CD and DVD reviews
Coming out of the ultra-hot country underground, Jaye Madison isn’t fazed by the contemporary eclecticism of music in 2023 – if anything, they’re more interested in embracing it than they are changing anything about the direction history is going in right now. In their new extended play, rightly titled MIRЯOR: Framework, these sister country crooners…
Michael Jackson’s breakthrough album, the one that propelled him to solo stardom, was titled Off the Wall. Therefore, you may read Jude Gwynaire’s album title incorrectly the first time. Then again, once you make your way through these 15 tracks, you’ll know right away that – while excellent – Gwynaire is no king of pop.…
The Mezcaltones has been described as “four guys dressed as cowboys and two women dressed like Spanish Mexican that you might find in a Quentin Tarantino movie.” And we should add, the group’s music sounds like the songs you may also hear on a Tarantino movie soundtrack. Mixing alt.country vibes with a touch of a…
Comely vocal harmonies. An eroticized tempo. Melodies that ache with the sort of lust entire motion pictures are written around. In her new single “Ain’t Buyin’ It,” singer and songwriter Xolex isn’t concerned with keeping up with the biggest trends in the American underground today – she’s too busy unleashing a brutally provocative anthem of poetry and…
It’s safe to assume after hearing The Brian Shapiro Band’s new single “Better in TX” that Shapiro and his three other bandmates aren’t fans of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Shapiro writes about Texan attitudes towards pregnancy/abortion and pandemic related matters as illustrative of the state’s deep-seated nonsense. His lyrics make it clear that Shapiro sees…
The elephant in the room is how much Nick Maskill of M. Crane sounds like The Killers’ Brandon Flowers. He sings with such unrestrained passion on these eleven dramatic songs. The band, from Tucson, Arizona, even has roots close to The Killers’ original Las Vegas hometown. The group’s latest album is one fine collection titled…
“Ruin Your Life Mode” is a great single from Israeli born and based singer Sheer Haimov and expands on her recent string of musical successes. The 22 year old has blazed an unbelievable early trail working with excellent collaborators, but the burning heart of her art lies in her hands alone. She comes to her…
I have had the pleasure to hear Laura Cheadle’s music for many years now and her growth, as an artist, has been tremendous. Laura has always had such a positive aura about her and the music solidifies that fact, to this day. Laura Cheadle’s latest release is titled “Time Thief” and she proves that she…
Although Elizabeth Ghandour describes the music she makes with the band Elour as ‘femme rock,’ a much more accurate term might be ‘angry femme rock’ because Ghandour mostly sounds angry, sometimes raging at named and unnamed machines throughout the album Blood Running. The recording opens with one titled “Reputation” where Ghandour screams/sings, “Take your weight…
Let me tell you, as someone who’s not well-versed in Austrian music, stumbling upon ViennaCC’s new single “Cabriolet” was a refreshing and delightful experience. This track is just the kind of upbeat, fun, and light-hearted pop music that we need in our lives right now. At first, I was a little skeptical because the song…
Instead of striking a softer note with the rather tempo-oriented “The Crossing,” even this slower song from The Price Brothers Band’s Live at the Yellow Cab Tavern sees the Pete Price-fronted act putting in a lot more muscle than you might be expecting. Just when it feels like things are about to mellow in the sterling “Foolish…
Rene Erickson’s Silent Street album is an eleven-song collection of guitar instrumentals. Erickson is a skilled guitarist and fills this half-hour-plus album with plenty of enjoyable acoustic guitar sounds. The album’s title cut, which arrives five songs in, is a relatively quiet piece (as its title suggests). However, Erickson is anything but a quiet musician.…
Music is a universal language and Lourdes Pita proves it with her new release titled “Lamento Cubano”. With a Latin feel and Spanish roots, Lourdes Pita brings “Lamento Cubano” to life with her spirited performance. Lourdes Pita writes songs and performs music for one culture and that is the music world. Fans of good music…
Jake Merritt has released his new album titled ‘Old Soul’ that reveals a lot about this talented singer/songwriter. Listeners will discover that Jake writes from the heart and that he is very passionate about his craft. One will also pick up on the fact that ‘Old Soul’ is filled with genuine material that Jake Merritt…
If there’s something teenagers can use more of, it’s real representation in the media through actual teenagers. There are plenty of shows, movies, and content aimed at their demographic, but the material feels a lot different when it’s written by a writers’ room of a dozen middle-aged men than it does when it’s coming from…
A sweet country pop sensation arises from JB Elwood’s aptly named “Don’t Go Looking for Love.” The heart-warming drums take shape to feel all-encompassing. Lyrics are right at the very heart of the experience. Word choice is of the essence, with each choice given its right amount of power. The guitar works nicely and underpins…
Dina Layzis & Artem Tenkeli pour their very hearts into “Silhouettes.” A profoundly romantic work, this piece unspools at its own pace. Her voice has an affectionate tenor to it. Lyrics explore the concept of togetherness in quite an inspirational way. Allowing these many different pieces to blend nicely, the result is quite extraordinary. Kept…
Kicking up a storm, BOWMAN delivers a raw, righteous slice of country rock on the riotous “Dust and Bone.” The rhythm is animalistic, ideally propelling the rest of the sound forward. A communal quality comes into view as the piece progresses. Volume is given, for his sound deserves to be felt. Interplay amongst the band…
Jude Gwynaire’s single, “The Piper of Old Detroit,” begins with percussive chiming. It’s as though the wind outside suddenly got rhythm and started moving those outdoor windchimes like it was Buddy Rich. Then about twenty seconds in, the melody takes over. It’s a melody that sounds a tad Middle Eastern. It’s both familiar and exotic,…
Avenue Army is electrifying the audience with this latest single titled “Favorite Enemy”. The excitement level is at an all time high with this new release. “Favorite Enemy” will quickly become your favorite song to add to your playlist! Avenue Army is based in San Diego, CA and the band is made up of: founding…
