CD and DVD reviews
Live albums at their very best are the ultimate way for listeners to connect with a band or artist on the most organic level without anything external getting in the way. In this sense, Project Grand Slam’s Greetings from Serbia is everything that most of us desire in a live record; it presents us with Robert Miller’s…
As Ashley Delima’s career develops, you see the clear markers of a talent with the durability to last decades as a force on the music scene. Her latest single “Cigarette”, a stunning successor to the earlier “Stay in America”, brings this into sharp relief. It amply shows why she has scored a coveted recording deal,…
Heavy AmericA’s “Easy Killer” is a unique track. The song’s electric guitar intro suggests some variety of heavy metal. It’s a bellowing, rumbling, thundering chordal groove. The drums vary wildly, sort of like Keith Moon at his unrestrained best. There’s also, though, sounds on it that give it a new wave vibe. The guitar part…
A delicate bass is just itching to pummel us as we enter “Try for a While,” the smoking first track of Spud Cannon’s sophomore album Squeeze. Slowly the song blossoms into an inspiring, patient exercise in minimalism and melody, swinging in cadence with vocalist Meg Matthews’ slick poetry. We descend into the new wave thunder of…
Dave Vargo sings straight from the heart on the soulful “Battle Burns EP”. Neatly drawing together folk, country, and indie rock into a singular whole the collection feels imbued with a sense of life. Quite graciously the two pieces unfold revealing a true knack for storytelling. Over the course of the two tracks a thoughtfulness…
Ray Greene’s ‘Tell Me The Story Of Christmas’ is loaded with sweet, yet sophisticated jazz/gospel versions of holiday standards, and three original compositions. This is the quintessential soundtrack for the Christmas/Holiday season and is sure to put you in a festive mood. Ray Greene and Dow Brain provide an array of Christmas classics as well…
It’s Christmas time everyone! There’s Christmas trees going up and tons of kids getting ready to end the first half of the school year on a bang! Everywhere you look, the lights are twinkling and people are beginning to get into the Christmas spirit one by one…During the season of Christmas, many people showcase what…
So what do you do when you can’t sleep? Do you count sheep, toss and turn, stare at the ceiling, or crack open that bottle of pills? Or do you sing yourself through it? Do you dare to… samba? Weba Garretson of the fearless singing duo Garretson & Gorodetsky has always had trouble getting to…
Alisa Chirco’s lusty “Give Me More” is not a song where its singer is gently minding her manners. Not by any stretch of the imagination. When she sings how she’s “addicted to attention,” it should set off warning bells for any available (or unavailable, for that matter) man within earshot. She sings it like an…
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thedanbees The modern rock fan isn’t satisfied by big riffs and stellar solos alone. Millennial listeners and rock n’ roll aficionados whose taste has evolved with the genre itself are demanding something more out of their favorite bands; they want texture, sonic virtuosity and mind-bending grooves that test the limits of melody altogether. The…
Doug Ferony goes for a joyful, jazzy take on the holiday classic “Jingle Bells”. The horns have a great swinging style to them as they have a distinctly New York quality to them. Allowing a bit of playfulness into the mix adds to its incredible sense of pure happiness. “The Christmas Song feat. Buddy Smith…
With a downhome folk charm, David Anderson’s “Lake Placid Blue” goes for a unique pastoral beauty. Sung straight from the heart, the soulful storytelling ties the whole of the album together. His narratives feel fully lived-in and realized to the fullest. Incorporating a great deal of color within the arrangements everything simply shimmers and shines.…
Rachel Reese sings of defiance on the bluesy Americana of “Dozen Roses”. Delivered with the greatest amount of honesty the whole of the song feels fully lived in and realized. By far the very heart of the song comes from Rachel Reese’s passionately felt vocals. Her lyrics cut right to the bone with such care.…
