Listening to Man Man’s music is taking a journey down a rabbit hole, observing a world that mirrors yours but is a little less predictable, a little less sane
When Taylor Goldsmith rips into a staccato-laced solo toward the end of “Fire Away” on Dawes’ second LP, Nothing is Wrong, the band emphatically declares their expansion. With more time to write and more attention focused on their efforts this time around, Dawes manages to honor their modern Laurel Canyon country folk by adding moments of increased muscle and bright new flourishes of their striking harmonies inside a wider palette of sound.
This album is for fans of Amos Lee, Robert Randolph and North Mississippi Allstars. Brooks Ritter’s, The War, has a southern rock and gospel feel, filled with elevating themes and a fresh sound that is good food for the soul.
Delayed by drummer Mike Andrepont’s uptown gig, The Rough Seven didn’t get started until well into Sunday morning, but no matter as the garage gospel band brought all that was holy into the night’s darkest hours. These 7 had the exuberant crowd eating out of its hands from the get go with sing-a-long favorites “Sugar Daddy” and “Give Up Your Dreams” echoing out into the nearby Mississippi.
Natalia Zukerman’s latest album Gas Station Roses, released in March on Weasel Records, not only amplifies her strengths as a songwriter but sets a new standard of excellence in her career.
The 11-piece band that is the Tedeschi Trucks Band yielded an end product that combines both Derek and Susan’s individual styles yet opens the listener an unrestraint that could only be captured in this type of environment.
Dawes were mighty impressive opening up for Brett Dennen at Higher Ground, so much so that the headliner must’ve been more than a little intimidated at the prospect of following them on stage.
It is now 2011 and lo and behold Cheap Trick are still around, still selling out venues, while playing on massive tours with the likes of Def Leppard and Poison. In fact, the gentleman sitting next to me could barely contain himself when they ripped into “Surrender”. The Blotz wasn’t kidding when he said the music would take you back to a time and a place when youth was taken for granted.
Ever since releasing records entitled I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child and Everything into Nothing, Manchester Orchestra has staked a claim as sensitively extravagant rockers. With the more mutedly titled, Simple Math, Hull has concocted a collection of simultaneously bombastic and intimate songs tracking the dissolution and reconstruction of his marriage and his life.
Just days before masses of people descended on the District of Columbia for Memorial Day, Paul Simon paid a visit to D.A.R. Constitution Hall, one of the city’s most patriotic venues. Whatever political subject may have been on the 69-year-old legend’s mind, he kept banter to a bare minimum, quipping only that he recalled “playing here with Artie in the 60’s.
