Bowling Green, Kentucky has never been a hot spot of start-up rock bands, but Cage The Elephant, led by brothers Matt and Brad Shultz have garnered a worthwhile buzz as garage rockers, making them Kentucky’s second most popular rockers behind My Morning Jacket.
The newest release from Richard Swift is The Atlantic Ocean; delivering strings, odd poppy stabs of synthesizer and varying whacky lyrics. The constantly plunking western saloon style piano is omnipresent to a point that teeters on annoyance.
Chris and Rich Robinson revitalized the Black Crowes in 2008 by en-listing two new members who then participated in the recording of inspired original material on the band’s first studio set in seven years Warpaint. The extensive touring that followed, from which this double live CD is taken, finds the quintet even further invigorated…and invigorating to hear.
Following the iTunes exclusive Live from Las Vegas – Exclusively at The Palms; Celebración De La Ciudad Natal is the second live EP My Morning Jacket's released just this year. Recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, at their hometown record emporium Ear X-tacy and Waterfront Park (the dual reference to the meaning of the title), this approximately forty-seven minute release is available only at indie record stores, whose customers no doubt form the source of the band’s greatest loyalty.
Sunrise in the Land of Milk & Honey, Cracker’s tenth studio album, is a great David Lowery record, but a bit confusing as a Cracker album.
A magnificent songwriter and bonafide cultural icon, Bob Dylan has never been a truly skilled recording artist in the sense of using the studio as a versatile tool in enlarging the scope of his music. On the contrary, his best recordings are those in which savvy musicians capture their chemistry by instinct, inspired by the great material they’ve been given to play. That’s not what happens on this new album.
So wondrous was the sound of R.E.M.’s Murmur upon its release in 1983, that the deceptive simplicity and haunting air of this music is no less perfect in re-mastered and expanded form over twenty-five years later.
Anyone who has followed the Decemberists’ rise from just another quirky Portland, OR band to one of the most unique and celebrated indie acts around knew that this album was coming. With The Hazards of Love, Colin Meloy takes the band from the loose maritime and old-world concepts of their previous records to full-on rock opera.
Doves, unlike their aviary moniker aren’t so peaceful as they are graceful and edgey, as Kingdom of Rust flies with more sonic flairs.
First things first; just by looking at a picture of Mastodon front-man Brent Hinds, you may not want to stare too hard as his gnarly look, he may jump out of the picture and strangle you to death. But upon listening to his band’s fourth full length effort Crack The Skye, you kind of go the way of Master of Puppets- this shit is heavy by its got melody and texture.
