Britpop was losing its momentum, Travis released their breakthrough sophomore album The Man Who with its single “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?” and brought attention to the post-Britpop movement. Coldplay’s Chris Martin has said that Travis “invented [Coldplay] and a lot of others”. However, where other bands aspired to selling out […]

Eddie 9V is something of an anomaly. He is only 24 years old, yet his music has a distinct old-time feel to it. It feels like he discovered his parents old soul and blues records and did his best to emulate it. It’s fair to say that he’s done a pretty decent job. He blends […]

It’s hard to call anything progressive-rock these days. The term carries with it more baggage than just about any genre, evoking elaborate costumes, giant drum sets, and armadillo tanks. Even during its resurgence in the 90s, bands like The Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree pushed against those stereotypes enough that it was hard to even […]

Fate can be interesting and at times wonderful. In this next month, we are blessed to hear reissues from some of the historically great female blues and jazz singers, kicking off with the reissue of Abbey Lincoln’s 1959 classic Abbey Is Blue. Separately, we will also hear from Nina Simone and Etta James. Craft recordings […]