I remember seeing the stunning 1971 documentary Blue Water White Death sometime in the ‘80s, both fascinated and for many weeks haunted by incredible underwater photographer Peter Gimbel ’s death-defying images of the monster Great White Sharks off of Australia’s barrier reefs.
This debut LP chronicles the two-year gestation of Viva Voce ’s two songwriter/musicians, Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson ’s attempt to form a side-band country-rock supergroup.
The well-meaning gent that suggested I try this band called them “prog-psych,” which, to these ears promised a paring of “Pictures of Matchstick Men” Status Quo with Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway . I.e., 1968 meets 1974.
Anderson is one of the two younger guitarists/backing singers that have kicked Paul McCartney in the ass since they joined his touring band in 2001 (the other being Brian Ray ).
With an album title (and title track) like this, and other tunes such as “Superman Can’t Move His Legs,” “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me,” and “Dead as Disco,” you might expect Where to be a funny album.
Go-Go Boots has been described by Drive-By Truckers leader Patterson Hood as the band’s “country/soul/murder ballad” record.
Thus will one of indie rock’s pioneering talents be introduced (hopefully) to a new generation.
Whether you want to recapture the days of Echo & The Bunnymen or looking to get lost in a daydream, let By The Hedge be the soundtrack. There’s much to enjoy.
Ness is zooming down a well-traveled road, but he’s doing it full throttle, and his band is right there with him.
Dye It Blonde is wistful, fun, and a great album that sounds perfectly at home on my turntable.
Like an unholy cross between the Pogues at their most shambolic and the Dogs D’amour at their most out of control, the Medicine Bow kicks out the crusty cowpunk jams.
For cosmic reasons unknown, there’s been resurgence in Satanic-themed hard rock bands, especially with Scandinavian origin.
With a sound driven by various mandolins and bouzoukis and a small posse of lead singers on hand, Patterson eschews pretty much everything from his past to delve into string-based world music, particularly the Celtic/Middle Eastern fusion pioneered by obvious inspiration Dead Can Dance.
The Best of Kimberley Rew collects 14 cuts from those LPs, covering a nearly 30-year time span, and makes a strong case for Rew’s strengths as a power pop auteur.
Action 45’s “Bastards Of America” combines old skool punk intensity with new school chops.
The breadth of that career is the subject of I’ll Tell You What I Saw, a compilation of Gunn’s work over the past couple of decades that showcases not only his acclaimed solo material, but also his work with musicians from Russia, Finland, Italy and Mexico.
Labirinto weaves a tapestry of strings, clean and distorted guitars, a few drums, and an occasional banjo. Band leader and songwriter Erick Cruxen blends the most pure musical parts of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the plotting picking of Explosions In The Sky, and a few assaulting moments worthy of Russian Circles. This being their first full-length release also leads one to believe that the band has the potential to rank among these highly regarded groups.
American Hardcore- A Tribal History is the definitive book on Hardcore Punk Rock
Some tunes work better than others, naturally, but regardless of quality the cuts sound like they were recorded by a dozen different bands, instead of one band with diverse interests.
The TL3 channels its breadth of talent into 21 tracks of warm, melodic and vibrant rock & roll.
Nicholas Chapel, the songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who trades under the name Demians, need never seek therapy, if his band’s second album Mute is any indication.
Tangents unleash one of the better post- Radiohead rock albums in recent memory with its debut One Little Light Year.
This isn’t a dance or ambient album – the electronica forms more of a pulse behind the otherwise rocking music, giving the songs a driving groove.
The self-titled debut overfloweth with mountain-scaled melodies, pealing guitars, lung-filled vocals and song titles like “Forgiveness” and “Atone.”
Frank Turner releases the best album of 2010 with “Rock & Roll”
Legacy’s two-disc set spotlights two sides of Carole King’s career: solo artist and songwriter.
With the profile of Antibalas higher than ever thanks to the band providing the score for the award-winning musical Fela!, its former label takes the opportunity to reissue one of its seminal works.
Half of Forgive Yr. Blood could very easily fit on a soundtrack to a modern western, while other songs come across as soulful deconstructions of tunes from John Hughes teen flicks. There’s some folk, some indie pop, and what could have been a backing track from the Beastie Boys‘ Check Your Head. Even with all of these flavors, there is no hint of pretentiousness.
With an intimate approach featuring little more than his guitar and voice, Toth boils down decades of folk, country and blues stylings into his own personal artistry, comfortable with tradition but not constrained by it.
This Rare and Unseen entry on David Bowie isn’t essential, but Bowie die-hards will enjoy newly-surfaced interview clips featuring their hero.
Duveen’s versatile vocals slot right in like the musical settings were custom made.
These two disks collect 34 songs from across the band’s three decade career, and there’s barely a stinker in the bunch.
Produced by Englishman Peter Walsh, chosen by the band for his recent work with Simple Minds and Scott Walker, Heyday gives the quartet a brighter, more lush sound than ever before, with strings and horns enhancing a few tracks.
Love it or hate it, the sonics of Seance make it an album that’s one of the band’s most distinctive.
The Blurred Crusade takes the guitar-heavy new wave sound of its debut Of Skins and Heart and reshapes it, beginning the process of evolution into what would become the Church’s sonic signature.
It sounds like a young band with talent to burn eager to get its ideas down on vinyl as quickly and energetically as possible.
Former teen pop star Robyn should have been an also-ran, a one-hit wonder from the 1990s, but her talent and abilities prevented her from such a fate, and her new album is evidence that she is one of today’s best artists.
There’s no reason in the world that fans of the Elephant 6 crew, XTC, the Green Pajamas or Robyn Hitchcock wouldn’t clasp Barbeau to their bosoms, especially not after hearing the marvelous Psychedelic Mynde of Moses.
Thousand Watt Stare releases their debut ep
Maxos Le Gervoïde has found in his music both means of poeticizing and channeling his storytelling but also pulling towards something wider than the little slice of province he springs from. But for the language these songs should be universal, as the themes are accessible to anyone.
After nearly three decades in the music business, Steve Wynn once again reaffirms his mastery of straight-up rock & roll on Northern Aggression, his latest LP with the Miracle 3.
The Austin quintet hasn’t expanded the boundaries of its jangle-heavy garage pop sound, but it has sharpened its songwriting skills considerably.
Rising from the dank netherworld of Delaware, Ape! is an exciting new addition to the ever-expanding tree of Sabbath-genome metal. Any fan of mid-fi doom and deserty shred will love this release.
When guitarist/songwriter Kurt Bloch retired the Fastbacks, it didn’t lessen his commitment to witty punk/pop.
Did anybody really expect a band as intense and volatile as Killing Joke to last 30 years?
It has a big, fat bass sound that stands out on nearly every track, rivaling the guitars for dominance and giving the album coherence.
A merely good album that still manages to put me in greater awe of its creators, as it makes more apparent than ever the slippery and mercurial nature of their writing and recording process.
The record uses the terminology of stage magic to take the listener through the Transcendental Argument for God’s existence, with each song covering a different aspect of the philosophy.
Thirty-six years after its release, Paul McCartney & Wings masterpiece receives the deluxe edition treatment it so rightly deserved, and serves as the beginning of a reissue campaign of his 1970s solo work.
Husker Du: The Story Of The Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock is the first book to tell the tale of the legendary Punk Rock band.
