Jamie McLean, known for his full-time gig with New Orleans’ funk bastions The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, is no one-trick pony, evident on his first solo release, This Time Around.
With his whispery vocals that a pin drop would overpower and a Dylan-inspired metaphor for every situation, Bartlett, who is the primary songwriter, spins ten tales of solitude and hopelessness in the big city that Nick Drake or Iron and Wine
Scott McCaughey gets by with a little help from his friends, and that’s okay with us. For the seventh album from his chamber pop collective the Minus 5, the former Young Fresh Fellow has thumbed through his massive rolodex and come up with the kind of guest list indie rock wet dreams are made of: R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, and Glenn Kotche, the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy and John Moen, the Posies’ Ken Stringfellow, Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger and the Long Winters, singer-songwriter-author John Wesley Harding, alt-country chanteuse Kelly Hogan, and, why not, Ministry’s Bill Rieflin and Mott the Hoople
A look at some of the newest in underground releases
