Album Reviews

[rating=7.00] In 2008 Dani Neff formed the Austin-based hard rock trio Megafauna. Having released a new album every two years since 2010, their fourth album, Welcome Home, is the newest addition to their catalogue. Instead of following in the wake of their third album Maximalist, with its remorseless riffs and unrepentant hardness, this new undertaking […]

[rating=7.00] Masterpiece, Big Thief’s debut album on Saddle Creek Records, comes across as a study in the power of vulnerability. This is Adrianne Lenker’s first record with her full band, and yet some of its best moments are when the songs are stripped, with lyrics standing naked against quiet guitar strumming. This is how the […]

[rating=8.00] To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere isn’t another step into an unknown, instead it becomes more clear it is a more refined piece of Thrice’s discography since the days they released Alchemy Index Vol. I-IV. From then on it was indication of their future intentions – less heavy hardcore and pop tendency and […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews the third mixtape by from Chicago MC Chance The Rapper, Coloring Book, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution:  [youtube id=”1THpUzKdOuA” width=”630″ height=”350″]

[rating=7.00] It takes a certain amount of bravado to release two albums simultaneously, but then again, Islands was bred from a decided indie ethos. The Montreal-bred/L.A.-residing combo partially recorded their first album in a bedroom before moving on to more formal settings. The band went through several transitions, leaving founder/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Nick Thorburn its sole continuing […]

[rating=8.00] About a year after their stellar record Me Oh My, Asheville, NC band The Honeycutters have created a fresh batch of stunners with the follow-up On the Ropes. Lead by the heavy-hitting vocals of Amanda Anne Platt, the band continues to hone their strong country sound with just the right mix of fun and […]

[rating=8.00] Mudcrutch 2 is proof positive Tom Petty regards his work seriously with the band that preceded the Heartbreakers. But then why wouldn’t he?–working with this quintet  allows him an opportunity as unique as it is practical, that is, a deliberate and valid means to revisit to his past. At the same time, however, he […]

[rating=7.00] There are multiple selling points for Eric Clapton’s twenty-third studio record I Still Do. The project finds him reunited with the producer of 1977’s mega-successful album Slowhand. Artist Peter Blake, who oversaw the cover for the Beatles Sgt. Pepper,  rendered the cover painting of EC. And the enigmatic presence of Angelo Mysterioso, actually the […]

[rating=7.00] It’s been five years now since the members of Animal Eyes trickled their way down to Portland from Alaska. According to bassist Colin McArthur it was less about being able to go on tour easier than it was about the music scene in Portland. The evolution in their sound may have been partly influenced […]

[rating=9.00] Josh Harty’s music brings with it an air of authenticity that transcends all those who are content to simply embrace their rustic accoutrements while attempting to strum out a song. A third generation musician and son of a police chief and preacher in his native Nebraska, he grew up singing gospel and country western […]

[rating=6.00] When two highly individual and independent groups join forces, the results are often anything but predictable. And when they set out on a mutual path of musical exploration that takes them and their audiences into new terrain, the sounds made in tandem can be surprising and even surreal. Such is the case with Balter/Saunier, […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews the new album from Shreveport, Louisiana rockers the Seratones, Get Gone, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution:  [youtube id=”uSgJbqaYS74″ width=”630″ height=”350″]

[rating=9.00] All cheesiness aside, Al Scorch’s banjo-picking will scorch you! It’s too hot to touch and practically leaves smoke in its wake. On his new record Circle Round the Signs you’ll get frenzied bursts of bluegrass in each quick tune. Scorch barely comes up for air on each track, playing his heart out with an intimidating […]

[rating=6.00] The dark rasp of Marcus Blacke will hit you from behind, and the way it sneaks up will make you want to follow it through the hauntingly beautiful intricacies of Blacke’s new self-titled record. Hailing from Australia, Blacke’s voice has the world-weary, lived-in feel of a rail-riding wanderer. The grimness of the record only […]

[rating=8.00] Like the innumerable brethren within the demographic to which their name alludes, Hard Working Americans are an amalgam of distinct personalities, united within a bond of support around Todd Snider’s keenly wrought songs. The strength of Rest in Chaos, however, is the humble means by which the six individual personalities graciously assume roles that […]

[rating=7.00] Country music today is littered with watered down garbage that’s so crossover, it shouldn’t dare even deign to be associated with the genre. There’s a soullessness to so much of what’s on offer, it can make you feel hopeless about the future. But artists like Ryan Beaver are looking for something a little deeper […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews the new album from Colorado rocker Arliss Nancy, Greater Divides, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution:  [youtube id=”dfzyA8WgXyU” width=”630″ height=”350″]

[rating=9.00] Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have always seemed most comfortable exploiting their innate eccentricity, a sprawling hippie ensemble whose members seem to come and go, leaving frontman and lead singer Alex Ebert to steer them through one otherwise unwieldy effort after another. Grandiose in both ambition and execution, the Magnetic Zeros’ music is […]

[rating=9.00] Melody and muscle aren’t always mutually compatible, given the fact that many times one precludes the other. Nevertheless, there are instances one trait can actually enhance to the other, as bands like Cheap Trick, the Raspberries, Queen and Green Day have proven in the past. Nada Surf falls into the same general category, although […]

[rating=7.00] Athens, Georgia band New Madrid is an unorthodox bunch to say the least, a group whose emphasis on chants, rhythms and squalling guitars places them more in the category of the avant garde as opposed to their once rootsy regimen. On Magnetkingmagnetqueen they go all out in their attempts to assert a brasher, more […]