Archive: 2020

After twelve years of radio silence, most fans of The Secret Machines thought their time had come to pass. The last time they’d put out new music, George W. Bush still occupied the White House and both iPads and Instagram were yet to exist. It’s important to understand how much the world has changed since […]

When No Joy’s debut Ghost Blonde came out in 2010, the band was instantly championed as a welcome addition to the nu -gaze movement. On that album, No Joy was able to manage the tricky balancing act of treating their wailing guitars to the point that they came out hushed and ethereal. While charming, the […]

Soprano and tenor saxophonist Teodross Avery with his ninth release as a leader, continues in his tradition of honoring jazz giants. Using two different quartets; the bandleader is joined by pianists Anthony Wonsey and DD Jackson, bassist Corcoran Holt, drummers Willie Jones III (president of WJ3 Records) and Marvin “Bugalu” Smith and percussionist Allakoi Peete. […]

Queen + Adam Lambert have confirmed they will release their first-ever live album Queen + Adam Live Around the World. The release comes worldwide October 2nd in CD, CD+DVD, CD+Blu-ray and Vinyl formats. The set presents a compilation of concert highlights captured the world over personally selected by Taylor, May and Lambert from over 200 shows […]

The second part in Cold War Kids’ New Age Norms trilogy continues its pop flavor while dialing up the band’s danceable nature. Whereas Volume 1 was produced by singer Nathan Willett and longtime collaborator Lars Stalfors, the second part was produced by Sean Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs), his first collaboration with the […]

During Tom Petty’s final interview with the Los Angeles Times, as the triumphant 40th anniversary tour with The Heartbreakers was coming to an end, he announced that his next big focus would be to finally revisit his 1994 masterpiece, Wildflowers, co-produced with Rick Rubin and Mike Campbell. Wildflowers in many ways changed Tom’s creative life—as a recording artist, collaborator and band leader—while a profound, personal […]

Back in 2004 Now Here Is Nowhere broke The Secret Machines onto the national scene with big retro stomping and laser-blasting futuristic space rock appeal. After a few albums of diminishing returns and guitarist Benjamin Curtis departure from the band, then tragic death, The Secret Machines softly faded away. Now they return with Awake in […]

Electro-pop duos dominate the modern musical landscape ranging from the lush songs of Phantogram to the worldly soundscapes of Simian Mobile Disco. But what they are missing is a street cred of angular rhythms atop melodic beats. Enter Australia’s Boo Seeka – featuring best friends Ben Gumbleton & Michael May.  Since breaking out in 2015 […]

As the days, months, and years go by, skills sharpen with a whole lot of care and a little bit of elbow grease. After a decade-plus together, Beta Radio continue to diligently tinker and tighten their craft. The Wilmington, NC duo—Ben Mabry and Brent Holloman—artfully and carefully piece together songs with an architect’s attention to […]

Roots rock/Americana stalwart, Ned Hill – raised on the sounds of FM Radio, American Bandstand and drug store jukeboxes in the small town of Horse Cave, KY – has kept his sights on Music City, where he’s planted his feet for over 20 years, performing regularly at East Nashville’s The Five Spot, and touring the […]

The Nils Lofgren Band’s live album Weathered is not just a suitable companion piece to the leader’s 2019 release Blue With Lou, it’s an uncanny mirror image of that studio album. Comprised of concert recordings culled from last year’s road work in support of the aforementioned record, this double-CD set carries much the same potency, […]

As faithful readers of these pages know, this writer loves an intriguing back story, especially when the music measures up. Welcome to the story of Juni Ata, aka Jesse Daniel Edwards, and his debut Saudade. He was raised in a small mountain town in Southern California in a deeply religious home, with minimal exposure to […]

Granted, most of you probably don’t know of Greg Copeland. If you do, you know that he’s a childhood friend and collaborator of Jackson Browne, or maybe that he wrote the hit song, co-written with Steve Noonan for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – “Buy For Me the Rain.’ The Tango Bar, rather unbelievably, is […]

Todd Nance, Widespread Panic founding member and longtime drummer from 1986-2016 sadly passed away today (8/19/20) at the age of 57 in Athens, GA. Nance was a road warrior who played thousands of shows for the band and served as their rhythm rock through the band’s previous triumphs and tribulations. The “Toddfather” as Panic fans […]

When you spend enough time studying music, you learn that there are some unlikely stories of how bands came together. Blues Pills has as unlikely an origin story as any band you are will encounter. Zack Anderson and Cory Berry (formerly of Radio Moscow) met Swedish singer Elin Larsson in Iowa. They recorded two songs, […]

The recording of Twelfth, the Old 97’s aptly titled, um, 12th record, was not without its “oh shit!” moments. The recording itself was sandwiched between a natural disaster and a global pandemic, with the band decamping to Nashville to record the same day a devastating tornado tore through the city and finished just days before […]

Naked Giants follow one of the most exciting debut rock albums in recent memory, 2018’s Sluff, with a fierce collection of unrestrained rock that bangs heads and gets songs stuck in them. The Shadow is a worthy follow-up, taking the frenetic riffing of the Seattle trio’s debut and building in a bit more melody. Produced […]