Archive: 2015

[rating=9.00] Using his trademark acoustic guitar as his canvas, Texas singer-songwriter James McMurtry dabs banjo, mandolin, slide guitar, organ and harmonies throughout the tracks making his ninth studio release, Complicated Game, perhaps his best. The album is the perfect mix of stark, dark ballads, toe-tapping ditties and magical musical tours. Lyrically McMurtry’s words beautify the […]

Seattle, Austin, Portland, Chicago, Nashville….we know what we’re getting at here – all kick ass music cities. Everything from the venues, record stores, local bands gone big and music festivals, there’s no shortage of cool and hip. But what about Phoenix, Arizona? Well, there’s no way Phoenix even dares come close to top tier music […]

Having played more than 120 shows across four continents over an 18-month period, Pixes announce they will take to the road again this Spring, performing at select major U.S. music festivals as well as headlining shows at intimate theatres in many cities missed in 2013-2014. The tour will also set the stage for the debut […]

If you only know Deen Castronovo as the drummer of Journey, then you’re about to be awakened to what this man can really do behind a drum set. Known as being the live backbeat behind such iconic ballads as “Faithfully,” “Open Arms” and “Don’t Stop Believin’” for the last seventeen years, Castronovo actually had his […]

The Good Shit is a new Glide column which revisits and weeds out the televised and tubed trash of the prior week and highlights the good shit you might have already saw or could have missed. Moving radically from the electronic-tinged song-craft of 2010′s The Age Of Adz, the first tune off Sufjan Steven’s new […]

The 2015 Academy Awards have come and gone. This year saw one of the most concise and well produced ceremonies in recent memory. Coming in at just over three and a half hours, it was no easy haul but, compared to years where the show pushed four hours or longer, this year felt downright breezy. […]

(Old Settler’s Music Festival, Photo: Arthur VanRooy) Long lines, corporate sponsors, mile long walks to the stage, and huge crowds filled with first timers who can’t handle their drugs. These are what come to mind when I think about festivals like Coachella, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits. Those of us who have been there done […]

Last June, the Avett brothers had the unenviable task of playing the main stage at the prestigious Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee on the final afternoon of the four day festival. After listening to nearly non-stop live music for the previous three days and partaking in round the clock celebrations, the audience traditionally becomes near […]

Toro y Moi’s video for “Empty Nesters,” the first track from his forthcoming album What For? has been released. Chaz Bundick (Toro y Moi) directed, wrote and shot the video himself in Berkeley, CA. “Empty Nesters” represents a new direction for Bundick as he drives away from the “chillwave” sound hes been often associated with […]

In his upcoming memoir My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead (St. Martin’s Press; on-sale May 5, 2015; $27.99), Bill Kreutzmann — a founding member and drummer for every one of their over 2,300 concerts-has written an unflinching and wild account of playing in the greatest improvisational band of all […]

The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and by Monday morning I’m sure we’ll all be debating the pros and cons of the awards given. That’s sort of a fact of life about the Oscars—every year people are upset that their favorite movie was snubbed or not awarded. Usually this sort of talk has died down […]

One of the pre-eminent guitarists of contemporary jazz, John Scofield brings an unassuming enthusiasm, not to mention palpable pride, to everything he does. Whether he’s playing in the cozy (but ultimately expansive) realm of a trio with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart, paying tribute to Ray Charles or experimenting with horns, leading his […]

With “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross,” Sufjan Stevens hearkens back to the gently lilting, folk-inflected stylings of his masterworks, ‘Illinois’ and ‘Michigan.’

Robert Randolph, John Medeski and the North Mississippi Allstars (Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew) will be hitting the road in support of their new album Soul Food – their first recording after 14 years out on May 5th from Vanguard Records. The initial dates announced begin April 17th at the Wanee Festival in […]

Ahead of their spring tour Hernando, Mississippi’s North Mississippi Allstars and New Orleans’ Anders Osborne released a full length album Freedom & Dreams on N.M.O. Records on Tuesday. “Freedom and Dreams is extremely honest and captures N.M.O.’s relaxed chemistry so well, most of these songs did not even have a proper count off or beginning,” says Allstars guitarist-vocalist Luther Dickinson. “Mark Howard is a wonderful producer […]

It’s 16 years since their last album as a four-piece and since 2003 since their last album as a three piece. April 28th sees the release of a brand new album from Blur on Warner Bros., titled The Magic Whip. The recordings, which began during a five-day break in touring in Spring 2013 – at […]

To call Jacco Gardner a daydreamer may not be as farfetched as he’d have you believe. Its meaning may refer to a fear of sleep, but with Hypnophobia (out May 5th on Polyvinyl (North America) and on cassette via Burger Records, May 4th on Excelsior Recordings (Benelux) and Full Time Hobby (rest of the world)), […]

[rating=8.00] Even though Bob Dylan’s Shadows in the Night may not wholly please die-hard fans or satisfy the curiosity of dilettantes, his latest studio album is already one of the most noteworthy records in his lengthy discography. Comprised of material closely associated with the archetypal crooner Frank Sinatra, these ten tracks are the definition of […]

[rating=6.00] Martin Sexton never does anything that doesn’t come naturally. Mixtape of the Open Road is as intuitive and organic as anything he’s done in his career of over two decades, yet the album is unique among his works. Sexton’s sound has remained essentially unchanged since the Clinton years, so it’s nice to hear him […]