Album Reviews

[rating=9.00] It cannot be mere coincidence of fate that the latest opus from those Tennessee titans of doom/psych/jam/rock, All Them Witches, is being released the day before Halloween. No, nothing about Dying Surfer Meets His Maker has been left to chance, and I can only conclude that its release was considered carefully before a date […]

[rating=7.00] Trey Anastasio released lots of solo albums from 2002 through 2012, with success that varied as widely as the styles on each record. Paper Wheels is quite a departure from most of those albums, as it features no overly slick production, lofty orchestral undertakings, or sprawling rock-band ensembles. It has the most in common […]

[rating=9.00] As the first notes of “Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks” pan back and forth in the stereo spectrum, this four CD set cull from the latest Grateful Dead archive gargantua, Thirty Trips Around the Sun, gets off to a rousing start. The lone studio track (appearing on a gold 7-in vinyl 45 in […]

[rating=7.00] Born Ruffians are a quirky bunch. Hailing from Toronto, they’ve made a respectable name for themselves north of the border, having received extensive airplay on the CBC and by touring quite extensively. While part of their repute comes by way of covers — an early version of Grizzly Bear’s “Knife” helped bring them to […]

[rating=7.00] With so many bands in Austin, standing out is no easy feat. However, after starting as a solo venture for front woman Sabrina Ellis, it wasn’t long before the project became the nine-piece outfit Sweet Spirit. The band’s mix of indie rock, doo wop, disco, country, garage rock and punk fronted by Ellis’ wild […]

[rating=7.00] Jason Boland and his band the Stragglers are that rare act who succeed in making fans out of both country music traditionalists and those more inclined to the modern, more pop-inflected styles of the genre. The band’s eighth studio album, the oddly titled Squelch, finds these Oklahomans going in all sorts of musical directions […]

[rating=8.00] The newest and second studio release, Dear Wormwood, may be the boldest endeavor yet from The Oh Hellos, a Texas progressive folk group led by brother and sister duo, Maggie and Tyler Heath. The album’s title comes from the play titled Dear Wormwood from C.S. Lewis’s Christian apologetic novel The Screwtape Letters. The novel […]

[rating=8.00] Falls’ backstory seems like the stuff of soap operas. The Australian duo — Simon Rudston-Brown and Melinda Kirwin — met while the two were attending the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney. They clicked both personally and professionally and then went on to establish a musical residency at a little hotel in Sydney before heading […]

[rating=8.00] Ten years after the release of the Grammy-winning debut album that put Wolfmother on the map, the Australian rockers are revisiting that material with a Deluxe Edition re-release. The Tenth Anniversary edition of Wolfmother’s eponymous release is a double album released on CD, vinyl, and digital formats. In addition to the album’s original 13 […]

[rating=8.00] You had to be living under a rock in 2002 to avoid Vanessa Carlton’s breakout single “A Thousand Miles”, and if you were a young girl when it came out, it meant everything to you. There was something so raw and authentic about Carlton, even then when she was so young. She was a […]

[rating=7.00] With #392: The EP Collection, Marshall Crenshaw proves he’s as pragmatic as he is self-effacing. The man who brought us an album entitled I’ve Suffered for My Art, Now It’s your Turn has collected on a single CD all the tracks released on vinyl EP’s between 2013 and 2015, plus two previously-unreleased bonus cuts […]

[rating=7.00] A partnership with Lawyer Dave that began back in 2007, Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs is the project that suits the multi-talented Holly Golightly best. Their newest record Coulda Shoulda Woulda finds the duo continuing to evolve their sound, a handful of records in. That signature rockabilly spirit lives on, but Woulda is refined, […]

[rating=8.00] On his last release, 2013’s The Beast in Its Tracks, Josh Ritter was reeling from a recent divorce and all the conflicting emotions that went with it. But on his new album, Sermon on the Rocks, we find the Idaho-born singer-songwriter in a very different frame of mind. While The Beast in Its Tracks […]

[rating=6.00] Once a celebrated genre, the prog-rock post-hardcore sector of music has been lacking as of late. Popular in the mid-2000’s, you generally listen back on the music with a wistful sense of nostalgia, sometimes coupled with a tinge of embarrassment. Other times with a knowing nod at a time long gone. Those longing stares […]

[rating=7.00] A class mix of T-Rex’s Marc Bolan and indie-pop darlings Haim, glam artist Børns’ initial success with single “Electric Love” almost felt too easy. The extravagant video paired with his eccentric yet melodic voice was an immediate hit, leading to an unsettling feeling; can it get better than this? Full album Dopamine answers that […]

[rating=8.00] Ten years and seven albums into their band life, Atlanta’s Deerhunter-Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and Josh McKay- are back with Fading Frontier, a new collection of tunes that finds the band shifting away from the grunge sensibilities of their last album, 2013’s Monomania, and treading in a brighter, more melodic direction. While […]

[rating=7.00] Alex Bleeker already has an exceedingly cool day job as bassist for Real Estate, one of the more esteemed indie  bands of the present era. But when he opted to also do his own thing with The Freaks, he was really able to spread his wings and express his individuality. Now, three Real Estate […]

[rating=3.00] Alan Palomo, the man behind Neon Indian, struck chillwave gold with his first two albums, Psychic Chasms and Era Extrana.  Unfortunately, these classics are now juxtaposed to the erratic, disjointed sounds and cochlear trauma exacted by his latest release, Vega Intl. Night School. Neon Indian fans are in for a shock when they plow […]

[rating=8.00] Matt Nathanson has always been a superb storyteller. Over the course of his career – and the past several years in particular – his songs have been tagged for such high profile network television shows as NCIS, Scrubs, The Vampire Diaries, and The Bachelor among many others. It’s a distinction that’s not to be taken […]

[rating=8.00] Sunbather, the 2013 album by the then Bay Area (now Los Angeles) “metalgaze” outfit Deafheaven, was, and arguably still is, dangerously close to merchandising itself into self-parody. The record’s sleeve art (designed by Nick Steinhardt) is indeed a beautiful thing. Its unmistakable color scheme is meant to mimic the color of a person’s eyelids […]