Reviews

Last Summer on Earth Tour – Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Cracker: Raleigh Ampitheater, Raleigh, NC 7/12/12

If you attended college in the 90’s, there’s a good chance that the bands comprising the Last Summer On Earth Tour could be heard emanating from a dorm room or apartment near you, if not from your own. There’s an album’s worth of hits to be culled from the catalogs of Cracker, Big Head Todd And The Monsters, Blues Traveler, and Barenaked Ladies, and nearly every tune was trotted out at the Raleigh tour stop. With three H.O.R.D.E. Tour alumni present, that heady time was reminisced over by more than a few attendees. But though the crowd was of a certain age and the music was nostalgic, half of the bands actually performed recent material.

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Alberta Cross: Songs of Patience

When the band recorded and finished their third album this amorphous lack of center became self-evident and the band scrapped it, feeling as if they were on the verge of something. Founding members Stakee and Terry Wolfers hunkered down into the relationship that forms the core of Alberta Cross and edited, remixed, and wrote anew. Through the trials and tribulations comes the appropriately titled, Songs of Patience.

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Kimbra: Vows

Combining a witty lyrical framework with a grand sense of musical pomp and circumstance, Kimbra uses her debut album Vows to provoke listeners to be bold and go against the flow.

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Avengers: Avengers

New York City might have had Debbie Harry as its reigning queen of platinum blonde punk during the height of its ’77 heyday. But Los Angeles had Penelope Houston, the bold, brazen front-woman of San Francisco’s The Avengers, a band whose gritty streetwise snarl and ravenous energy packed as much of a punch as the Marvel Comics super group with whom they shared their name.

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Todd Boston: Touched By The Sun

Todd Boston is an acoustic guitarist, flutist and multi-instrumentalist from the San Francisco Bay Area. His new album, Touched by the Sun was recorded across the country, in the vibrant, green hills of Vermont and his virtuoso guitar work is backed on record by a wide range of world class musicians including percussionist Jeff Haynes of Pat Metheny’s band, bassist Tony Levin of Peter Gabriel/King Crimson and Snatum Kaur on vocals

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River City Tanlines: Coast to Coast

No frills straight ahead rock and roll is what the River City Tanlines offer up on their newest release Coast to Coast.  Lead guitarist, singer/songwriter and front woman Alicja Trout has constructed some tight knit pop rock with a punky vibe as the trio (Terrance Bishop- Bass, John Bonds- Drums) work their way through this ten song release. 

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Friends/Wild Nothing: Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix, AZ 6/30/12

It's the last weekend in June, the time of year when Phoenix dwellers rethink their reasons for living so close to the mouth of hell and are looking for the closest place to cool off or at least forget about how hot it is, and because it is Saturday, several dedicated music buffs or at least the die-hard young and hip of downtown Phoenix ventured out to the increasingly beloved Crescent Ballroom to drink, dance and sweat.

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The Chris Robinson Brotherhood: Big Moon Ritual

Heady sounds generated by a hirsute bunch, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s Big Moon Ritual might seem a contrived throwback to a past long, if the music didn’t sound like it came perfectly natural to them.

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King Tuff and Chris Weisman: King Tuff and Fresh Sip

In spite of its unfortunate name, Happy Birthday are indeed one of the most talented and overlooked acts on the Sub Pop roster. If you haven’t checked out their excellent dB’s-gone-DIY self-titled debut from 2010, especially if you are a lover of scrappy power pop, you should straightaway. Used copies are going for something like 16 cents on Amazon, so jump on that shit with the quickness while those prices last.   And if you find yourself loving the melodies from these Birthday boys from Brattleboro, Vermont, there are two solo project spinoffs of the band well worth checking out.   King Tuff is the nom-de-plume of one Kyle Thomas,

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