Cwiredband goes for an epic, sprawling classic rock style with the rush of “Angel Circuit Engaged”. Done with the greatest of care, Cwiredband at times taps into the timeless sound of the Doors and the Eagles. Everything about Cwiredband’s approach feels fully realized, from the infectious riffs to rolling rhythms, it all works. By far…
With a violent thrust of drumsticks and a myriad of colorful guitars to lead the way, The American Revival waste no time dazzling us with countrified sonic wonderment in their new single “Whiskey Kisses.” A brittle set of keys dance in the foreground as the melody slowly takes shape before our ears, coming together one…
Seven Against Thebes’ third studio recording and second full length album, Art of Deception, opens with a mood setting instrumental “MMXXII”. The brief musical workout, running just over two minutes long, likewise serves as a concise introduction to the band’s sound. Their hard rock/metal pedigree means they can riff and crush with the best of…
BANDCAMP: https://dawggonedavis.bandcamp.com/ “Middle Aged Woman – Hip Hop Style” was my initial introduction to the music of Rebecca “Dawg’ Gone” Davis and it serves her well as the lead off track for her EP release In the Dawg‘ Pound. The Kansas City, Missouri based performer tackles the subject of someone her age attempting to perform in…
White hot drumming runs head first into a tidal wave of distortion as Lana Blac weaves her angelic voice into a tapestry of sonic malice in “Suck You In,” the new single from her critically acclaimed debut album Nocturnal. She tells the tale of falling upon a potential lover, capturing their soul with her evil charm…
As soon as I hit play, I’m immediately thinking of the classic Salt-N-Pepa jam, “Push It”, because I hear a female voice, with loads of Sass & attitude, saying “Push It Real Good”. So Marc Payne has my attention right off the bat before he even enters the picture. I “Push the Button” and I’m…
Alison James has a knack about her and is a real spark of positive energy in today’s music world. This glorious candle is now lit and the flame is burning bright for all to see. Alison’s new single, “How Do You Know”, isn’t even officially released yet but is already a Big Hit in my…
URL: https://www.artisan-creative.com/ A gnarled string arrangement draws us ever so close to the macabre wonderment that is the opening stanza of Steve Bonham and the Long Road’s “The Girl with the Rattlesnake Heart,” their latest and arguably most jarring song to date. A wistful, fleeting groove wanders around the guitar like a thief in the…
URL: http://www.michaelrainwood.com/about1.php The gentle picking of an acoustic guitar is accompanied by a gilded rising melody in the background as we enter “I’ll Never Be Alone Again,” the new single from gospel singer/songwriter Michael Rainwood’s album Unknown Author. Like strands of light streaming through a window in the morning, the harmonies awaken and become vibrant and…
#MusicVideo Television – Bongo Boy Rock n Roll TV Show Episode 12 Season 7 “Vibes Of Light”. Music Video Television broadcast on 66+ Terrestrial TV Channels in the USA. Starting this coming week for 2 weeks heavy rotation 165+ rotation per week reaching 17 million households in the USA alone. Frank Trousdell delves into a…
Post-Mortem Touring comes Alive. Or how the dead rap & rock stars can come back for more box office money. 18 Years after his death Tupac Shakur appeared onstage during day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 15, 2012 in Indio, California. Tupac was shot four times while at…
URL: https://www.projectgrandslam.com/ The single “Tree Of Life (Dedicated To The Victims)” by Project Grand Slam, aka PGS, is a plea for peace, sanity and gun control in the wake of the recent mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg on Oct. 27, 2018 and California mass shooting. The song was written by…
URL: https://www.relianttom.com/ Reliant Tom is to music what New York is to humanity’s pulse: power, snyth, rock and roll and constructed mayhem. Bad Orange, the nine-track juggernaut of sound, is an alternative rock-pop mastery. In other words, make sure Reliant Tom is on your musical radar. At times you will feel your listening to something…
URL: http://wyldermusic.com/ With a confident, contagious strut, Wylder come marching out of the silence and into our hearts in their all new single “Ready to Break,” which was composed by frontman Will McCarry and features all four of the band’s players in top form. An acoustic guitar swings hard and lays out the pace of…
