The Fruit of the Loom parody “Blue” is so dead-on that it reveals the utterly formulaic nature of the style, capturing especially well the necessity for a high, plaintive, angst-ridden, frankly wimpy vocal.

The Gold Record is golden and ranks as one of the best records I’ve heard this year.

While Corvette made a successful return to the spotlight in 2001, she has only recently released her first new material in decades on the LP Back to Detroit. Now playing as NIKKI CORVETTE AND THE STINGRAYS, she and her band floored me on the Brooklyn stop of their recent promotional tour.

This is SONIC YOUTH’s third consecutive excellent album. They haven’t had a run that good since Evol/Sister/Daydream Nation.

The shoegaze revival continues with this Brooklyn band’s sophomore release. If I’d been told that Asobi Seksu translated as “we love instrumental codas,” I’d’ve believed it.

It’s one of the least straightforward albums Keene has made, and is easily the most straightforward, bordering-on-conventional, album that Pollard has ever made. It’s this balancing act that has led to a certain type of magic—not groundbreaking, but truly satisfying.

There’s an exceptional amount of style-hopping, from track to track and within pieces as well, and Charlie Hunter shifts his sound so often he sounds like three or four different guitarists.

This 78-minute, 27-track compilation opens aptly with the classic “Joe Hill,” proclaiming that the Industrial Workers of the World leader’s spirit lives on, despite his execution.

You don’t put a 100-voice choir on your album, its members singing to the heights of their voices, if all you’re trying to do is express anger.

Mostly this sticks to the older, and musicologically primary, definition of ballad: a narrative song. These include some of the most famous American folk songs, and American characters: “Casey Jones,” “Staggerlee,” “Frankie and Johnny.”

They set up their equipment on the floor, so the only people who could see them were those who stood right near them.

It’s always a welcome event when JAMES “BLOOD” ULMER’s genre-twisting harmolodic trio reunites for a rare recording session.

Much is the same on Ringleader of the Tormentors as in MORRISSEY’s past work: an obsession with love, death, hope, and anguish. But much is different—and in general, this is for the better.

This can’t really be called a “Best Of” without including any of LOU RAWLS’s hits, nor can all of the tracks here be termed either jazz or blues. None of this matters, though, because there are three things that matter more…

With that many films shown across 13 days, who could see enough to summarize the festival? All I can give is a summary of what my Philadelphia film festival was like.

One of the greatest songwriters in country music delivers his first album of new songs in eleven years with simple and direct arrangements that intimately and honestly frame his masterful lyrics.

Each piece can only use one note, in octave, but other than that the musicians have free reign. The results so far have been fascinating.

Showtunes is the right name because it simply states the fact of it: this is Merritt writing songs for actual works of theatre instead of imaginary ones.

I’m particularly happy to have this on CD because it’s the only album I’ve ever truly worn out on vinyl, a quarter-century ago when I was in college. Back then, I’d never heard a solo piano record like this May 11, 1972 session, and it’s still unique to me.

I couldn’t have asked for a better first show at South-by-Southwest.

The general spirit of Bro Zone is that of progress, of combining styles and genres in exciting ways. And of creating what you feel, making the music you want to.

Going as strong as ever, 18 years after their first recording was released, Seattle’s long-lasting grunge heroes have tweaked their formula with excellent results.

Pandora.com’s stated mission is “To help you discover new music you’ll love.” Based on my couple of hours using the site, I can say it does just that.

Lewis directs her doubt upward at a hypothetical, likely non-existent god, outward towards friends, lovers, the government, and religious leaders, and inward towards herself.

Everything on Pohlitz was played and processed in real time, with no overdubs or pre-programming. While it is definitely a drummer’s album, it is a truly musical experience in which drumming is the means, not the end.

This wonderfully textured music takes me back to the early 1990s, when bands such as SWERVEDRIVER, SLOWDIVE, and KITCHENS OF DISTINCTION erected brooding, monumental mid-tempo song-sculptures.

The highlight of these new monologues is a piece where ERIC BOGOSIAN plays an aging ex-rock star whose wild days are behind him

THE CAPSTAN SHAFTS are no mere GUIDED BY VOICES rip-off. Ultimately what makes their music so compelling isn’t the style of it, but the songs.

Rock School is a documentary about music teacher PAUL GREEN’s Philadelphia-based school of the same name, which teaches children ages 9-17 how to play rock music.

If you’re looking for something to warm you up, look no further than THE LONG WINTERS’ hot new EP.

This three-CD set of three concerts offers a thrilling look back at different eras of this long-running group (16 years), and some amazingly compelling music.

As one of the three greatest living jazz violinists, leader BILLY BANG is a major attraction on this valuable reissue, his bluesy tone and harmonic sense always making him immediately identifiable and irresistible.