Reviews

[rating=7.00] Whatever you might think, don’t call Lost Loves a B-Side collection.  For far too long, Minus the Bear, the five lads from Seattle who specialize in under utilized guitar techniques and electronic washes, have unleashed album after album of insidious pop songs that can loop on repeat in your ears for days. Their last LP, […]

Ask a Panic fan what they think of any show and you will get a range of responses ranging from “the boys are on fire!” to “ they’re playing like complete shit and you shoulda been there last night.” Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because the experience of seeing a Widespread Panic show is an individual […]

Back to back shows at the SOhO in Santa Barbara, Thursday night October 9th, merged into one long evening of indie music, featuring three distinctly different performances. The evening started with a dinner show by former “Ride’ member, Mark Gardener, playing an acoustic loop show. For those not old enough to remember, “Ride” was an […]

Music has always been a bitches brew of spontaneous seduction and pounding vibrations that often caused the soul of the listener to go mad with fever. It’s all over the blues and Jazz and especially in the realm of rock & roll. The obvious spell that Pan has weaved over his musical children has gone […]

Supporting the reissue of three of their most important albums, Sound of Lies, Smile, and Rainy Day Music, The Jayhawks started their fall tour in Chicago on October 11th before making their way to Austin on Monday night. For longtime fans of the Minneapolis band, those three albums are especially notable because they were the […]

Even before the Rival Sons took the stage the sold out and then some crowd was buzzing like a lit fuse.  When the Son’s jumped off into the 60’s tinged guitar riff of “Electric Man” the audience exploded.   The Sons are Scott Holiday on guitars, Jay Buchanan on vocals, David Beste on bass, and Michael […]

American folk singer Dave Rawlings brought his new super group quintet to Santa Barbara to play what it would sound like if speed metal went bluegrass. California’s oldest continuous concert venue, the historic Lobero Theater was sold out for the much anticipated show. The recently remodeled theater, benefiting for near perfect natural acoustics was the […]

A top producer’s attention was on the line Tuesday night during a performance by the Los Angeles-based rock band Warpaint. Their set, at Webster Hall in New York, brought out Brian Burton, the musician and producer best known as Danger Mouse, who visited backstage after the show. “I came to check it out,” he told […]

The legendary lead singer of Led Zeppelin brought his latest version of the Sensational Space Shifters to play some songs from their new album, Lullaby…and the Ceaseless Roar, as well as some old classics, to the Hollywood Palladium. The old Los Angeles ballroom, which holds no more than 2500 people, with standing room only, was […]

[rating=6.00] Touted as something of a ‘super-group’ based on the presence of Jackie Greene, Joan Osborne  and Steve Gorman, the bonding of those relatively high-profile individuals with guitarist Tom Bukovac and bassist Nick Govrik leverages a fair amount of collective talent. Trigger Hippy doesn’t rest on its laurels, but this first recording of theirs finds […]

Like Coachella and Bonnaroo, the Austin City Limits Festival (ACL) has solidified its status in the upper echelon of festivals in that each year it practically sells out before releasing a lineup. That is a coveted place to be for a music festival and can mean two things: the experience itself is so special that […]

[rating=8.00] Thanks to the visceral folk sound of his debut Roll the Bones, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves, landed himself a handful of prestigious live shows this past year, including the Newport Folk Festival and Celebrate Brooklyn. His onstage charisma is vibrant and magnetic, no doubt resulting in a fast growing following of […]

[rating=8.00] Known for a catalogue of passionate, emotional and cathartic albums and tracks, Stars latest No One Is Lost, (out October 14th) kicks off on a surprisingly, and enjoyably, buoyant note on “From The Night” that carries listeners with a sense of momentum that is both fresh and celebratory. It becomes clear here not only is […]

[rating=9.00] In the twenty years since the group formed in Oklahoma, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has slowly but surely turned itself into an American musical institution (during its most recent history under the tutelage of keyboardist Brian Haas). It is little wonder then that the group, now a trio including guitarist Chris Combs and drummer […]

Is 2014 the year of Spoon? In the band’s twenty-year existence, it just may be. They recently released their first studio album in four years, They Want My Soul, to rave reviews across the board and, as a result of the masses finally catching on to the brilliance that is Spoon, they are now playing […]

Though they’re often claimed by their Southern California fans, Delta Spirit are in many ways a quintessential Brooklyn band. They exude that punk-hipster vibe both in their style of dress and in their sound, and it’s clear when they’re in the cooler-than-thou borough that Brooklynite fans feel a certain ownership over them. Their recent three-night […]

[rating=6.00] In a few short years, alt-J have grown from college dorm hall buddies messing around with GarageBand to full-blown rock stars working with some of music’s heavyweights. Their debut release An Awesome Wave captured Britain’s prestigious Mercury Prize in 2012, and immediately catapulted the band into larger venues and bigger headlining slots, while also […]

[rating=8.00] The Barr Brothers are your new favorite fall comfort blanket. Listening to their latest, Sleeping Operator, feels both comfortable and like a breath of fresh, folk-rocky air. One could pop it into a CD player (or perhaps just stream it…) and randomly select a song, only to easily imagine the album being some long-lost […]

There’s nothing modern about Brandi Carlile. Her approach to craft, from the homegrown production of her music to the organic accruement of a devoted following, is more akin to the singer-songwriters of generations past (Tori Amos comes to mind). The melancholy-tinged way she croons recalls singers like Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, and her enraptured […]

[rating=3.00] Earlier this month, a bemused Roger Waters reminded fans via Facebook that he hasn’t been a part of Pink Floyd for nearly three decades. This was in response to a barrage of questions he’d received regarding the upcoming Pink Floyd record, The Endless River, the band’s first new material in 20 years — and, reportedly, their […]