Archive: 2020

Borat’s second movie outing is very ni…well, very good.

Aubrey Haddard was 15 when her world was rocked after seeing Susan Tedeschi for the first time. From that point forward, the Hudson Valley native forged her own path in music by bearing her spirit with relentless moxie. Like Jeff Buckley’s hopeless romanticism or Kate Bush’s mystic pixiness, Haddard resonates with artists who explore their […]

It’s amazing what a few lonely months shut inside your house while the world around you swirls with uncertainty can do to your mood. For Jordan Cailoa, of the Philly band Mo Lowda & the Humble, it clearly drove moments of deep introspectiveness. The singer/guitarist used his time in quarantine to write and record his […]

Just Dropped in (To See What Condition My Rendition Was in) is a heartwarming posthumous release by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings that adds some heat to a series of familiar tunes that simultaneously pays tributes to Jones’ influences while honoring her legacy as the Godmother of a neo-soul movement that made stars out […]

Brooks Hudgins is a long origin story, but we’ll give you the Spark Notes. Dallas born, Tennessee baptised, and raised in LA in an aspiring Hollywood family, the root of the fruit came from a guitar and an early interest in the potency of booze and prose. Much of the music was gleaned from teenage […]

2020 marks 50 years since Paul McCartney released his self-titled first solo album. Featuring Paul playing every instrument and writing and recording every song, McCartney’s effortless charms have only grown in stature and influence over time. The chart-topping album would signify not only a creative rebirth for Paul, but also as a template for generations of […]

Julien Baker will release her third studio album, Little Oblivions, on February 26 via Matador Records. Today she reveals the first look at the album via “Faith Healer.” She says, “Put most simply, I think that ‘Faith Healer’ is a song about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in […]

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has announced their sixteenth studio album K.G. Known for their prodigious output, the band has also announced Live In S.F. ’16 (ATO Records), a live album recorded during the band’s 2016 U.S. tour stop at San Francisco venue The Independent. Both albums will be released on November 20, 2020. Following prior K.G. singles “Honey,” “Some of […]

Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray reunite in an exhaustive deconstruction of the fabled Murray charm.

Du Maurier’s gothic romance is updated and in fine form.

It can be easily argued — and successfully as well — that those songs that truly resonate are the ones that speak to our humanity and inspire us to peer well beyond the horizon. Beth Snapp’s striking new single a cover of the Steve Winwood classic “Higher Love” does just that. It’s sung for a […]

One of Ty Segall’s many bands, Fuzz, returns with its third album III, an energetic mix of in-your-face guitar rock. The band’s first album since 2015 is a tour de force of gritty garage rock, with a snarling attitude and an emphasis on riffing. Multi-instrumentalist Segall mans the drums while Charles Moothart, a frequent collaborator […]

Michigan may not be the first place you think of when you think about country music, but if you spend enough time exploring music, you’re bound to find the unexpected. Rachel Brooke is a country artist from Michigan that makes you take notice. Just ask Shooter Jennings, who said, “Rachel is just hitting her stride, […]

The task of following up 1985’s massively popular Songs From The Big Chair was obviously a daunting endeavor. That record sold over 10 million copies; topped the US Billboard charts and spent 30 weeks in the UK top 10 music charts. Songs like “Shout,” “Head Over Heels” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” were […]

Malin Pettersen is pretty well-known in her native Norway. She appeared on Norway’s version of American Idol. In 2018, she won a Spellemann Prize for Best Country Album. She has also become known as a voice actress for American movie franchises such as Lego and My Little Pony. In recent years she has also gained […]

We are all figuring out ways to deal with this pandemic but musicians face some of the more difficult challenges. They can’t perform in crowded live venues, virtual shows do little for them financially, and that yearning to play with friends and perform for fans is growing stronger as the days pass. Southern California singer-songwriter […]

With forty-years hindsight, a discerning listen to U2’s debut album, Boy, (released 10/20/80) reaffirms a notion the Irish quartet has ridden the momentum generated by this first album of theirs through much of their career.  Audacious as it was at the time, it remains so, an eye- and ear-opening statement of style that, for all […]

It’s a measure of the savvy Mark Knopfler commands as a musician and bandleader that Dire Straits’ Making Movies is so closely comparable in quality to the band’s previous two records. That said, the travails of dealing with personnel issues may well have been the source of a marked change in direction for the band […]