Archive: 2020

Part of his month-long US winter tour, Kamasi Washington played one night at Northampton’s Calvin Theater on February 22nd, with his eight-piece band, including drummers Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner Jr, Masayuki Hirano on keyboards and synthesizer, Ryan Portar on trombone, vocalist Patrice Quinn, Ben Williams on bass, and his dad Rickey Washington on flute/soprano […]

Originally released in 2003, the late Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club, and the last of the great Cuban son vocalists, released his second solo album, Buenos Hermanos,  produced by Ry Cooder. It went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album that year and was another vital recording […]

Kim Gordon has confirmed another first in a four-decade career as a creative pioneer in the realms of art, music, literature and fashion: her first-ever international headlining solo tour. The NO HOME TOUR follows the Fall 2019 release of the Sonic Youth and Body/Head founding member and literary and visual arts icon’s innovative and critically […]

The Buttertones have announced their upcoming LP, Jazzhound will be released April 10th via Innovative Leisure. With this announcement, comes the release of the title track and first single “Jazzhound” premiered exclusively with KCRW, praising “The vocals on the track have a nostalgic ‘Doors-ish’ sensibility and overall has a darker and moody feel — but […]

Slow Bones,” the latest track from Rejoice, the upcoming collaborative album from legendary African artists Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela, has been released. Listen to the track below… The album—Masekela’s first posthumous release following his death in 2018—is set for release on March 20 via World Circuit Records. “I don’t know why this track is called Slow Bones,” reveals Tony. “Hugh came up […]

Making A Door Less Open, the new album from Car Seat Headrest and the first set of brand new songs since 2016’s Teens Of Denial, is set for release May 1 on Matador Records. Today, the band shares “Can’t Cool Me Down,” a staple of their live sets over the past year, from the forthcoming […]

Among all the genres that ripple and refract through the work of multi-instrumentalist and composer Charlotte Greve and her Wood River quartet, “new music” might be the line of best fit — at least for the moment. “I’m really interested in music that’s right in the middle, between the genres,” she says, noting that more […]

Norah Jones has announced a Spring-Summer 2020 tour of the U.S. with the legendary singer Mavis Staples. Tickets purchased on the tour include a physical copy of Norah’s soon-to-be-announced seventh solo album (*dates noted below). The tour includes shows at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles (May 22) and Celebrate Brooklyn in New York City (July 28). […]

Los Angeles rock & roll power trio Hollow Fortyfives understand the value of a break from the day-to-day grind of modern living. With their new EP, Weekender, (out March 6th on Baby Robot Records.) The trio has created a rollicking, hard-hitting ode to time off; a soundtrack not simply suited to, but crafted to incite house […]

Ezra Bell was founded late in the summer of 2013. It was warm enough to sit on the porch into the evening and learn a couple of songs. A lap drum, a banjo, and an out-of-tune guitar. Woodie Guthrie: “A folk singer’s job is to comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable.” That’s what […]

In the latest Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle offers his illustrated commentary on The Unraveling, the new album from the Drive-by Truckers, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

Leveraging her acclaimed Grammy-nominated 2016 Weighted Mind, building off her bluegrass roots and stunning vocal range and tone, Sierra Hull forges new ground on 25 Trips with a stellar cast of musicians. This is a hard one to categorize but it doesn’t matter. Hull’s pure, angelic vocals mixed with superior musicianship and solid songwriting make […]

Robert Cray and producer Steve Jordan are an unbeatable team with a history that’s already produced a Grammy win with 1999’s Take Your Shoes Off and a nomination with the more recent Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm. Cray, of course, has five Grammy wins so he has proven he can do it without Jordan in […]

Los Angeles psych-soul four-piece Chicano Batman has announced their new album Invisible People, out May 1st via ATO Records. The follow-up to 2017’s critically-acclaimed Freedom Is Free is also their most sonically-varied and cohesive. The record is a statement of hope, a proclamation that we are all invisible people, and that despite race, class, or […]

First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN played host to Raphael Saadiq on 2/22 in support of his impressive fifth solo album, 2019’s Jimmy Lee. Photos by Billy Briggs

Corruption continues to spread as Jimmy becomes Saul.

For just over two decades, Brooklyn-based musical collective Antibalas have been proudly waving the Afrobeat flag. What makes them such a unique act is that, instead of copying pioneers of the genre like Fela Kuti and simply taking a revivalist approach, they have expanded on it and forged a sound that is simultaneously faithful yet […]

King Buzzo, the iconic Melvins’ singer and guitar player, returns with his second solo album, Gift of Sacrifice, on May 15 via Ipecac Recordings. The nine-song release finds Buzz Osborne joined by longtime friend and Mr. Bungle bass player Trevor Dunn. The collection’s first single, “Science in Modern America”can be heard now. Album pre-orders, available […]

In early 2007 fate brought Emma Hill and Bryan Daste together via a Craigslist ad. Daste was a recording engineer at Magic Closet Studios in Portland, OR, and Hill had come in to record her first professional demos after a recent move from her home state of Alaska. Nearly twelve busy years, six well-received albums, […]