Reviews

[rating=6.00] There is a fine line between homage and all out copying of style. There are only so many notes you can play and of course pop music has filtered things down even more, but on Moonlight – Hanni El Khatib’s third release –  that dangerous line is blurred to the point of detriment. El […]

[rating=6.00] With its sixth album in as many years, Pond, an Australian band with members who also play in Tame Impala, has kicked its love affair with blues-metal riffs. Still hell-bent on pursuing a stadium-size psychedelic sound, Pond is now taking things slower, embracing synth-heavy, sleepwalking songs that seem to float a galaxy away from […]

Bill Frisell is making old songs new again. Or maybe, with 2014’s Guitar in the Space Age!, Frisell is making a new record, old. In any instance, when his tour pulled into Boston, and his band squeezed into the intimate space of Scullers Jazz Club, what was clear above all was the timelessness of some […]

Can the world afford to wait every two years until Dengue Fever release another album? The more I delve into their music, the more insatiable my ears become, eagerly awaiting the next psychedelic spy thriller soundtrack set to frontwoman Chhom Nimol’s uber confident vocals. Like a slow drip of the sweetest pressed coffee, their spurts […]

Israel Nash’s 2014 record Rain Plans was one of the best releases of 2014. It’s a kind of electric mash up of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Neil Young, with gritty, Southern roots. Nash himself, all in black with a tangle of blonde hair and weathered cowboy boots, is a convincing Texas rock star. He […]

[rating=5.00] The Lone Bellow’s sophomore effort Then Came the Morning is a mixed product.  The album strikes out as a synthesis of various traditional styles, but filtered through a modern lens. The result is an ambitious series of songs that maintains a consistent style alchemizing all of these ideas but often underwhelms in their execution. Early on […]

[rating=9.00] In their campaign to revivify the power trio concept originated by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gov’t Mule always emphasized improvisation. Five years into that initiative, the band in its initial configuration of guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes, bassist Allen Woody and drummer Matt Abts, began to alternately fine-tune and expand their approach to jamming […]

[rating=8.00] Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors release of Medicine may mark their biggest success yet. Holcomb’s ninth album is from Magnolia Records, and it is a slight change-up from the 2013 release Good Light, slowing the tempo on a majority of the tracks. Not to mention, wife Ellie Holcomb has begun a solo career as […]

On their fourth LP, Punch Brothers continue to push themselves compositionally, balancing the cerebral and emotional aspects of their music.

Like their most recent sold-out appearance in the Ballroom at Higher Ground, Dr. Dog’s previous performances at this Vermont venue have become something of a rite of winter. Proceeding from acting as openers in a less-than packed smaller room in Vermont, these Philadelphia-based DIY rock and rollers have pushed their unorthodox methods of writing, recording […]

Boston’s own Extreme is currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their most successful album to date, Pornograffitti. The band earned their first number one single with the monster ballad “More Than Words” alongside other hits as “Hole Hearted” and “Get the Funk Out”. Extreme is not known for embracing nostalgia, but they recognized their diehard […]

Most people are familiar with the actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels first came to prominence in the 1983 film,  Terms of Endearment and has been working steadily on stage and screen ever since. He’s coming off a particularly big year  having won an Emmy for his portrayal of Will McAvoy in the HBO series, The Newsroom […]

Punk rock has been getting a lot of love recently. Johnny Rotten and Kim Gordon both have books coming out in 2015; Marky Ramone just released his autobiography; a DVD about Johnny Thunders hit shelves a few months ago and some old Clash footage has popped up on social media. So picking up a book […]

With their cover of Elliott Smith’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield are reverent to the late singer-songwriter, even if the track doesn’t quite strike the appropriate tone.

[rating=8.00] “The Singer Addresses His Audience” begins the Decemberists’ seventh album with the narrator defending his band against claims of selling out.  “We know you threw your arms around us in the hopes we wouldn’t change, but we had to change some,” sings front-man Colin Meloy. Though Meloy’s lyrics are rarely autobiographical, this can be […]

It is a rare opportunity to be a firsthand witness to a major crossroad in a band’s evolution, especially when the band has been in the music game for 22 years. Fresh off the busiest year of touring that The String Cheese Incident has done in almost a decade, there is much rejoicing in Cheese […]

[rating=10.00] For some, when it comes to digging new music, especially from an established act, it tends to be quite difficult to get the pre-release rock critic slobber out of your ears in enough time to actually take in the album caked with a thick layer of the stuff. Such is the case of the […]

[rating=7.00] Alberta-based Viet Cong pairs two members of the defunct band Women with two guitarists from associated groups. The first album from this mutated collective is heavier than past projects, driven by dark-sunshine hooks and jarring mid-song maneuvering. The seven songs that make up Viet Cong feel like twice as many, not because of their […]

The first time I saw Clear Plastic Masks live, I remember thinking, “It’s only a matter of a time before these guys hit it big.” They’ve got the soulful swagger of Alabama Shakes and the cool-kid attitude of the Black Lips. And their stage presence is so naturally electric. They can put on a hell […]

Los Straightjackets came out of the gates ripping and roaring when they hit the stage in front of a sold out crowd at Austin’s legendary Continental Club on Thursday night. They would be joined by one-of-a-kind rocker Deke Dickerson later in the set, but to get things going the lucha libre-masked quartet cranked out a […]