Reviews

New Vienna is the fourth concert released from Keith Jarrett’s 2016 European tour, following Munich 2016, Budapest Concert, and Bordeaux Concert, the latter two of which we covered here. It is named such because Vienna Concert was issued in 1992. While that was recorded at the Vienna State Opera, New Vienna takes place in another […]

The prolific and consistently evolving Ty Segall is emerging from a period of experimentation. Not that the artist hasn’t built his career on shifting sonic landscapes, but 2024 proved to be a particularly daring year for the young psych-rock veteran. After releasing the distorted psychedelia of Three Bells, Segall dove headfirst into percussion-driven spiritual jazz […]

Watchhouse, formerly Mandolin Orange, is the North Carolina duo of Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz. Now they return four years later with Rituals, this time producing in conjunction with Ryan Gustafson (The Dead Tongues). Their sound is moving even further away from the bluegrass of Mandolin Orange into dreamy folk music, with both musicians embracing […]

The Testors came out of the same gritty mid-to-late ‘70s punk scene that birthed The Ramones, Television, Blondie and Talking Heads. Despite playing in the typical New York haunts like CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, the trio never quite made the cultural and global musical impact that their peers made.  While they may not have had […]

BottleRock Napa, the prestigious music festival in the idyllic wine region, was a resounding success, featuring established stars, emerging talent, and the usual array of indulgences. The three-day event celebrated its 12th year from May 23 to 25, coinciding with Memorial Day weekend. The festival sold out, drawing approximately 40,000 fans each day. Popular artists, […]

There’s a certain kind of light that hits in the late afternoon, just before the sun slips away at the end of the day, and Horizon lives entirely in that golden hour. Released by International Anthem, Horizon is a collaboration between Chicago-based trumpeter/producer Will Miller (of Resavoir) and guitarist/composer Matt Gold. Their 10-track album is […]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have likely followed the epic touring schedule of Jack White over the past year. Since the release of his album No Name in 2024, the former White Stripes frontman and soon to be Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer has been on an epic barnstorming mission starting […]

Marc Ribot’s Map of a Blue City is uneven, unsettling, intriguing, and surprisingly warm but not easily accessible to most. It comes off, probably just as he intended, as a late-night conversation that goes in several directions with the prevailing theme about feeling lost. Even though this is the first time Ribot has added vocals, […]

Florry’s Sounds Like… is a record that thrives in its looseness. It doesn’t force itself into any tidy genre corners, instead, it lets things unfold at their own pace, somewhere between country rock, indie fuzz, and unvarnished live-session energy. Led by Francie Medosch, the Philadelphia-bred, now Vermont-based group sounds more confident and unrestrained than ever, […]

The pair behind Underworld has been making music since Ronald Reagan was president, or Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, and the band itself coalesced in those years. And yet, at Seattle’s Showbox Sodo on May 20th, the duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith blew the roof off with an unrelenting, two-part set that drove […]

There can be artistry in constructing an evening of music, similar to how a band might approach building a setlist, where the structure of the night functions as a conductor directing an orchestra. This premise underlies Dual Pathways, a Philly festival that held its second annual iteration on Saturday, May 17th. It touted more than […]

On May 25, 2025, the recently anointed NEA Jazz Master Marshall Allen turns 101. It’s been a fantastic year for the iconic leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra. He delivered his first solo studio album, New Dawn, earlier this year, in addition to being awarded by the NEA. On the cusp of his 101st birthday, […]

Neither the photography on the front and back jacket nor the title of Chris Cheek’s Keepers of the Eastern Door directly bespeak a jazz album, but are certainly intriguing. First, the title takes its name from the Mohawk people, the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy who had that name for their role as guardians […]

If you’ve followed Jason Isbell’s career for roughly the past two decades, you’ve by now likely realized that there are two sides to the gifted songwriter and guitarist. On the one side, there is the prodigal Alabama son who put in his years of hard living and harder rocking with the Drive-by Truckers while amassing […]

Rounding out our spotlight on the Bad Brains this week, while the band will always be known first and foremost as the trailblazing hardcore punk pioneers that they were, their influence and contributions to the alternative-metal scene that sprouted up in the back half of the 80s (and took off in the 90s) cannot be […]

The semi-annual Exit Zero Jazz Festival, its twenty-fourth edition, was held May 16-18, 2025 in the nation’s oldest ocean resort, Cape May, NJ, featuring many of the top performers in jazz, emerging stars and veterans alike with a sun-splattered, ocean-facing deck that hosted both interviews and youth performances. The main venue, Convention Hall, was practically sold out on […]

For this reissue of 7Seconds 1986 release New Wind, original producer Ian MacKaye and Inner Ear Studios’ Don Zientara ‘reimagined’ the album, delivering Change In My Head. The effort removes some songs, remixes the full record, plays with the track order and unearths a few unreleased gems from the original recording session.  New Wind, the […]

Closing in on their 20-year anniversary, LA’s blues and hip-hop-infused indie pop/rock band Andy Frasco & The U.N. continue to mix sharp humor with often weighty issues on Growing Pains, their 10th studio album. Though the band has always been willing to wade into the occasional deep lyrical waters in the past (though admittedly with […]

Portland, Oregon music fans who made their way to Revolution Hall on Friday, May 16th, left not just satisfied, but somewhat stunned by the quality of the soul shakedown party they were presented with by this Neal Francis Return To Zero tour stop. Francis and his band, along with opening act Color Green, both commanded […]

Both Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal have been playing their music for over half a century. Taj is approaching seven decades. We throw the term ‘legend’ rather casually these days, but these two have long attained that status. A successful collaboration almost inevitably leads to a second, so we are here eight years later from 2017’s TajMo to Room […]