Album Reviews

Otis Taylor spent almost twenty years outside the music business (1977-1995) as an antique salesman, but this record proves he is again where he belongs. Although not a groundbreaking blues album, Double V is an important statement by a man with a lot on his mind.

Since the summer of 2001, Billy Martin, of Medeski, Martin & Wood, has been organizing Turntable Sessions at various downtown New York City clubs. The Turntable Sessions: Volume 1 is an 11-song collection of highlights throughout the first three years of Martin

The Hot Buttered Rum String Band has made a CD I’m sure they feel proud to release, and in many ways I agree that it’s a solid work. But the technical skills and instrumental variety the guys bring to their music cannot compensate for the antiseptic quality of the tunes, nor for the distance the band maintains between itself and its subjects.

With its mopey vocals and multi-layered arrangements, the second EP from
mellowdrone – go get ’em tiger – is what would result if Radiohead and the Cure had a jam/writing session for a locked away weekend – or maybe an
hour. In fact, the influences are so obvious it’s hard to pin point you’re
actually listening to mellowdrone, the alter-ego of singer/songwriter/musician Jonathan Bates.

Musically, Here Come the Brides rocks with all the swagger, inebriation and low IQ of the best hair rock. Like a drunk driver in a fast car on a curvy California road, the Brides play with the reckless abandon one would expect from 80s L.A. veterans

Rather than focusing on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Ignoring history, former Cop Shoot Cop bassist Tod A impresses once again as the spark and hydrogen of New York

After a ten-year recording hiatus, the five piece – featuring all original members – have returned with Into The Now. With true marksmanship,
the band has always excelled with its niche of slow rockers, featuring
seasoned vocals and jubilant choruses.

With The Good Life, its third CD release, Railroad Earth may have revealed itself as the best acoustic jam band of its generation.

Upon her recent high profile marriage to the brash pop rocker, Elvis Costell, the husband/wife team has penned six of the twelve songs on Krall

Every inch and breath of my being feels compelled to pen the greatest review ever to leave these fingertips, because, without question this is the finest record in my collection.

Stone, Steel, & Bright Lights, Jay Farrar

Live at Bonnaroo, like the festival

Though it may appear these are milk and honey times for the Truckers, evidently they walked on egg shells, or broken glass as it may be, for a time at least, a couple years back. Killers and Stars was recorded in 2001 and in essence it chronicles these rotten and ambiguous times, at least from the perspective of one Patterson Hood, the principle song writer in the most important band in America.

Drunk & Furious make George Carlin uneasy, Howard Stern appear very hirable in today

Hints of lyrical depth, that jumble with catchy, yet dire musicianship, summate Buddahead’s debut CD release. The first single, “When I Fall,” is so sugar coated, that images of a noisy food court and the Gap prevail.

With This Magnificent Distance, Chris Robinson continues to stake his claim as one of the most imaginative and inventive singers and songwriters of our time.

The Queens of the Stone Age have nailed the sound of California groove with their cryptic metal boogie. Now frontman, Josh Homme, has struck out on a side project

Picking up where 2001

The Hiss is more Stonehenge than Stone Mountain, and if you like your post-punk delivered with the piss and vinegar lo-fi, fish and chips holler- these guys will never disappoint.