Album Reviews

[rating=8.00] It feels like a beautiful irony that Real Estate rehearsed for their new record In Mind in a high school in upstate New York, considering it is their most grown up record to date and is, in many ways, an album about growing up. The indie rockers have matured with In Mind in subject matter […]

[rating=6.00] If you loved Conor Oberst’s last record, 2016’s Ruminations, you’ll probably like his new one, Salutations…but not for the same reasons. The two are essentially fraternal twins, as Oberst has remade and rerecorded Ruminations with a new band and a few additional tracks and called it Salutations. Ruminations found Oberst recovering from health issues, […]

There was snow on the summit of Highway 17 as the mercury dropped from a fairly balmy California Spring day and threw the central coast back into Winter. Inside the warm and brightly lit Rio Theater in Santa Cruz on March 5th , staff scurried to wrap up last minute details. It was a Sunday […]

[rating-8.00] As the tongue-in-cheek title suggests, Soundgarden’s Ultramega OK was always a pretty good but not great album. The Seattle grunge pioneers made the mistake of switching from Sub Pop to SST Records and working with a producer, Drew Canulette, who was unfamiliar with their sound or the Seattle scene in general. As a result, […]

[rating=6.00] Tim Kasher has long been a bastion of the emo-folk scene out of Omaha spearheaded by Conor Oberst. In his primary project, Cursive, Kasher has maintained a delicate balance between his crew’s more folk tendencies and the band’s stated post-hardcore purpose. Some records have skewed more in one direction than the other, but for […]

[rating=9.00] In the popular context, referring to any artist or outfit as hailing from the “heartland” implies a certain down-home proficiency — all fiddles, harmonies, homilies and back porch convergence. It is a cliche of course, but an often used one at that, a convenient way to typecast a style of music and those that […]

[rating=9.00] It has been a long five years for fans of The Shins, eager for them to put out a new record. And though frontman James Mercer keeps himself busy with side projects (Broken Bells), when it comes to the Shins, we’ve only received a smattering of new tracks here and there since 2012’s Port […]

[rating=7.00] Anyone for Tennis? That’s the obvious question here, as well as the name accorded the Denver-based duo consisting of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore. While these two music makers identify themselves with a sport mostly associated with fuzzy balls, Wimbledon stadium and superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams, it’s also apparent that they’re adept […]

[rating=8.00] Valerie June has grown in the last four years. While her 2013 release Pushin’ Against a Stone was an anticipated splashy debut, particularly as she collaborated with Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), her new record, The Order of Time, shows an artist who has lived a bit more life, matured and had some time […]

[rating=8.00] Throwback country music is a saving grace for me these days. I’m growing weary of felt hats and custom-fitted Americana coupled with the atrocity of radio-induced contemporary rubbish and its creative null. Enter The Kernal to keep firm that middle ground that he’s been a part of for years, backing homies and mainstays in […]