Album Reviews

The 2018 release from Eagle Rock, California folk duo All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn’t Do, found The Milk Carton Kids expanding their sound with minimal pianos, extra layers of strings and drums. For their follow up, however, the duo retreats to just the voices and acoustic guitars […]

All Mirrors, Angel Olsen’s fourth full-length album, out now on Jagjaguwar, belongs in the canon of essential break-up albums, but more Exile in Guyville than Rumours or Blue. It wasn’t so much her own heartache that Olsen studied and mined for the album, but the act of facing herself and the self-acceptance and forgiveness she […]

The New York City-based Horne Electric Band brings jazz fusion to a heightened level, merging all the great sounds from ‘60s’ and ‘70s classic soul and jazz with a contemporary touch that gives it an infectiously funky feel. It’s a relatively new band formed in 2017, having toured the northeast and internationally. They integrate current […]

Stephen Clair’s Strange Perfume is a perfect homage to 1970s garage rock. Think in terms of the Modern Lovers or if David Bowie had gotten a crack at producing the Velvet Underground. The major thing separating Clair from those artists, and artists like them is the joy within his music. While there’s emotional complexity and […]

The acclaimed storyteller, one of our best songwriters in the past three decades, Chris Knight, returns with his first album in over seven years with Almost Daylight. This is Knight’s ninth album. He’s an artist that has long been adored by singer-songwriter aficionados but remained relatively under the radar in the early part of his […]

Music lovers dismayed to see credits for additional musicians on Scott Amendola and Wil Blades’ Everybody Wins will subsequently be delighted to hear how the four other participants assist the two principals on this Royal Potato Family record. In fact, the duo’s able compatriots aid in conjuring up a create a deep spacious sound, a […]

Violet Bell fuses folk, soul, and bluegrass music into a uniquely distinctive sound. Oh, there are a few hints of classical too. Based out of Chapel Hill NC, Lizzy Ross and Omar Ruiz-Lopez draw inspiration from the simple aspects of nature, not often appreciated enough in song, some ancient mythology, and their diverse musical backgrounds. […]

Sadly, keyboard wizard Ramsey Lewis is retiring but, as one would expect, he goes out on a high note here with VII, apparently his last statement with his long-time electric funk band, Urban Knights.  The now 84-year-old Lewis announced his retirement in 2018 as he entered the studio to record this expansive set of tunes. […]

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

When you hear that Down By Law has been around for 30 years, it takes a moment for that realization to set in. It’s almost unthinkable, yet it’s true. So how does a band like Down By Law celebrate three decades of making music? Well, they record live studio versions of fan favorites like “Boredom” […]

There is so much more than just what meets the ears, and that alone is a proverbial feast. British- Bahraini trumpeter and band leader Yazz Ahmed’s Polyhymnia is cinematic in scope, stimulating, ambitious, infectious, and inspiring. Her music has been described as ‘psychedelic Arabic Jazz,’ a convenient way of describing her unique blurring of conventional […]

Conceptually and practically ambitious, SuperBigmouth is a composite of two projects of bassist/composer Chris Lightcap’s, Superette and Bigmouth. Rendered with an eight-piece band, literally twice the size of the quartet on last year’s splendid album titled after the former initiative, it is proportionately more dynamic and dramatic and should prove just as durable. “Through Birds, […]

The last album Thurston Moore released, 2017’s Rock n Roll Consciousness, contained some of the most engaging and brightly psychedelic based tunes of his career. Now Moore follows his more experimental muse to an extreme, releasing Spirit Counsel, a three-CD Box Set on his Daydream Library Series record label. These instrumental numbers are not for […]

The stage at the iconic Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood, California, has spurred on the careers of many of rock music’s famous singer-songwriters over the years. Samantha Fish and Marc Broussard, two performers with strong industry buzz and a robust fan following, stopped in at the Troubadour on their U.S. tour. Their sold-out show on […]

When the new GospelbeacH album was announced, fans of the band were probably pretty excited – and rightfully so. It is a band that just makes groovy music that makes you want to lie in the sun and enjoy the day. The band’s new album Let It Burn is a sort of musical stew that incorporates […]

You have to be impressed when you see some of the artists producer Prince Fatty has worked with. Among them are artists as varied as Lily Allen, Pharcyde, and Gregory Isaacs. In the Viper’s Shadow is the latest studio effort from Prince Fatty, and this reggae album features a lot of collaborations with guest artists. […]

Since forming in 2011, the Brooklyn-based shoegaze psych-rock band DIIV (pronounced “Dive”) have steadily gained a reputation for solid records and heavy live shows. After releasing their debut, Oshin, the band had a turbulent time with band members coming and going, which led to a four-year gap before their next release. Reportedly, frontman Zachary Cole […]

Over the past twenty-five years that Wilco has been recording, the band has released ten albums with many side projects in the interim. Each album has had its own unique soundscape, with the band has offering up alt-country albums like A.M. and Being There, the pop-rock of Summerteeth, the 70’s roots rocker Sky Blue Sky, and the noise-rock of A Ghost […]

The Ropeadope label, which is rather faintly displayed on Jon Regen’s exciting new singer-songwriter recording, Higher Ground, usually suggests progressive, improvisational, and left of center jazz. This is not to say that Regen doesn’t have the requisite jazz piano chops. He certainly does, but this a piano and keyboard-driven singer-songwriter effort, the kind you’d associate […]

To many casual ears, piano trios are dismissed as “boring.” Perhaps those folks haven’t heard these classics: Bud Powell – The Genius of Bud Powell, Ahmad Jamal’s But Not For Me -At the Pershing, Bill Evans’ Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Ellington, Mingus/Roach, Brad Mehldau’s Art of the Trio Vol. 3, Oscar Peterson’s Night Train, […]