Archive: 2021

While minimalist improvisation is sometimes renowned in the work of composers Steve Reich, Philip Glass and The Kronos Quartet, The Furniture are breaking new grounds with a vast source of rhythmic simplicity and ravening brevity. Composed of Michael Kuhl and Matthew Pierce, The Furniture celebrates free form spontaneity, yet arrives from a deep-routed understanding of […]

Billy Strings made his triumphant return to the Washington D.C. area this past weekend (Saturday 11/13) before a capacity crowd at The Anthem with a pair of rousing sets that covered a wide musical spectrum, featuring a healthy dose of original material from his previous pair of studio releases, Home & Renewal, as well as […]

“I was working as a bartender in south Minneapolis a few blocks from 38th and Chicago [now renamed George Floyd Square] during the years we made this record, watching a fascist regime take hold. We scrubbed a fair bit of hate graffiti out of the bathrooms during those years,” recalls The Stress Of Her Regard […]

Jen Rim recently released her self-titled EP, her first solo release following many years spent with the band Run River North. Exploring her Korean-American identity, and what it might mean to work as a solo artist, both play key roles in this body of work. Built upon sonic experimentation and a bedrock of emotional honesty, […]

We wrote about the legendary Philadelphia pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali on these pages last March, covering one of the most important never-released-until-now albums of this year 2021 which is stock full of them. That was the acclaimed quartet album Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album. Now the same team that delivered that release – Alan Sukoenig, […]

Chicago-based drummer, producer and beat wizard Makaya McCraven has carved out a reputation as a remix specialist, most recently with his 2020 reimagining of Gil Scott Heron with We’re New Again. Fresh off that acclaimed project, McCraven now turns his attention to the classic Blue Note catalog, reinterpreting classics by Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Hank […]

Castilho is the moniker of Pedro Castilho, a synth player and backing vocalist of psychedelic rock band Savanna. Having emerged late 2017 with a softer more melancholic sound on single ‘Come Back’, Castilho released his second song ‘Moving Fast, Moving Slow’ late 2018 and his third track ‘Lucky Ones’ in the summer of 2019. Check out Portuguese sonic shapeshifter Castilho on his […]

Born in Jebba, Nigeria to a Nigerian mother and British father, Steve Bamidele grew up in Long Melford, Suffolk as one of the few, and often only, children of colour. Raised on the sounds of church music via his mother’s choir vocals, it wasn’t until a music lesson in 5th grade that the creative spark […]

The Orion Amphitheater, Huntsville’s newest live entertainment destination, will celebrate its opening weekend May 13-15, 2022, with The First Waltz—a landmark event featuring many of music’s most beloved artists, all of whom have deep ties to the North Alabama region. Across the momentous three-day event, there will be performances from Brittany Howard, Drive-By Truckers, Emmylou Harris, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, John Paul White, Mavis […]

Turnstil have announced a run of 2022 North American headline tour dates in support of their acclaimed new album Glow On. Deemed THE TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION TOUR, the upcoming spring run will feature special guests Citizen, Ceremony, Ekulu and Truth Cult. Set to kick off with a pair of one-off West Coast dates in San Francisco, CA (2/23) and […]

Erika Wennerstrom has always translated her personal life journey and reflections into the music of the Heartless Bastards, the ever-evolving band she has fronted since 2003. Her latest release A Beautiful Life (REVIEW) finds her reaching for hope in a time where that is hard to come by, and musically it is a vast departure from the […]

“I’m finally feeling like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” says Teddy Grossman, and the forthright, ever-soulful singer-songwriter speaks like a man who has been down many paths only to arrive back definitively where he’s forever belonged. Adds Grossman, a palpable determination and resolve in his voice: “I need to be able to look […]

A former tech who been “everywhere man” and a producer for Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, Gregory Dwane wears more credentials to sing the stories then most any new Nashville arrivals with a Stetson hat and guitar case. Dwane brings a a rollicking and smoky vibrato to his compositions where thick bleeding guitar tones […]

On an unseasonably balmy November Friday night at Brooklyn’s Union Pool on November 12th, Silver Synthetic swept up from New Orleans to deliver a set of tight rock and roll for fans at Union Pool during their first New York City show.  Opening with the thumping “Anyway I Can” the four-piece, Chris Lyons, Lucas Bogner, […]

Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real (POTR) have not performed in Tucson since the band opened for B. B. King in 2009. Back 12 years ago there was no band introduction and they came out on stage and started playing. Those in attendance were scratching their heads because the voice was so familiar. We […]

Buscano La Vida was born from two very different events – a fire that destroyed master drummer, composer, and arranger Henry Cole’s NYC apartment and an unexpected New Jazz Works grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation once he had relocated to his native Puerto Rico. With both the loss and the gain occurring during […]

Both Hannah Brown & Sam Warren were already fixtures of the Liverpool underground scene when they found themselves on the same bill in late 2017. At the time they were coming to the end of their current projects, Hannah And The Wick Effect and Jo Mary respectively. Jamming and writing together regularly in Warren’s flat, before long they’d […]

From the opening notes of “Country Ghetto” through the end of their set over two hours later, JJ Grey & Mofro had what seemed like a welcome home party at Portland, Oregon’s Crystal Ballroom on Thursday, November 11th, although they were thousands of miles away from Grey’s north Florida residence. The crowd fell into the […]

What an astounding career They Might Be Giants have had. Since 1982 John Flansburgh and John Linnell have delivered unique tunes crafted for everyone from hipsters to kids to senior citizens, for educational purposes, wacky cartoons, indie flicks and even CNN, all the while keeping their idiosyncratic style intact.   Their newest offering, BOOK is next […]