Reviews

As someone who attends concerts on a regular basis, it can become fairly easy to lose inspiration or to simply slog through the evening’s proceedings with a bit of ho-hum nonchalance. The spectacle of live music is usually enthralling and it’s a joyful highlight to be able to check out bands and artists from across […]

[rating=6.00] As her career progresses, Zola Jesus continues to turn pop structures topsy turvy. Her early releases, The Spoils, Stridulum, and the darkly drifting 6 track meetup, LA Vampires Meets Zola Jesus EP, were certainly deeper, more progressive affairs, showcasing Nika Danilova’s affection for bottom of the trench synths and gothic overtones. These albums, often commanding and occasionally brutal, […]

[rating=6.00] Listening to any of Ariel Pink’s work requires serious patience. He’s an indie rock oddball, and one of the genre’s most polarizing figures, indeed. On his latest record pom pom, the candy pink colored cover glaring like a big fat warning, he’s toying with a retro, throwback sound. 60s and 80s-inspired, sugary mouthfuls of […]

[rating=9.00] Eight years after his last studio album, 9, Damien Rice returns with a short but powerful collection of emotional folk. Though much has changed in the meantime – everything from musical collaborators to location – all of the core elements that make up a Damien Rice album are present in My Favourite Faded Fantasy, […]

Here on the “west coast of New England,” Burlington, Vermont knows a thing or two about live music.  It was no surprise that The String Cheese Incident sold out Memorial Auditorium well in advance for the band’s tour-closing show Saturday night.  Making their first appearance in the Queen City since a performance at University of […]

Entering the Marquee, an energetic crowd was packed up against the stage and filling about half of the whole area at 8pm, while around and behind the sound booth, people milled around talking. There was a DJ downstage right, behind a laptop, promoting his song choices with wild gestures and dancing more to his chosen […]

“Maybe we stayed around so long we outlasted all the bullshit,” Scott Ian philosophizes near the end of his new autobiography, I’m The Man: The Story Of That Guy From Anthrax. “We outlasted everything, and now we were considered a legendary band – members of the Big 4.” No one is a bigger fan of […]

On paper, Hard Working Americans is a band that is very much a mutual admiration society. The band is comprised of Todd Snider on lead vocals, Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools on bass, Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s Neal Casal on guitar, Great American Taxi’s Chad Staehly on keys, Jesse Aycock on lap steel and electric guitars, and […]

Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) has spent the better part of the last thirty years cultivating a catalog of idiosyncratic works that speak to the listener in a particular, sharp voice. Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) on the other hand is a songwriter who speaks from an evocative baritone/tenor to wide, open landscapes. The decision […]

It has been a hell of a year for J. Roddy Walston and The Business. Since their breakout record Essential Tremors arrived in 2013, they’ve amassed a major following, landed a beer commercial and played countless sold out shows. Not to mention an appearance at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival. It’s safe to say, these […]

[rating=9.00] Remember Underworld? Though they’ve been around (in various versions) since 1980, they are arguably most famous for 1995’s “Born Slippy,” a dance/rave anthem that featured prominently in the film Trainspotting. Indeed, it was through “Born Slippy” that this reviewer first really discovered Underworld. As for many others, though, “Born Slippy” was merely the first […]

The blistering drop in temperature in the Midwest on Tuesday night could not keep the Granada Theatre from filling in order to see New Politics, Bad Suns, and SomeKindaWonderful. The diverse crowd of University of Kansas hipsters to 14-year-old screaming teens (and subsequently, their mothers) all had one goal in mind: to see the three-man […]

Like the other books in the series, The Grateful Dead FAQ delves into its topic with earnest enthusiasm even though the history of this iconic band has already received significant attention from a variety of perspectives. And a subtitle as glib as it is pretentious, ‘All That’s Left to Know About the Greatest Jamband in […]

The basement of a nineteenth century church might seem like an odd place for The Dismemberment Plan’s mini tour of the Northeast to wind up on a Friday night, but it was a match made in heaven. Even the wrought iron lined worn path and stone steps leading down to the performance space added to […]

The Southland’s biggest live music Halloween party took place Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, moving this year to the Fairplex in Pomona. The Hard Day of The Dead is one of the largest EDM festivals in the country, featuring some of the biggest names in Electronic music playing on five stages over the […]

[rating=7.00] The power-pop, punk icons the Buzzcocks are back with their first album in over eight years titled The Way, showing that the band still possess the talent which saw them churn out some of the catchiest 70’s punk tunes. The two original members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle split the songwriting, guitar playing and […]

[rating=8.00] A lot of people bag on Yoko on the bogus allegation that she broke up The Beatles. But Polly Samson is a rock ‘n’ roll wife far more deserving of your jeers for her role in transforming Pink Floyd into a big puddle of MOR goo that undercut the very fabric of the band’s […]

There are tons of festivals in Austin, but none provide a better glimpse at the culture of this town than Fun Fun Fun Fest. The lineup, which has always featured everything from death metal to gangster rap and dance music to name a few, is a cross-section of the well-honed tastes of music lovers in […]

[rating=7.00] Approaching Neil Young’s new album Storytone, it is well to keeping in mind the iconoclastic artist is no stranger to either strings (his eponymous solo album, Comes A Time) or horns (This Note’s For You). But Young’s either hedging his bets or simply being his unpredictable self by offering the new record in a […]

[rating=9.00] Thank goodness for Eliot Bronson. One of the best releases so far this year, Bronson’s self-titled record is a rock and roll, folk, country mash-up that showcases his strong songwriting and lush vocals. Eliot Bronson focuses on classic country tunes about loving and leaving, with sweeping melodies and addictively sweet hooks. Right off the […]