Reviews

Spiritual Rez continued their Florida swing on a Wednesday night in Winter Park, a historic, mossy, mansion-laden city just north of Orlando in the urban sprawl of Central Florida. The venue, Odin’s Den, a dim beer bar with two pool tables and a wrap-around bar, filled up with youthful reggae-rock devotees, bar flies caught in […]

[rating=7.00] Cosmos, the third album by Yellow Ostrich, finds the band exploring new territory sonically. For starters, it is now Yellow Ostrich’s second release as a full band. What started as a solo project by frontman Alex Schaff is now a four-piece rock band fleshed out by drummer Michael Tapper, bassist Zach Rose, and Jared […]

[rating=8.00] Your lyrics might have some mean cuisine references, but they are no match for the queens of “crazy food”, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto. In a year that has seen an uptick in long-overdue returns to the national stage, from Neneh Cherry to the Afghan Whigs, for longtime fans of the […]

Cut Copy fed off the energy of the audience all evening, encouraging dancing and blissfully singing along, and they left the Washington, DC crowd exactly where a band should want them: happily wanting more.

It’s not that she’s never played with blues/soul before, but it’s the mission statement of Joan As Police Woman’s fourth album “The Classic,” and serves as the record’s unifying vision.

[rating=6.00] With the promos and lead up to The Hold Steady’s newest album Teeth Dreams, the group has talked about taking their time and returning with “Big Rock” aspirations. While the songs seem to go down that path, the band paired for the first time with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Evanescence) who admittedly had not […]

The historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix, which normally hosts ballets and operas, was the venue for St. Vincent’s Phoenix appearance in support of her brilliant self-titled album released in late February. And quite ironically, attendees found themselves directed to their seats by elderly ushers in crimson jackets; not your typical procedure for a performance […]

As of this week, twenty-eight years have passed since the very first South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference took place in Austin, Texas. A lot has changed since then; massive growth, corporate influence and marketing dollars, and the evolution of the festival from a fairly underground industry event to a vital influencer of mainstream culture. […]

It’s a safe bet no sounds so dirty as the unholy blues of The North Mississippi Allstars had ever echoed around the antiseptic expanse of the Foeger Ballroom before Thursday March 6th. And even if not all those sounds were unholy–Luther Dickinson led the group toward transcendence at a couple moments during their near three […]

Mirah had a “practice tour” with a softly- lit red velvet curtained backdrop at the The Western,, an ideal setting to debut new material from her upcoming album Changing Light as well as re-imagining her back catalog.  Mirah and her newest entourage: Alex Guy (violin/viola/keys/vocals), Dan Fabricant (bass/guitar) and Andrew Maguire (drums/ vibraphone) opened the set […]

The music inside The Wiltern Theatre was most certainly that of Umphrey’s McGee (UM), but the stage at times resembled a Tom Jones’ show, thanks to the bevvy of bras tossed on stage. “Thank you ladies for the bras,” said lead singer/guitarist Brendan Bayliss after laying a white, lacy over-shoulder, bolder-holder on the guitar stand […]

The oldest sibling of The Wood Brothers, Oliver, was in an unusually voluble mood throughout the band’s appearance at Higher Ground March 1, 2014, but toward the home stretch of their single set, he mentioned the Woods’ eight or nine year history coming to Higher Ground, he was indirectly referring to the fact they had […]

[rating=6.00] More than once on his third album with the War on Drugs, Adam Granduciel sings about traveling in reverse and reckoning with the past. Both mirror his road-worn journey behind the making of Lost in the Dream; the group’s frontman visited six studios to experiment and produce this record after spending two years touring […]

[rating=7.00] The music on Luther’ Dickinson’s Rock and Roll Blues is every bit as earthy and organic as its cover art would suggest- a guitar planted in an expanse of verdant countryside. Teeming with the spontaneity of the moment, the album is a series of pithy vignettes extracted from every phase of this not-so-young man’s […]

[rating=6.00] Quest of the Big Drum is the second solo album by acclaimed drummer Yonrico Scott, following his 2012 debut, Be In My World. In his sophomore release, Scott doesn’t stray far from the formula he perfected over the years with various bands and on his debut. The album showcases the drummer’s rhythmic chops and […]

If there were any traces of hipster veneer at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on Wednesday night (and judging by the jeers that soon followed, there were) Stephen Malkmus totally peeled them away about halfway through his nearly 90-minute set at the sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg. “Yeah, I’ve always considered Williamsburg a part of […]

[rating=7.00] Despite what may be assumed, Mozes and the Firstborn are not a 90’s band from Seattle. The young group of friends hail from Eindhoven, Netherlands, and consist of singer, Melle Dielesen; drummer, Raven Aartsen; bassist, Corto Blommaert and guitarist, Ernst-Jan van Doorn. The band’s formation was almost backwards, with Dielesen coming up with a few […]

If Gary Clark Jr.’s sold out appearance at Higher Ground is any sign of his popularity, the buzz around the Austin bluesman is about to turn into rolling thunder. Clark had the Vermont venue’s ballroom audience in the palm of his hand as soon as he walked onto the darkened stage. A fist-pumping audience greeted […]

[rating=5.00] 311 has spent months promoting its first proper album since 2009, rallying the base with email blasts, even setting a March 11th release date to coincide with the concert tradition known as 311 Day. The first event happened in 2000, in pre-Katrina New Orleans, and has since returned every two years, with few exceptions. […]

[rating=7.00] Recorded over two days at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, Acoustic at the Ryman showcases the soft, melodic side of Band of Horses. The album is warm and inviting, a reimagining of ten tracks from each of the band’s first four albums, with an emphasis placed on the slow crooners from each. Considering […]