Simon & Garfunkel were one of the most vocally-sound duos of all time and one of my all-time favorites with “Scarborough Fair” being a timeless masterpiece and literally music to my ears. And so, seeing that Belle Of The Fall tackled this gem of a song peaks my interests for sure, but also has me…
We’ll come right out and say it: the final shot in Julia Othmer’s new video for “Purple And Gray” will sweep you away. You may conclude (as we did) that director James T. Lundie is a cinematographic sorcerer. He certainly isn’t afraid of heights. Under his guidance, the camera rises up above the gently rolling…
Forest Robots is an especially sci-fi-y name for a musical artist. Although Fran Dominguez (under the moniker Forest Robots) applies technologically advanced keyboard instruments to the ten tracks contained on the Timberline and Mountain Crest album, the inspiration for these instrumentals could not be more natural. In fact, it was nature – specifically the mountain…
URL: https://www.beckyblasband.com/ It says a lot about a composer when a song is as moving musically as it is lyrically, which is exactly the case with the majority of what Here, the new album by Rebecca Blasband, delivers unto those who pick it up. From the studded grooves of “Way of the World” to the simplistic,…
BANDCAMP: https://univore.bandcamp.com/album/conch Alternative rockers, Univore bend time and sound in the addictive 12-track album, Conch. Univore is Nicholas Flando and Sagan Jacobson. The two are joined with some guest players on various tracks, but it’s safe to say Flando and Bachmann create the core Univore sound. Pinning down that sound is a challenge – in…
Indie rockers The Campbell Apartment unleash an anthological swansong in the form of their new track “Burn Baby Burn,” which is essentially five different uniquely stylized songs mashed into a single all-encapsulating juggernaut. We start off with a blistering acoustic guitar salvo that is accompanied by punkish, feisty lyrics singing the praises of a girl…
Love Stallion throws us right back into the 70s and 80s with their rocking song called Slow Release off their latest album Unforgettable Ride. Sitting comfortably with his tenor voice, Aaron Hart really knows how to take inspiration from others and create his own unique sound. Pair this with the glam rock vibe, the whole…
Doug Ferony sings with a timeless, tasteful mixture of pop, jazz, swinging through on the lush sweeps of “Doug Ferony Sings Italian Favorites”. Absolutely beautiful, his inclusion of a wide variety of styles feels so soothing. Elements of Bossa Nova and lounge anchor the entirety of the gorgeous journey. With a sound reminiscent of Frank…
With a soft yet raspy voice reminiscent of a mash-up between Sarah Mclachlan, Faith Hill, and Martina McBride, Tia McGraff sings a wonderful tribute to all those who have had to fight in wars to maintain our freedoms and peace. The composition of her song One Tin Soldier is a masterpiece on its own, marching…
It isn’t always easy to remix a song that helped to define the persona of an artist and stay true to the spirit of the original, but in “Mr. Fix It (Rocky G Remix),” the framing of Brooke Josephson’s epic pop jam isn’t left in ruins as a result of the gilded renovations installed by…
Sarantos taps into the sound of the world with the majestic, sprawling scope of the brightly colored arrangements of “I’d Follow You Into Fire”. Deftly avoiding easy categorization, elements of the track draw from rock as well as world music in a way that gives it a great nimbleness. Full of optimism the joyfulness of…
Since its introduction to the world, the punk rock music has always been one for making political statements, going against the flow of life and sticking it to the man. The genre of punk rock is expressive of their frustrations with the injustices of the system through the production of their loud lyrics, harsh guitar…
Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and pianist Chris Bennett recently released her twelfth album, Something Wonderful, and as trite as it may sound, the album certainly is something wonderful. Known for her disco days in the 70s for collaborating with other iconic names like Tina Turner, Donna Summer, and Giorgio Moroder, Bennett channels her jazz roots with…
