Reviews

Will Wiesenfeld, better known as BATHS, took the stage at Crescent wearing a plain T-shirt and gold jogging shorts, looking more bed-head and casual than headlining a packed show.  With only one other musician accompanying him mostly on guitar, he had an extremely sparse set with mostly keyboards. He had a kinetic energy, constantly standing up […]

unlike ‘’Round the Sun’’s nauseating cover art, this is a smooth ride through and through.

There’s some wit here, and even smart anecdotes on our social media-driven culture, which will keep listeners thinking while they tap their feet, but with uninspired music backing that type of sharp cultural reflection, the result is a somewhat hollow offering from a band that’s shown they’re capable of much more.

You wouldn’t necessarily associate the word “wistful” with the name Sharon Van Etten.

[rating=8.00] Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll are the constant theme on the newest studio album from beloved country alt-rockers Old 97’s. Most Messed Up is chock full of sarcasm, satire and fantastic stories, weaving together a kind of rock and roll quilt of all the fun they’ve had in their lengthy and seemingly never-ending […]

Watching Paula Cole play is something some may scoff at as trying to relive the golden days of 90’s alternative radio, but her show reminded me that that’s a completely reductive way to look at it, and in fact it’s a complete gift to be able to see such a strong artist so devoted to her craft continue to work and enthrall, even in 2014.

[rating=6.00] Cope, the fourth full-length album by Manchester Orchestra, finds the Atlanta rockers at their loudest and most bombastic. From start to finish, the collection is wall to wall guitar crunch and dropped-D power chords. It abandons the experimentation of 2011’s Simple Math, opting for straightforward arena rock while eschewing the nuance that made the […]

[rating=6.00] The Damn Choir’s collection of songs on Creatures of Habit stem from frontman Gordon Robertson’s childhood in fundamentalist homeschooling. Tracks are packed with sins, praying, preachers profit, bones and graves. Things aren’t dour and dismal, quite the opposite; Robertson’s songs question and yearn while the music behind him stays constantly (almost to a fault) […]

Railroad Earth returned to Charlotte, N.C.  for their first show here since the release of new album The Last of the Outlaws. The intimacy of The Fillmore in contrast with their last time in Charlotte, at one of the U.S. National Whitewater Center River Jams in 2013, provided a compelling performance delivered by the New […]

There was a ton of anticipation leading up to the 10th anniversary of the Wanee Music Festival for many reasons. The usual gatherings of festival families, reunions with familiar faces and predictions of sunny skies all weekend certainly amped up the anticipation. Not to mention, a previous announcement from The Allman Brothers that this would […]

[rating=6.00] Is the LP finally dead? The most intriguing element of the Pixies’ newest album Indie Cindy may prove to be its release style. The album was offered originally as three separate EPs, released four songs at a time across a six-month span. This method allowed the band to stay relevant before ultimately compiling those […]

[rating=7.00] Since leaving The Felice Brothers, Simone Felice has created truly cinematic contemporary folk music, in his collaborations such as The Duke & The King as well as on his own. Strangers expands on the scope of production from the previous eponymous album, but Felice maintains a rigorous restraint that stands him in good stead. […]

Bobby Bare Jr. owned the house at his Undefeated album release party at Mercury Lounge in NYC on April. Celebrating his new record Undefeated, Bobby and his band—a drummer in a spandex skeleton suit and a keyboardist—did a straightforward set of tunes, old and new. Opening the show with “The Terrible Sunrise”, the band started […]

For a band that has played large festivals, arenas and theaters it was nice to catch them in their old natural surroundings: a small bar on a Friday night. The Hollow in Albany might have been an undersized venue but The Hold Steady put on a show that was huge, clocking in at 24 songs […]

A fellow music writer once described Eric Clapton as all technique and no soul. Where I differed from this writer was in my view that being highly talented but lacking soul is not necessarily a bad thing. The same can be said for Umphrey’s McGee. Not that Umphrey’s and Clapton are even in the same […]

Given that she’s only played five shows in a year and a half (so she said), getting to see Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs is a major treat. She headlined at The Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on April 16th  to a pretty stuffed room for a pared down, country set. After lengthy opening sets […]

[rating=7.00] Since the dissolution of Cream in 1968, Jack Bruce has released a stylistic array of albums delving into the rock, jazz and classical genres he touched upon as a member of that seminal power trio. The personnel he has enlisted for his latest release, Silver Rails, is representative of that eclectic approach. They, along […]

The historic Lobero theater in downtown Santa Barbara overflowed with a standing room only sold out crowd, Saturday night April 5th.  The benefit concert was for Samo, a local teenage musician fighting a devastating heart virus. The show featured performances by bands from the Rockshop Academy, the recently reformed Dishwalla, and Jeff Bridges, with a […]

For two weekends every year now, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA has not only become a musical festival but a trendy mecca for the H & M/American Apparel/Urban Outfitter sect with as Win Butler from the Arcade Fire confessed – “I just want to say that there’s a lot of fake VIP room […]

[rating=9.00] The second installment of a live performance/recording series, Medeski, Martin & Wood + Nels Cline’s Woodstock Sessions Vol. 2 consists of edits from a roughly two-hour performance in front of a small audience conducted in late August of last year. Just as collaborating with guitarist John Scofield elicits largely funky goings on from the […]