CD and DVD reviews
Angeles tackles that perennial Halloween favorite “Monster Mash” with the utmost of grace and style. Embracing the garage rock soul of the original, they have a playful swinging style of the piece. From the choir to the surf rock guitar inflections, it all comes together in a great way. “Kickin’ It At The Crypt” goes…
While some jazz artists of the modern generation have been fine toting around the same rhythms of musicians who occupied years gone past, extreme flutist Bill McBirnie and Bernie Senensky are determined to push the genre forward into the next decade with their new collaborative LP The Silent Wish. Methodically arranged and produced with the upmost…
2018 has been a big year for singer/songwriters, but no one has been getting more buzz than James Lee Baker, a Midwestern folk singer with a country bend whose new album Home Again has taken the world by storm. Home Again isn’t your average collection of roots rock songs – it’s a larger than life…
Aptly named, Jason Rylan’s “Strong” proves to be a truly inspirational piece of work. Representing the best of what pop has to offer, Jason Rylan’s powerful, deep vocals add to the song’s undeniable emotional core. Everything comes together in a pitch-perfect sort of way. His understanding of how to build a song up has a…
Singer/songwriter Monica Uhm goes by the name Trio Of Awesuhm. Her album, a collaboration with fellow New York musicians, is a folkish collection of sincere songs. Many of these compositions lean toward progressive social messages, best exemplified by the determination expressed with “Nevertheless.” The album’s overall sonic vibe might remind you of Natalie Merchant and…
World music and culture are heard and seen throughout the entire globe daily…When people travel from one part of the world to the next, some of the memories that follow through the mind always trickle back down to the music that was experienced while traveling. When people hear something that intrigues them even for a…
The chime of Abby Zotz’ acoustic guitar guides us into the temperateness of “Stability,” the opening track of her new album Local Honey, like a cool breeze blowing through tall grass on a hot summer’s day. Dispatched at the pace of beating heart but with a sensitive, loving melody to cushion its delivery, “Stability” welcomes us…
This is the third time reviewing Fabp going back to July 2018 as he seems to have quite a hefty catalogue of music. The Freelancer is able to whip up lyrics & beats at the drop of a hat! Fabp offers listeners a whopping 39 tracks on this Mixtape titled ‘From Then Til’ Now 2011-2015′.…
With a countrified guitar lick serving as her salutation, Sarah Clanton pulls us into her orbit with the song “I Can See You,” the opening track of her incredible new album Here We Are. Over the next three minutes we listen to Clanton dispatch the most enchanting melody of 2018 like she’s reading us a recipe…
Introducing a new, heartfelt, and gifted band first created as a songwriting vehicle! This band first began by two of the members, Mike Gladstone and Rob Smith. Later on, they added Emmett Lentilucci and Don Torpy, who are known as New York’s top rhythm sections! This album as known as JunkYardFieldTrip, released by the Spectra…
Shane Palko’s biography describes the performer as an “alternative folk musician and socioenvironmentalist.” He’s traveled a lot internationally and has already released nine studio albums. Speaking of mobility, the song that opens the Pick Me Up album is “Traveling / Wandering,” which meditates upon the differences between traveling, and mere wandering around. With “Circus Dog,”…
An earnest spirit flows through the whole of Kassie Tyers’ “Blue Skies”. Kassie is a proud Canadian from Northern Ontario. Her storytelling abilities reveal a poetic quality, as the whole of the piece unfurls with a soothing aura. The arrangement has a great balance, making sure that everything falls into place with such perfection. Guitars…
Madyx’s “Girl Boy” is an intentionally line-blurring single. Its first verse begins with the singer/songwriter stating, “I never had a boyfriend, kiss me like a girl can.” Not only does she point to Katy Perry as an artistic inspiration, but she’s also released a song that sounds like a cousin to “I Kissed A Girl.”…
Dhruv Visvanath offers a gentle form of twee pop on the intimate sound of “Wild”. Keeping things to the essentials his vocals have a tremendous kindness to them. Arrangements feel reminiscent of Fleet Foxes’ earliest releases, for the airiness of the composition works wonders. Going for a more rustic quality Radiator King’s “So Long (Charlie)”…
Folk music and activism have always come as a pair throughout American history, and Nate Smith has conjured up an exceptional collection of patriotic anthems derived from his deepest thoughts in Some Kind of Dancing, his follow up to 2015’s Around and Around. Currently there’s no disputing among the music journalism community that music consumers…
Drawing comparisons to modern rock throwbacks like Greta Van Fleet and The Struts, as well as boasting inspiration from iconic bands of yore like The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones, Wyves are primed to make major waves with their album R U OK? The Phoenix, Arizona based four piece are rapidly building a substantial…
From one corner of the globe to the next, the indie music media can’t seem to stop talking about Mikey See, the New York-born, Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter who lit up the American underground earlier this spring with his self-titled EP. Unlike most instances in life, where I would be the first to tell…
Wild, unpredictable, Danny Bacher’s “Still Happy” represents the very best intersection of jazz, pop, delivered with the utmost of joy. Positively bursting at the seams, everything about the album passes by in a glorious blur of color. A kaleidoscopic range touches upon every aspect of the album, from the intense saxophone work to Danny Bacher’s…
Rick Monroe goes for an acid-fried country flavor on the rollicking rock n’ roll of “Smoke Out The Window”. Sung with fire and fury, the whole of the album barrels forward with an intense energy. Throughout the whole of the album Rick Monroe draws from soul, the blues, garage rock, and country in a fantastic…
The blood of ancient Appalachia and all of the incredible music it has yielded runs through the veins of Cindy G’s new album Moonshiner’s Daughter like a furious river fighting to reach the ocean. I’ve always said that it’s harder to make a stylized bluegrass record in the modern age that encompasses the wide ranging color that…
