More quick takes on albums worthy of being more than just units in a discard pile.
Here are some quick takes on albums worthy of being more than just units in a discard pile.
This album was inspired by Merritt’s image of ’60s folk music – big-production folk with dazzlingly complex arrangements.
There’s a pastoral atmosphere to these eight tunes, a certain deliberate pace that belies any need for frenzied musicianship.
“Lucky Day” belongs in the same canon as the very best of HANK WILLIAMS or MERLE HAGGARD.
Not as pop-minded as NIRVANA, as psychedelic as SCREAMING TREES or as weird as SOUNDGARDEN, ATH nonetheless bears echoes of all three.
On Prior To the Fire, the follow-up to its debut album Hello Master, Priestess worships the almighty riff.
One of Europe’s longest running progressive rock bands, Germany’s ELOY return after a decade-long absence with Visionary.
The Myth and The Sum showcases a mature electronic slink compelled by moments of abyssal depth and seductive ethereality.
Love TOM WAITS, NICK CAVE and JIM WHITE? Then THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN is your new favorite band.
Obviously enamored of the early 70s Laurel Canyon sound, Barker amiably meanders through eight easygoing melodies that will neither set your teeth on edge nor induce eargasms
You don’t have to look much further than the title of both band and album to assume that what THEE AMERICAN REVOLUTION offers is trippy psychedelic rock.
STEVE CONTE is best known these days for filling the JOHNNY THUNDERS slot in the reconstituted NEW YORK DOLLS, but he has a musical resume stretching back nearly two decades.
My series on Middle Eastern black metal continues with a look at Egypt.
RICHARD JANKOVICH‘s day jobs include being a member of BURNSIDE PROJECT and a remixer to the stars.
This is the kind of music 80s college radio used to gobble up with a spoon, and well they should have.
Rykarda Parasol’s dark, rich voice, weathered as if by tragedy and time, leaves you weeping and grinning til the end as she drags you through the dusty back alleys of Gothic Americana.
The album is a flat-out gorgeous set of psych-tinged shoegazer pop tunes.
Jawbox’s distinctive combination of noisy, angular postpunk and tuneful, textured rock & roll reached a peak on this record.
Denver-based singer/songwriter OTIS TAYLOR has been expanding the boundaries of the blues for over a decade now.
TIN HUEY is the redheaded stepchild of Akron’s underground rock scene in the 70s.
A collaboration between old friends and a way to kill time between projects, 801 was a project set into motion by guitarist PHIL MANZANERA during ROXY MUSIC‘s mid-70s hiatus.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 40 years since KING CRIMSON essentially invented progressive rock.
It may not be Forever Changes, but it’s still great rock & roll.
Fielding a set of tunes from the band’s studio albums, Wilson and Geffen test their chemistry on stage in front of an adoring audience.
A spectacularly intense yet intimate performance by a still-hungry young artist on the rise.
The band freely mixes pop, prog, folk, psychedelia and jazz in ways that highlight the tension between styles as much as the compatibility.
Bluesy classic rock, no muss, no fuss and straight from the 70s.
Referred to as an “agnostic gospel” record by the group, the album collects tunes from the gospel tradition.
The eight song album (five originals, three covers) is, to my ears, her strongest release yet.
The Thief skillfully balances widescreen progressive rock structures with Bruce Soord’s heart-on-sleeve yearning.
The band cranks everything up: the volume, the jangle, the crunch and, most importantly, the melodies.
Saving soul and rock & roll from the histrionic hordes.
¡Let Freedom Ring! is his most stripped-down record in several years.
With Never Been, Lincoln’s FOR AGAINST continues down its chosen path, eschewing commercial rewards for more consistent and fruitful artistic ones.
Continuing on the same punked-up garage pop path of the Nerves, Peter Case and Paul Collins bang out a baker’s dozen power pop gems.
The latest album from Chicago instrumental rock quartet continues the trend begun on its last couple of records.
Not only does Reilly speak clearly, with close attention to the little details that always stand out in our minds, but his songs are damned catchy, full of old-fashioned hooks and melodies.
My series on Middle Eastern black metal continues with a look at Bahrain.
In fact, Speed is Everything may be the Lp of JEFF PEZZATI’s life and as a huge NAKED RAYGUN fan, I don’t say that lightly.
The second album from New York’s A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS doesn’t much expand on the sound of the first.
The idea of IDM is vague bordering on absurd, but when I first heard San Serac, somehow no label was more apt than Intelligent Dance Music.
Les Années’ hazy, shimmering acid pop nails the lysergic sensuality of the original wave of neo-psychsters.
The watchword for London’s CLIENTELE is consistency.
Australia’s LITTLE MURDERS was one of many mod revival hopefuls in the late 70s/early 80s.
Consisting of Hungarian, Polish and Italian natives living in London, OBIAT takes a non-regional approach to metal on Eye Tree π.
The music here is denser, heavily grounded in low drones; its thrums and buzzes are more genuinely industrial in tone than the Industrial genre ever was.
10 Neurotics has fourteen songs and revolves around themes of alternative sexuality.
My series on Middle Eastern black metal continues with a look at Saudi Arabia.
The band’s dramatic, melodic pop/rock – like anthems scaled down for coffeehouse listening – shines with intelligence, compassion, poetic weight and heart.
