The Seattle quintet’s punk-infused (but nowhere near dominated) sugar rush has more in common with, say, the REAL KIDS or the BOYS than JELLYFISH or the Big Deal roster.
The lure of two guitars, bass, drums and a batch of simple pop hooks remains irresistible to so many young men.
Man Overboard is a mature collection of tunes from a master craftsman.
It seems like a lazy way to put it, but if you dig “Our House,” the massive early 80s U.S. hit from U.K. darlings MADNESS, you’ll appreciate the band’s latest album.
New doesn’t have to be new, if that makes sense; or, familiar-sounding music is still new if you haven’t heard it before.
I continue my series on Middle Eastern black metal with a look at three Lebanese bands.
Bluesman BIG BILL MORGANFIELD is the son of the great MCKINLEY MORGANFIELD, better known as MUDDY WATERS.
Austin’s NEW ROMAN TIMES continues the American love affair with British guitar pop on its debut album.
Damron’s third record Father’s Day is full of characters on the losing end of life.
I continue my series on Middle Eastern black metal with three Isreali bands.
Following up their self-titled compilation of EPs, the New York/Australia quintet the MORNING AFTER GIRLS unleash Alone, as fully formed a debut statement as one could wish for.
They were basically a modern classical chamber group playing written music, but they played at rock clubs, and despite the unusual instrumentation Birdsongs rocked hard – in a looping, minimalist way.
It would be easy to fly the folk flag over singer/songwriter LINDA DRAPER‘s music. But that would belie her associations with outsider artists.
The New Zealand quartet’s seventh album isn’t as jangly as I remember them being; it’s a moody proposition with songs that require multiple listens to sink in.
Murdering Oscar shows Hood as having too many good songs to be confined to one project.
I begin my series on Middle Eastern black metal with three bands from Iran.
Will SCOTT MCCAUGHEY ever get his just due as a songwriter and record-maker?
If you’re a neo-classic rock group, you’re duty-bound to attempt a double album at some point.
If you’re a neo-classic rock group, you’re duty-bound to attempt a double album at some point.
Despite the unconventional lineup, there’s little on this album that breaks any boundaries or alters perceptions.
There’s nobody like CURRENT 93. DAVID TIBET‘s long-running project occupies its own unique place in the universe, and he’s no compunctions about leaving the doors open and letting anyone inside.
A ridiculously accessible, often stunning collection of power pop tunes that can stand proudly beside tracks from acknowledged masters.
While nobody’s going to mistake these sounds for Bach, I’d argue that they’re closer to classical music than to rock.
SY has a great sound, and even when the lyrics are silly or lackadaisical, Lee and Thurston’s distinctive guitar timbres push all the right buttons. They invented this sound/style, and despite all the bands influenced by it over the past three decades, they’re still the best.
It’s easy to be skeptical about the quality of an artist whose advocates tend to run toward the breathless. But Rhodes lives up to the hype.
Darkness is most effective when contrasted against the light.
It’s easy to be skeptical about the quality of an artist whose advocates tend to run toward the breathless. But Rhodes lives up to the hype.
The British quintet owes its longevity to two factors: a devotion to the traditional sounds and arrangements of prog and an emphasis on melody over gratuitous soloing.
Ultimately, Frames comes down to loud guitars, forthright emotional content, shifting arrangements and anthemic melodies.
NELS CLINE may be best known for his often spectacular lead guitar stylings in WILCO, but he’s been a leading figure in avant-garde jazz and rock for almost three decades.
Now that DEVIN TOWNSEND has laid his many projects to rest, he can worry less about which tune fits which sobriquet and just thrown everything he likes onto one album.
LIAM MCKAHEY was the voice of the forever-bubbling-under British band COUSTEAU.
Blacklist’s medium is a message not only of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, but of geo-politics, socio-cultural dynamics, and revolt.
The quartet sounds little like either of its forebears, instead traversing the mysterious terrain between late 60s psychedelia and early 70s hard rock.
Kamp is a triple threat: a fine singer, a frightening multi-instrumentalist and a strong songwriter.
Certainly the 40th anniversary of Astral Weeks deserved to be celebrated, but conceptually, it was a bit odd to present one of the most intimate albums in rock history at the Hollywood Bowl, capacity 17,376. But what could’ve been a disaster proved a triumph.
Singlewide emphasizes writing over clatter, as the guitar-crazy group turns down its amps and lets tunes speak louder than power chords.
What’s been interesting about this project is that, despite the co-conspirators’ progressive metal credentials, the work leans far more in the direction of atmosphere and melody than heavy histrionics.
Blackshaw sees the guitar as a tool for conveying his melodic ideas, not a method of showing off his technique.
Franklin’s self-styled “Bolts of Melody” strike straight and true, with little frippery to get between tune and eardrum.
Cause I Sez So is that difficult milestone in a band’s career: the follow-up to a successful comeback album.
There’s a real feeling of warmth threaded throughout this mostly (but not solely) acoustic album, the kind of feeling that comes only from musicians who trust each other.
The eight feet of the men in the CHURCH have long stood in several worlds, which is what makes the long-running Australian band’s music so consistently interesting and satisfying.
Lloyd and his gang mix ‘n’ match a bit of Big Music melodrama here, some Britpop hookiness there, wrapped in contemporary production sheen.
It’s too bad the magazine No Depression is no more, as OLD CALIFORNIO would surely be one of its cover stars.
California’s A.M. VIBE shivers in the embrace of a dual love.
GREG and THOM come off as a snarky SIMON & GARFUNKEL here, and that’s not a bad thing.
The couple’s lush, widescreen music fills the air the way warm water fills a bathtub.
UNITED BIBLE STUDIES hearkens back to a unique time in the U.K.’s musical history, when bands were cross-pollinating native folk music with the more adventurous side of progressive rock.
