The newest release from Richard Swift is The Atlantic Ocean; delivering strings, odd poppy stabs of synthesizer and varying whacky lyrics. The constantly plunking western saloon style piano is omnipresent to a point that teeters on annoyance.
Chris and Rich Robinson revitalized the Black Crowes in 2008 by en-listing two new members who then participated in the recording of inspired original material on the band’s first studio set in seven years Warpaint. The extensive touring that followed, from which this double live CD is taken, finds the quintet even further invigorated…and invigorating to hear.
Thanks to the good guys at Wespac, they have given the Valley two days of much needed roots music. The past six years of the festival have attracted The Black Crowes, Ratdog, Bruce Hornsby, Solomon Burke, Gov’t Mule and Los Lobos to the mainstage. Let us hope they keep attracting this kind of low-key talent to safeguard the McDowell Mountain Music Festival as one of the better kept secrets on the festival scene.
Following the iTunes exclusive Live from Las Vegas – Exclusively at The Palms; Celebración De La Ciudad Natal is the second live EP My Morning Jacket's released just this year. Recorded in Louisville, Kentucky, at their hometown record emporium Ear X-tacy and Waterfront Park (the dual reference to the meaning of the title), this approximately forty-seven minute release is available only at indie record stores, whose customers no doubt form the source of the band’s greatest loyalty.
Sunrise in the Land of Milk & Honey, Cracker’s tenth studio album, is a great David Lowery record, but a bit confusing as a Cracker album.
A magnificent songwriter and bonafide cultural icon, Bob Dylan has never been a truly skilled recording artist in the sense of using the studio as a versatile tool in enlarging the scope of his music. On the contrary, his best recordings are those in which savvy musicians capture their chemistry by instinct, inspired by the great material they’ve been given to play. That’s not what happens on this new album.
Regretfully I must attribute my inability to connect during the Mates of State show to my own personal shortcomings. It could not have been the atmosphere: love, no doubt, was in the air. One expects nothing less from the husband and wife duo who played a double show at the Independent in San Francisco on April 20th and 21st, sharing headlining duties with Jacksonville rockers Black Kids.
So wondrous was the sound of R.E.M.’s Murmur upon its release in 1983, that the deceptive simplicity and haunting air of this music is no less perfect in re-mastered and expanded form over twenty-five years later.
Anyone who has followed the Decemberists’ rise from just another quirky Portland, OR band to one of the most unique and celebrated indie acts around knew that this album was coming. With The Hazards of Love, Colin Meloy takes the band from the loose maritime and old-world concepts of their previous records to full-on rock opera.
Doves, unlike their aviary moniker aren’t so peaceful as they are graceful and edgey, as Kingdom of Rust flies with more sonic flairs.
