Soul Meets Americana Duo War & Treaty Return With Polished Up Rounder Records Debut ‘Hearts Town’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
War & Treaty’s Buddy Miller-produced 2018 Healing Tide was a stunning, one of the most compelling albums of that year, prompting this writer to comparisons of such classic acts as Ike & Tina Turner and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. Yet War & Treaty didn’t emanate from one of the so-called soul centric cities but […]
Drummer/Bandleader Ralph Peterson Expands The Messenger Legacy On Ambitious ‘Onward & Upward’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
Last year, Ralph Peterson and the Messenger Legacy released their recording Legacy: Alive Volume 6 at the Side Door, reviewed on these pages. With Bill Pierce, Brian Lynch, Bobby Watson, Geoffrey Keezer, Essiet, and Peterson at the drums. Legacy went on to receive worldwide acclaim and was regarded as one of the top releases of the year and one […]
WATCH: Drive-By Truckers Shares Poignant “21st Century USA” Video
Hard to believe that it was only in January and pre-lockdown, pre-everything that Drive-By Truckers released their 12th studio album The Unraveling. It’s never too late for the heralded band to release a new video and this one comes in the form of “21st Century USA” off The Unraveling. Patterson Hood wrote the song during […]
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Announces the Full Artist Lineup for ‘Let the Music Play On…’ Announce Charitable Partnership with Artist Relief
s thrilled to announce the full line up for this year’s Let The Music Play On Broadcast airing Saturday, October 3rd at 2 pm PT / 5 pm ET on Circle TV, HardlyStrictlyBluegrass.com, HSB Facebook, YouTubeand Nugs.TV. The broadcast is a celebration of roots music, honoring the 20th anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and featuring new performances from legendary artists such as […]
SONG PREMIERE: Pine Barons Deliver Expansive Alt-Rock Winner Via “Little Spain”
Born among the pitch pines of southern New Jersey, Pine Barons is a project that came to fruition as friends gathered around campfires in the nature-rich environments of their hometowns. The band’s beginnings can be traced back to the members getting to know their instruments in their parents’ basements as well as outdoors, adventuring around, […]
Amanda Palmer Announces New Podcast Series – ‘The Art of Asking Everything’
Musician, best-selling author, TED speaker, and community leader Amanda Palmer has announced the launch of a remarkable new podcast. The Art of Asking Everything premieres Tuesday, September 29 with “Bullshit Is Everywhere,” featuring an in-depth interview with author and activist Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder of the world renowned Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. Additional episodes will […]
Steven Wilson’s Long Awaited ‘The Future Bites’ Due Out 1/29- Shares “Eminent Sleaze”
Steven Wilson has announced today’s premiere of an apocalyptic new song. “Eminent Sleaze” is available now for streaming and download; an official video directed by Miles Skarin is streaming now at YouTube and can be heard below. “Eminent Sleaze” is a wholly unethical life lesson strapped to a piece of grimy, low-slung funk, and as […]
LISTEN: Tune-Yards Return With Bright & Brash “nowhere, man”.
Today, Tune-Yards releases their new song “nowhere, man”(below). The bright, brash and upbeat song is paired with a lively video that takes Chaplin-esque footage shot in Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner’s garage during quarantine and brings them to life alongside stop motion animation by Japhy Riddle and Callie Day. The song title references the Beatles […]
IDLES Tap Into Tumultuous 2020 With Propulsive ‘Ultra Mono’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
British rockers IDLES return with a ferocious collection of politically charged mayhem, twelve tracks that tap into the energy, frustration, and anger of the tumultuous year that is 2020. Ultra Mono is the band’s third studio album, and it is very much in step with the previous two releases. Characterized by propulsive rhythms, shouted protest […]
Soul Singer Bette Smith Collaborates With Jimbo Mathus, Matt Patton on Vivacious ‘The Good The Bad The Bette’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
Bette Smith grew up in the rough and tumble neighborhood of Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant. Her humble beginnings were mitigated somewhat by her father, a church choir director who once had to protect his kids by running out of the house waving a two-by-four. He taught Bette to sing. He also taught her that a career in […]
35 Years Ago Today – Inaugural Farm Aid Held in Champaign, IL (Watch Neil Young “Hey Hey My My”))
ALBUM PREMIERE: Vancouver Duo Mi’ens Keep the Energy High and the Rock Experimental on ‘Future Child’
Mi’ens is a mathy noise rock duo from Vancouver, Canada, founded in 2012. Experimental, with a side of sparklepop. Mi’ens is the female-fronted shredding of Kim Glennie on guitar/loops/Moog, backed by the polyrhythmic blastbeats of Evan Heggen on drums. Their unique brand of math noise consists of live loops, layered textural guitar and effects, the […]
50 Years Later: Revisiting Santana’s Culturally Diverse Breakthrough ‘Abraxas’
Issued in late September 1970 (9/22/70), just slightly over a year after Santana’s eponymous debut, Abraxas is the most cohesive yet diverse album any group ever made under that band name. Its fusion of Latin music with rock and blues, seasoned with jazz, consolidated the dual breakthrough the band made through its explosive appearance at […]
The Neptunas Float Along with Surf Meets 60s Pop Sounds on ‘Mermaid A-Go-Go’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
An all-female surf band isn’t exactly a common thing, so when you find one, it’s noteworthy. The Neptunas is even more noteworthy simply because of the way the band was formed. In 1994, bassist Pamita Neptuna mailed out flyers for an all-girl surf band. The flyers read, “You don’t have to know how to play […]
Red Dirt Singer-Songwriter Mike McClure Finds Sense of Self-Renewal on ‘Looking Up’ (ALBUM REVIEW)
From Mike McClure’s first strains in his compelling opener, “I Am Not Broken,” this writer had to check the CD jacket to ensure it was not Steve Earle singing, which isn’t a bad thing. After all, McClure’s native Oklahoma borders Earle’s birthplace of Texas so some of that “red dirt” twang may be common to […]
‘An Education’ – Film Review and Research
What happens when a gifted and spirited teenage girl in pursuit of an Oxford University letter of acceptance meets an older guy eager to show her the world beyond books, school lessons, and strict moral guidelines. “An Education” is an exceptional film adaptation of Lynn Barber’s autobiography novel, depicting the dreams and struggles of young […]
The Parson Red Heads Announce New LP ‘Lifetime of Comedy’
Like pretty much every band on Earth, there was a lot of waiting around going on in 2020 for The Parson Red Heads. The completion of their fifth studio album, Lifetime of Comedy, was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic freezing everybody in place for months, and a process that had begun just […]
Fleet Foxes Releasing Surprise New Album ‘Shore’ Tomorrow
After some weekend teases with posters hanging in Paris flaunting news of a new Fleet Foxes album, the truth has arrived. Fleet Foxes indeed have officially announced their fourth album called Shore, which is out tomorrow (Tuesday, September 22) at 9:31 a.m. Eastern to coincide with the autumnal equinox. Along with the album, the band […]
Gord Downie Releasing Final Solo Recording ‘Away Is Mine’ On 10/16
Away Is Mine is Gord Downie’s final solo recording. Steered to life by “my oldest Toronto friend,” guitarist and co-writer Josh Finlayson, Downie recorded the ten songs of Away Is Mine in July 2017 at The Tragically Hip’s studio in Bath, Ontario, mere months before he died on October 17th that year. A characteristically questing and idiosyncratic work that holds fast […]
