Reviews

[rating=7.00] Thirty years ago, while Aimee Mann was on the cusp of the biggest hit of her mighty career as a member of Til Tuesday with “Voices Carry”, Ted Leo was a Seton Hall prep school kid woodshedding his love for punk and hardcore on the New York City underground scene. Yet while the two […]

[rating=8.00] I saved Latin! What did you ever do?” utters Rushmore’s quirky protagonist Max Fischer during a climactic moment of the excellent 1998 film. And, while the question was exclaimed rhetorically at the time, the folks at American Laundromat Records, can actually come back with a retort. In a move that surprisingly hasn’t previously been […]

In the five years since Elly Jackson’s debut album under the La Roux, moniker, she’s clearly gone through a bit of a transition.

If rock and roll is dead, someone forgot to tell the guys in Manchester Orchestra. The Atlanta based quintet took the stage at The Marquee Theater in Tempe, AZ with the low-key, yet self-assured swagger appropriate of post- Jagger rock and rollers, and if the crowd was at all waning after two opening bands, they […]

[rating=7.00] Cemetery Dares, the debut album by Brooklyn-by-way-of-St. Louis band Modern Rivals, is an ambitious mix of sun-drenched psychedelic pop. At times basking in the warm reverb and at other times exploring the foggy sonic terrain of 60s psychedelia, it is a solid if slightly busy effort produced by Kyle “Slick” Johnson (Cymbals Eat Guitars). “Angel […]

[rating=9.00] Five albums and over a decade into her career, singer-songwriter Mirah is getting back to her roots, literally. Her new record Changing Light covers a lot of earthly ground, from animals to nature and seasons. Hailed as a breakup album, Light deals with being in transition on deep levels, confronting mortality in fascinating ways. […]

On May 10th, 2014 Cabinet presented a successful festival of varied exquisite music at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Conveniently located only two hours from NYC and a mere two hours from Philadelphia, the event took place at a ski mountain/waterpark – the same location as the gargantuan Peach Festival.  However, juxtaposed to Peach, this […]

Some things never change. Despite not releasing a big seller in over ten years (but who actually does nowadays?), Dandy Warhols front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor still boasts his band as – “the last rock & band in the world.” This shoot from the hip egotism has always been part of the Portland band’s prowess.  In […]

If the lyric from “Oysters” of “working my way back to me again” was a goal and creative impetus for this project, one can say without reservation—imperfect as the record is—that Tori Amos has succeeded.

[rating=9.00] Once again The Black Keys duo of Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach have teamed with producer Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) to craft an album of textured rhythms mixed with sonic tricks and experiments while still keeping their blues roots grounded, especially in the real of personal lyrical expressions. This is the fourth collaboration […]

[rating=6.00] Considering that the latest album by Sarah McLachlan, the queen of the mournful piano ballad, is largely inspired by personal tragedy, one might expect an unrelenting deluge of misery. Luckily, that is not the case, as McLachlan includes enough hopeful moments to break through the pain. Shine On is McLachlan’s eighth studio album and […]

Building up from its roots of traditional jazz, blues and folk, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival has evolved into something almost beyond anyone’s expectations. With it’s closest ancestor being the Newport Jazz Festival, which is celebrating it’s 60th anniversary this year, the New Orleans Jazz Fest has clung to traditions of old while accepting […]

Before Megafaun and before Bon Iver, there was DeYarmond Edison; four good friends banging out rustic Americana and folk rock deep in the heart of Wisconsin. A little less than a decade ago, these friends moved south to North Carolina and musically began to splinter off. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook, along with drummer Joe […]

[rating=8.00] Atmosphere’s new record Southsiders is a statement in slowing things down.  At this point in their nearly 20-year career, Slug’s got a family and it seems that he and Ant are finally taking a step back to breathe. That signature sense of urgency and intense energy is still there, but it’s mingled with a […]

“Please Be With Me, A Song for My Father” is, quite simply, the most insightful book written to date about The Allman Brothers Band. In a quest to learn the true nature of the parent she never knew—the famed guitarist died when the author was but two years old—Galadrielle Allman illuminates the passionate contradictions of […]

[rating=7.00] For two weeks last year, Merrill Garbus, the leader of the duo tUnE-yArDs, studied dancing and drumming in Haiti “to situate myself in a non-western musical tradition,” as she later put it in The Talkhouse. There, half a world from her studio in Oakland, Garbus began to extract herself from a creative rut. A […]

[rating=7.00] The camaraderie of The Chris Robinson Brotherhood belies their time together. Formed in 2011 by the co-founder of The Black Crowes, the group caught the proverbial lightning in a bottle with their two initial albums (Big Moon Ritual and The Magic Door) released in quick succession the very next year. Now the sextet has […]

At this point in time it’s a well-established fact that the city of New Orleans, Louisiana just isn’t like the rest of America, or the whole world for that matter. Like the grid system of the city itself, everything is just slightly off-axis when it comes to the notion of normalcy most people have. Stand […]

[rating=8.00] Some bands become known not due to corporate record label exposure but word-of-mouth reputation. From this platform, individual members gain kudos and experience to branch off into solo work. Here is a case of the parent band itself being a collaboration of individuals who have other projects, and as the years go by may […]

[rating=6.00] With their last release, 2012’s Great Ideas In Action, Archie Powell & The Exports put out one of the catchiest indie/pop rock albums of the year. Safe to say shit got real for the band as Back in Black showcases a raw shouting, harsh take on inner human emotions…mostly the pissed off kind. Instantly […]