Vincent van Beethoven is a pop-inspired music project by Minneapolis-based musician and audio engineer Joe Finstrom. If you’re looking for something completely different, then you came to the right place! You won’t get the classical Ludwig here but rather the Vincent version that does include classic elements from the 80s and 90s. One will hear…
If you are used to hip-hop, rap, R&B and all such urban musical forms taking a specific sonic shape, then Death.wav is here to throw all those expectations out of the window. I wonder if this is the sound of such genres moving forward; perhaps it is more the sound of them moving sideways, into…
David Singley is a talented singer-songwriter-guitarist from Saint Paul, Minnesota who has decades of experience backing world-class artists and performers. David’s new project is titled ‘The Singles’ and features four, well-constructed tracks. Each song has its own flavor and own identity as ‘The Singles’ will speak to many people out there in the world. All…
One can sense the joy and creativity that went into the making of this new album titled ‘And The Moon Rising’. This music project came about when producer and longtime friend, Marcus Vichert, approached Trevor Owen about cutting a new record. The rest is history as ‘And The Moon Rising’ was born! The new album…
Over the past few years, the foreign exchange market has experienced tremendous growth. The quest to make better decisions in trading has become an obsession. This makes all of us wonder how some traders achieve their milestones while others struggle. The key to improving your trading performance is choosing the correct broker. Trading brokers are…
Recorded last year in Brooklyn, New York City, Dan Costa’s new album “Beams” brings together some of the greatest names in jazz, a spectacular feat for a relatively young musician who has already collaborated with artists such as singer-songwriter Ivan Lins, bossa nova legend Roberto Menescal or trumpeter Randy Brecker, who wrote the liner notes…
The heart of The Wandering Off is the husband-wife duo of Kyle and Emily Corner. Their decision to embark on a creative as well as matrimonial union had its genesis in the COVID pandemic. Fate dealt them some cruel blows during that time period, mainly in the form of Emily dealing with two different bouts…
Kris Degaust is the man behind the alt rock project known as Future Crisis Klub. This self-titled EP includes five, standout tracks and each number has its own, distinct features. Time to rock on and rock the day away with Future Crisis Klub. Kris formerly fronted Canadian alt rock/post grunge acts Good Nite Irene and…
Prepare for an otherworldly listening experience where the physical body clashes with the spiritual realm on ‘Music In The Afterlife’. Gareth Koch is a Viennese-trained classical musician and Martin Kennedy is an ambient music specialist. This new album is a debut collaboration for the duo with ‘Music In The Afterlife’ being their fruitful introduction to…
Some of the most incredible music ever made has been offered to us without a lot of contextual cues, and I’m not just talking about press releases from major labels. To make something that can speak to someone’s soul without the inclusion of traditional linguistics or lyricism of any kind is hard by itself, but…
Pop/rock typically experiences waves of respect from independent artists around the world, and more often than not, from some pretty surprising places in the indie music lexicon indeed. Take Johnnie Mikel for instance; Mikel is everything that an alternative pop/rock singer and songwriter should be in 2023. He has the guitar sizzle flanked with the…
When two, award-winning recording artists get together to record an album, special things can happen and magic can sometimes be in the air. That is exactly the case for singer/songwriters, Doug Cox and Linda McRae where everything was clicking on ‘Beyond The Great Pause’. To my surprise, this album was recorded over just 3 nights…
I may not know Mike Berman or where he has lived, but I certainly get a better sense of where Mike Berman is coming from after listening to his new album. ‘Where I’m From’ paints a vivid landscape of Mike Berman’s world through the lens of a skilled artist. Mike Berman is a true singer/songwriter…
If you’ve ever wondered if pop harmonies could be both powerfully crushing and fragile at the same time, then there’s a good chance that DEVORA’s new release God is Dead is going to be one of the more compelling works you stumble across this January. From the self-aware “Pornstar” to the subtle commentary of “Bonesaw,”…
Swagger makes a lot of pop music work, and in the case of the new single “Rock Bottom” by Sheer Haimov, it’s at the heart of every harmony the song contains. Haimov has a voice that shows star-quality potential when it’s balanced with minimalistic instrumentation, and while this track brings in a little more gusto…
With a lot of gusto coming from his backing band the Farm Hands, Tim Graves tells us a story through the majesty of melody in the song “Apple Tree,” one of the more compelling issues from their new album Bluegrass DNA. There’s a lot of deep introspection in Bluegrass DNA, and though it’s often presented to the…
There’s a rusticity to the tone of the strings in Andrew Crawford and Brandi Colt’s “Gambler and Gypsies” that I’m entirely hesitant to deem old school for one big reason; the melody they create is forward-thinking and progressively stylized. This sort of duality can be found in almost every aspect of Crawford’s artistry in this…
Lenny Williams has soul in his bones and is no stranger to the music game with a career that spans decades. Lenny is regarded as one of R&B’s most influential soul acts and he has been involved with very successful recordings over the years such as: mega-hit, “Cause I Love You” (recorded on his solo…
Achilles Tenderloin aka Joe Augustin is a hyper original songwriter and guitarist who has come up with ‘Tincture for Trouble’. Blending slide blues and folk-americana, Achilles has created a sound that is unique to the core. ‘Tincture for Trouble’ is everything you haven’t heard yet and then some! Produced by Patrick Himes at Reel Love…
A big blast of beats and confident lyricism defines P. Bailey’s powerful “My Black is Beautiful (Bomb Mix)”. Layer upon layer enters into the mix making sure they hold nothing back. His voice features a distinctive strength to it. Volume is a given for this is the sort of song that absolutely commands the listener’s…
