Album Reviews

Kansas

Unearthing a side project that borders on spectral instrumentals and acerbic pieces, Joel Peterson

With Deep Banana Blackout on hiatus, guitarist/songwriter Fuzz has remained busy as usual by writing new songs and touring with his own band.

The Paul Simon Songbook stands as a time capsule of Simon

Built around the soothing rhythms of Cort Farris

Toots Hibbert entered the collaboration game, but left the teenyboppers and exposed boobs off the lineup, opting for a more mature, authentic all-star cast to join him on True Love. The result is far from a Maytals reggae classic, but it

Where The Beta Band

Jobarteh Kunda

Billy Martin continues to explore the art of percussion, avant-garde and beyond with his eclectic Amulet Records label with illy B Eats Volume 2, This recording features a series of Martin made break beats and percussion samples intended for DJ use – appearing on both vinyl and disc.

Calexico manages to place their patented romantic gypsy artistry throughout most of this 6 song EP, featuring 3 distinct covers. With their hints towards jazz, world, experimental and rock, Calexico continues to earn their well due cult praises.

In the same vein as the Pickin

Like Marvin Gaye

For die-hard fans of the so called

The latest from Tortoise – It’s All Around You -moves in slow transcendental fashion, with a swirling, new age psychedelic force that is hypnotic, but as a result carries non-stimulating results.

By making music out of a bit of everything, with the assistance of loops galore, TV On The Radio meld woozy break beats with cryptic energy that hits hard in the originality department.

Renee Lamoureux and Keith Macpherson, who make up the Canadian pop/rock duo Easily Amused, are passionate musicians. The two have performed nearly 400 shows over the past two years and have kept the bus rolling in 2004. For this, I salute them. For their latest record, Simple Stuff, I have many reservations.

Tim O’Brien has spent most of his life on the road. Thankfully, when he sets his hand to writing about travel, the result is a wonderful montage that captures both giddy fun and personal costs the road extracts.

With a handful of new musicians added since their last album five years ago, Leftover Salmon has returned with a more mature edge, that blends their unique bluegrass with new spicy ingredients.

Leave it up to a 19 year old from London, England to put out one of the very few albums in years to be true to the

Recorded in 1999 after the dissolution of Todd Sheaffer’s old band, From Good Homes, this performance predates Railroad Earth but stands as a document of Sheaffer’s nascent talents and burgeoning skills that play such a pivotal role in the RRE sound today.