This is unique, but accessible. Alya Michelson’s single “Puppet Strings” will be an enjoyable introduction to her talents and the Russian native has obviously toiled to realize her craft in a way not enough modern songwriters and musicians aspire to. The obvious care and deep feeling invested in this single will win over anyone willing…
There isn’t much to say about where mainstream pop music is right now, and that isn’t just a problem for the artists who rake in two or three Grammys every year, but more of a problem for our artistic world as a whole. When the top starts to crumble, it’s up to the artists occupying…
If you’re looking for something vastly unusual that is like nothing you’ve ever heard or experienced before, then The Interplanetary Acoustic Team’s “Light Sketch” is your golden ticket! The song is like something from another galaxy just free-floating in space & time for all lifeforms to witness. Right away, I was taken a back and…
“Seawall” is a track that begins with a guitar strummed pattern, before being joined by a fluid bass line. It’s later accompanied by an acoustic piano pattern. Garth Adam sings its words to someone who’s lost a faith of some kind. A seawall is defined as “a wall or embankment erected to prevent the sea…
Have you ever stopped to think about your life? Stopping to think means to actually sit down and ponder the entire years, months, and weeks that have entered your circle of hours altogether; and then actually think for that particular moment about what you might have been doing that you already aren’t doing in your…
Rock music has never been defined by those who play by the rules, and it’s going to take a generation who respects the foundational fortitude of anarchy to ensure rock n’ roll’s survival in the future. When you think about it in those terms, Broken Baby are one of the only bands up to the…
This Columbus, Ohio-based band, Harmless Habit, has created something that is worth jumping out of your seat for! “Tight” is jam-packed with high energy and true rock & roll grooves. Rock music, on the whole and in itself, isn’t what it used to be but Harmless Habit looks to change that with their new release.…
The Gary Douglas Band produce music serving as an ever timely reminder of how much passion matters. Discipline and skill, naturally, play a crucial role in determining the success or failure of any given artist but, invariably, the performers and writers who never wither under posterity’s judgment are those imbuing their work with a sense…
Virginia based Champ de Mars’ first full length release Rancho Seco Victory, literally translated as Dry Ranch Victory, is one of the best alternative rock efforts with a singer/songwriter slant released in recent memory. The project’s first studio release, 2016’s Back from the West EP, actually represented the first chapter in an ongoing musical journey. The evolution towards…
Have you ever been to the Windy City? Known for its beauty, the glory of the Chicago Bears, or for the ever so popular Deep Dish pizza, there are so many things to do in one of the most eclectic cities in the United States of America! There is something that is so popular about…
Every now and then, a story is told. Sometimes that story is told through someone else’s eyes or through the images that may be cast: the end result will be a lasting memory. When a sound is heard, it remains within the ears and travels to the brain for interpretation. Sometimes those sounds could be…
Do you know how St. Paul, Minnesota originally got its name? Here’s how…In 1841, the area that would be known as Saint Paul was named by such by Father Lucian Galtier, a French Priest wanting to honor The Apostle Paul. Today, St. Paul has several main attractions but the main one that is making a…
African musical project Funkmata, masterminded by singer/songwriter Robert Bannerman and producer Roy C formed this band with enormous ambition and stoked by the desire to export an uniquely African take on funk and commercial pop to a global audience. They’ve experienced a notable amount of success already, placing their material with important media outlets and…
The world outside of western Canada is introduced to the hard rocking Calgary-based In/Vertigo in their new single “Bad Enemy,” which comes ahead of their much awaited debut extended play due out this fall. Canada has been having somewhat of a renaissance year in the music scene, but no band has had critics talking more…
On “Hip HOp SociEty” Sarantos shows off a bit of playfulness, resulting in a whole carefully crafted world. Done with the utmost of precision, Sarantos picks his words carefully. His flow has a nimbleness to it while he draws from pop culture in such great amounts, showing off his clever lyricism. Production has a raw,…
Now, with so much Nashville-recorded modern “country” music sounding like it’s been tracked in either New York or Los Angeles, it should no longer come as a surprise to hear authentic roots music with New York City roots. The Good Morning Nags are a country and bluegrass-inspired act from New York City, and the sounds…
In Beautiful New Day, Jupiter in Velvet delivers his most accessible recording to date after years of making a critical impact on the indie rock underground and influencing a number of artists around him. Jupiter in Velvet has been somewhat of an enigma to mainstream audiences since making his debut about half a decade ago, but…
Located on the portion where the Severn River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, there lies Annapolis, Maryland. Once known as “Providence,” Annapolis shares its great name because of being named in honor of the future queen of England, Princess Anne. Honing back to the earlier days of when the United States was just a colony,…
Ryan Zimmerman shares a last name with another famous singer/songwriter, Bob Zimmerman, although the latter is better known as Bob Dylan. This Zimmerman’s single, “Solitude Blues” is a sad, acoustic blues song. The track’s lyric speaks to a desire to find “the way back home.” Zimmerman sings it with the soulfulness of a bluegrass-folk singer.…
Sleek, stylish and full of life, Monsieur Job teams up with the like minds No Mercy and Vojke Djans to make the sweetest single of the summer in “Pica Pica,” an urban pop track that is almost guaranteed to get your hips shaking and your heart beating to its pulsating beat. There’s been such spirited…
