These tracks comprise the demo that got Bergmann his record deal, presented as its creator intended.
Most of this Norwegian outfit is made up of members of the band BRISKEBY, but the group’s international interest comes from its singer, POSIES co-leader KEN STRINGFELLOW.
It’s a rush of noise around good-old-fashioned pop melody, and of course wrapped up at once with wishes, dreams, and hopes.
If it’s a rock-related style powered by sounds coming out of six strings on a piece of wood – blues rock, folk rock, power pop, prog rock, hard rock – this Oxford-based trio incorporates it.
We all saw this coming: MASTODON has finally let its prog flag fly high.
Echo & the Bunnymen, the Church and the Psychedelic Furs are touchstones, but don’t think that E.Joseph is merely a rip-off artist.
It’s easy to peg ASSEMBLE HEAD IN SUNBURST SOUND as a revival act, particularly of the kind of free-flowing, psychedelicized rock that proliferated in the late 60s and 70s before calcifying into arena rock.
When it comes to Seattle’s psychedelic icon the GREEN PAJAMAS, there are two things you can count on: the band is incredibly prolific, and everything it does is good.
Virginia’s PONTIAK could slot comfortably on the shelf next to envelope-pushing stoner rock bands.
Where do these great British pop bands come from?
What’s great about the Nigeria 70 compilations is that they give us a fuller context in which to view the stars.
This time, instead of being combined on one CD, 25 O’Clock and Psonic Psunspot are split into two separate discs, each with lots of bonus tracks.
A lot of compilations of this sort elicit a groan of “Not another one…” This set, however, should not.
Thorn crossbreeds Germanic space rock with the muscular power rock for which the Motor City is so well-known.
A collaboration between LUKE STEELE of THE SLEEPY JACKSON and NICK LITTLEMORE of PNAU.
It’s so damn difficult to mix African music with rock & roll. EXTRA GOLDEN gets the blend right on its third album.
While Sir Lord Von Raven is lonely, lonely, really lonely. He’s still very lonely. He’s Oakland lonely. Ocean lonely. Happy Parts Go-To-Bakeries Lonely. Fats Time Domino FLies Lonely. Chip Shoulder Glamour Grit Lonely. Dorian Grey Mike-The-Cat Lonely…Look him in the eyes, and ask him if he’s satisfied? Death-of-a-ladies-man Buster Poindexter lonely. Same-drummer-as-Brian-Glaze-lonely (Take him quiz question; does Jay Bronzini’s drumming style have anything particularly Italian about it?) Oh solo mio (lonely!).
The Morphine Berry Story is a perfect example of a fully realized individual vision of the blues.
Originally released on Creation in 1992, this awkwardly titled sophomore album is a fine examples of postpunk psychedelic rock/pop.
It’s some of the best power-pop I’ve ever heard and fans of the period and sound should run, not walk, to get this.
“Hills Like White Elephants” is the perfect folk pop hit single, at least in the universe I inhabit.
Adam Trice and his crew create finely honed, melancholy roots rock.
The MUSIC LOVERS should, by all rights, be major cult figures.
One of the great post-punk bands, 23 Skidoo probably owes its relative obscurity (compared to pals Cabaret Voltaire) to its frequent and radical style-shifts.
53rd State is Race’s 16th solo album, and it’s a damned good one.
One of the best compilation albums I’ve heard in a long time.
FLOWERS IN FLAMES may hail from Ohio in the ‘aughts, but its members’ hearts lie in England in the 80s.
Amazingly, this is the first time either of the band’s first two albums, originally released on Homestead in the mid-80s, have been on CD.
Fugitive Songs doesn’t have the immediate impact of past Jones classics like Fait Accompli, but repeated listens reveal its grimy charms.
Once known as the Years and signed to the currently bankrupt TVT Records, LIONS IN THE STREET left behind an onerous deal and a debut LP thrust into limbo for artistic freedom and a new life as an independent rock & roll unit.
Son of STEVE EARLE, named in part for TOWNES VAN ZANDT, JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE was probably consigned to a life in American music before he learned to walk.
Nightjar is Willson-Piper’s sixth album, and it’s a low-key gem.
Dear Catastrophe Waitress is one of the most moving works of fiction I’ve ever read.
Communion floods two sprawling CDs with powerhouse melodies and striking performances.
Outrageous Cherry’s most consistently engaging album, and that’s saying a lot.
The gorgeous music gives the impression less of an entry into despair than an exit out of the dark.
On their fourth album together, KOEN HOLTKAMP and BRENDON ANDEREGG construct sonic landscapes that mix their anti-virtuoso/timbre-focused playing of musical instruments, field recordings, and electronic treatments.
The Pittsburgh duo recalls the glory days of 70s combos like GOBLIN, POPOL VUH or even TANGERINE DREAM.
WEIRD OWL manages the neat trick of sounding retro and modern at the same time.
Genesis P-Orridge says goodbye and pays homage to Lady Jaye
It’s difficult to believe that In the Late Bright is only the eighth TOMMY KEENE studio album in a career that goes back nearly 30 years.
Here’s a third round of reviews posted here and nowhere else! In case you missed my last two posts, we had a nice backlog of several dozen reviews that there was not room for in the current issue 63, or we received the albums right as we were going to press. / Farewell, Lux Interior, a moving recollection by Marcel Feldmar!
The perpetually underrated LOVETONES return in style with their fourth album.
I don’t know about you, but I feel better knowing that the world has ROBYN HITCHCOCK in it.
Alan Jourgenson bids adieu to Ministry and revs up the glam machine.
It’s steeped in the more lush, melodic aspects of the Me Decade as Johnstone mixes and matches sonics borrowed from various CSN&Y, BIG STAR, POCO and PAUL MCCARTNEY records.
The album’s snarling, sexy attack is a lean, mean mélange of gritty 70s punk, aggressive garage rock and wide-eyed sleaze.
