Album Reviews

The dominant blue color scheme of the cover of Davy Knowles’ The Invisible Man is similar to that of his prior album. The two records are companion pieces of a sort, but whereas 2021’s What Happens Next consolidated the Isle of Man native’s essential songwriting and performing talents, the long-player fell woefully short in exhibiting the former Back Door […]

Seldom has a band so radically reformed itself as did The Bad Plus in 2022.  The piano trio format was replaced by adding saxophonist Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder to the co-founding bass-drum tandem of Reid Anderson and Dave King. While the press materials and the co-founders argue that the core principles of the […]

The Deer Head Inn, in the unlikely locale of the Delaware Water Gap in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, is America’s oldest continuously running jazz club, presenting live music since 1950.  It’s a relatively easy destination from New York City, straight out on Interstate 80. One can see national acts in the intimate room that […]

Whether you realize it or not, The Mommyheads have been reinvigorating American music from the hollow halls of its underground. The prolific and storied act has released seven albums in the last six years, ranging from complex concept LPs to outings that harken back to their roots. Their refreshing approach is limitless, allowing The Mommyheads […]

Richmond, Virginia has a storied history of producing bands from a slew of disparate genres, from metal and punk groups like Lamb Of God, Municipal Waste, and Gwar to alt-country bands like Sparklehorse and Cracker. So, it’s not surprising that the scene would churn out an eclectic indie rock band like Illiterate Light. Comprised of […]

Jeremie Albino’s fourth album, Our Time In The Sun, is a step up. The Toronto-based singer-songwriter traveled to Nashville to write and record at Easy Eye Sound with Dan Auerbach. The resulting record is an engaging mix of classic rock and roll and southern deep-fried country soul. Working with some top-notch songwriters this time around (Pat McLaughlin, […]

The long-running garage rockers from Queens, NY, The Fleshtones, release their first new music in four years with It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)’. The band uses tongue-in-cheek humor, retro rock, and a sense of the macabre throughout the record.    Since the early 1990s, the group has had a stable lineup of frontman […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on No Normal, the new album from Kill Lincoln, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Johnny Delaware describes his latest record as a nomadic affair.  “I recorded it in studios in Mexico and the United States and in hotel rooms all across Latin America, and if you listen closely, you can hear bits and pieces of all those places and the people I met along the way. They’re all a […]

You’ve seen many collaborations between bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade on these pages, typically backing Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel. The two have long collaborated with pianist Edward Simon, going back to groups involving saxophonist David Binney and guitarist Adam Rogers three decades ago. Recently, this trio appeared to wide acclaim along with a string […]