This is not a singer-songwriter getting wasted in front of a mirror. He’s looking at all of us, questioning what is real, frankly asking what we want. In many ways, Dear Lover is Matthew Ryan’s Blood on the Tracks with a familiar idiot wind trying desperately to sweep our dreams away. Only this time, we can still win if we open our hearts and mouths.
Sam Bush, along with his trademark mandolin style and champion fiddle playing, has inspired jamgrass acts like Yonder Mountain String Band and Leftover Salmon, to more mainstream bluegrass acts like Allison Krauss and the Union Station. His latest release, Circles Around Me, demonstrates the extraordinary musical talents of Sam Bush and his touring band returning full circle to his bluegrass roots.
So much stoner and doom rock tends to be an exercise in heaviness alone. While that certainly has its place, few people can take the steady bludgeoning that it offers even as it fills that need in all who really love heavy metal for the mind-numbing weight of slow, trudging riffs that take Tony Iommi to the extreme. Sometimes, however, a band offers such crushing power in a more dynamic form that respects the song as well as pushing the limits of the heavy in metal.
Girls debut Album is getting some internet hype, and a lot of it focuses on Christopher Owens upbringing and escape from the Children of God cult. While certainly unusual and worthy of telling, if you just take a look at the music, you probably wouldn’t think twice about religion because the focus here is on…well, girls.
They're okay as a short term fix, but, like their older peers, they won't take long to wear thin.
While working on the soundtrack to the movie One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur; Son Volt's Jay Farrar and Death Cab for Cutie's Benjamin Gibbard decided to develop their collaboration to include more original songs (and some selected concerts) based on the Beat avatar's writings. The CD resulting from their mutual interest, unfortunately, is a mixed bag.
This is a huge organic blob of an album. The Flaming Lips have never been shy about their grandiose tendencies (Zaireeka) and this one flashes them all, making it impossible to absorb upon the first few listens. Embryonic is a double disk in a day in age when singles seem to be clocking in at less than 2 minutes, a bit out of place in the time realm, but smack dab on the cutting edge when it comes to the music. Chock full of sound Embryonic bombards the listener with twitches and musical gleeks over distorted drums strings and chimes. It is an audio genetic soup in there, and that’s what the album seems to be getting at.
Thieves & Liars debut, last year’s When Dreams Become Reality, was a bold, expansive album. If it had a noticeable fault, it was that it didn’t always turn its breadth
Earlier this year Doug Martsch, the creative force behind Built to Spill, said in an interview that “There are plenty of Built to Spill records- no one is in a hurry to hear something new”. With a hugely impressive back catalog he is right and from the sound of his newest album There Is No Enemy, hurrying was one of the last things on the bands mind; they seem to be stuck in neutral and coasting.
"Cross Collaboration,” “Super Group,” call it whatever, Monsters of Folk simply sound good…real good. Conor Oberst, Jim James (Yim Yames), Mike Mogis and M. Ward have all established themselves as artists to reckon with in this new millennium and they gathered back in 2004 to start tossing ideas around. Their self-titled album was released this month; it is an enchanting mix of guitar strums, wonderin’ blues and flat out gorgeous vocals.
