Album Reviews

There’s a beautiful logic to Jerry Garcia’s rediscovery of his roots in these late Eighties recordings that belies Sandy Rothman’s casual tone in writing “The Definitive History” of The Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band.  The initial recording Almost Acoustic hasn’t been available for over two decades, but now newly remastered, it’s easy to hear where Garcia learned the precision that informed his guitar (and pedal steel) work with the Dead and JGB. No sequel was ever released until recent archiving exhumed a collection of live tracks, Ragged But Right, that display the same collective joie de vivre as its predecessor.

Smith Westerns is a band with potential and they deserve the opportunity to develop and grow into their sound and style.  However, with the raves coming in hot and heavy for Dye It Blonde, the peak may have crested and the accolades may never be as strong as they currently are.  Here’s hoping the opposite comes true, and the youngsters are given the chance to do even bigger and better things. 

The Valence Project was created in an attempt to revitalize trip hop music and bring it into a new era of creativity. Combining acoustic and electronic sounds, the collective strives to create trip hop that is more artistic and emotionally charged. The result is a mixed bag that succeeds at times and falls short on occasion.

Civilian feels like the most decisively authentic, relaxed and dynamic expression of Wasner and Stack’s talent thus far. This era is vital for the band, as it may be exactly the time that they break through into indie-rock stardom. If there’s ever an album with which to do it, Civilian is it. Come December when everyone is compiling “Best of 2011” lists, Civilian will no doubt be featured abundantly.

Ethan Gold’s debut, Songs from a Toxic Apartment, began as a 75-song epic recorded in a dilapidated apartment that was literally toxic. Though he vacated the unit when it was condemned by the health department, all of the grime, restlessness and despair remained intact in the 12 songs that made the final cut.

Obviously Bright Eyes has entered a new world of discovery that is a few crystals short of entering Enya territory, making The People's Key a love it or hate it recording.  But like Bob Dylan during his Slow Training Coming/Saved era, this will serve as another chapter in his still burgeoning career.  

Once again they have bucked the system.  Released worldwide this past Saturday through their website, Radiohead’s eighth studio album arrived for consumer download roughly one week after a succinct press release hailing its completion.  While it was no secret that Radiohead had been hunkering down in an English studio working on a follow-up to 2007’s […]

The paths of the late Vic Chesnutt and Canadian darlings Cowboy Junkies crossed a few times during tours, recording sessions and a possible collaboration Chesnutt and the band’s Michael Timmins discussed a few years ago.  Chesnutt’s suicide would prevent that from happening, but the group has decided that a fine tribute would be to cover his material in the similar ramshackle, keep-the-tape-rolling manner he would have loved. And the result of that is this extremely strong collection of performances, many of them bittersw

J Mascis has traveled down multiple musical paths on drums and guitar but this is his first proper solo acoustic venture, and Sub Pop is the lucky label that gets to release Several Shades of Why.  Upon first listen you may mistake this for a demo which points to the delicate nature of its recording but upon multiple listens the tracks unfold with grace.  A piano sprinkled here, a tambourine tapping there and strings from all over allow Mascis to do what he does best; first person songs of nervousness that ache in front of guitar majesty.

Baseball and rock music make for great debate, so why not combine the two?  Such has been the ethos of The Baseball Project; a whimsical collaboration between Steve Wynn, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, and Linda Pitmon.