This is a throwback to the moment college rock wrapped earnest woe and anger into the sweetest of melodies. Delayed Reaction is an example of a band that is deeply in touch with what they do best. There are no curve balls here, just fire from the heart.
With the tragic passing of founding member Richie Hayward, Little Feat suffered what is undeniably the band's greatest loss since the untimely death of its mastermind Lowell George. But the venerable group has enlisted some redoubtable reinforcements for its 16th studio album Rooster Rag.
Yet this stuff still sounds like it was recorded on a one-speaker Emerson boom box from 1984. And to remove that sense of scratchiness from the listening experience of material like "Secret Knowledge of Back Roads" and "Bar Scene from Star Wars" would be akin to sucking the soul from its historical importance entirely, not to mention usurping the fun of the challenge in peeling away the fuzz to reveal the true grit of these wonderfully scrappy pop songs.
When the band recorded and finished their third album this amorphous lack of center became self-evident and the band scrapped it, feeling as if they were on the verge of something. Founding members Stakee and Terry Wolfers hunkered down into the relationship that forms the core of Alberta Cross and edited, remixed, and wrote anew. Through the trials and tribulations comes the appropriately titled, Songs of Patience.
Combining a witty lyrical framework with a grand sense of musical pomp and circumstance, Kimbra uses her debut album Vows to provoke listeners to be bold and go against the flow.
New York City might have had Debbie Harry as its reigning queen of platinum blonde punk during the height of its ’77 heyday. But Los Angeles had Penelope Houston, the bold, brazen front-woman of San Francisco’s The Avengers, a band whose gritty streetwise snarl and ravenous energy packed as much of a punch as the Marvel Comics super group with whom they shared their name.
Todd Boston is an acoustic guitarist, flutist and multi-instrumentalist from the San Francisco Bay Area. His new album, Touched by the Sun was recorded across the country, in the vibrant, green hills of Vermont and his virtuoso guitar work is backed on record by a wide range of world class musicians including percussionist Jeff Haynes of Pat Metheny’s band, bassist Tony Levin of Peter Gabriel/King Crimson and Snatum Kaur on vocals
No frills straight ahead rock and roll is what the River City Tanlines offer up on their newest release Coast to Coast. Lead guitarist, singer/songwriter and front woman Alicja Trout has constructed some tight knit pop rock with a punky vibe as the trio (Terrance Bishop- Bass, John Bonds- Drums) work their way through this ten song release.
Heady sounds generated by a hirsute bunch, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s Big Moon Ritual might seem a contrived throwback to a past long, if the music didn’t sound like it came perfectly natural to them.
In spite of its unfortunate name, Happy Birthday are indeed one of the most talented and overlooked acts on the Sub Pop roster. If you haven’t checked out their excellent dB’s-gone-DIY self-titled debut from 2010, especially if you are a lover of scrappy power pop, you should straightaway. Used copies are going for something like 16 cents on Amazon, so jump on that shit with the quickness while those prices last. And if you find yourself loving the melodies from these Birthday boys from Brattleboro, Vermont, there are two solo project spinoffs of the band well worth checking out. King Tuff is the nom-de-plume of one Kyle Thomas,
