UK indie pop outfit Jody and the Jerms are hot to trot with their new single ‘Started Something’, the first taste of their forthcoming full-length album ‘Wonder’, out in April via their own JATJ Records imprint.
UK indie rock troubadour Withered Hand presents his uplifting new single ‘Waking Up’, released on February 14 via Reveal Records, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The accompanying video was filmed on location in Portobello, Edinburgh by Juliana Capes.
Pianist Jean-Michel Pilc is well-known for eschewing setlists in performances, making up the program – and often the music – as he goes along, trusting in his sidepeople to follow.
His range of study encompasses everyone from Charlie Christian and Wes Montgomery to Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, and it shows in both his performance and his compositions.
Though well known as a composer and a stalwart of the Chicago jazz scene, trumpeter Markus Rutz owns one advantage that trumps everything else: he sounds good.
bdrmm’s new single, “It’s Just a Bit of Blood” meanders and surges with epic dream pop— and shoegaze—drenched results. Now we have to wait til June 30th for the LP, “I Don’t Know”.
This Seattle five-piece’s first two albums, 2019’s Over the Bar and 2020’s Straight In/Straight Out so wowed Elvis Costello’s Attractions and Imposters keyboardist Steve Nieve, he supplied alluring piano to this third LP’s soulful ballad “Harder Than the Truth.”
Swing Your Lanterns channels several spirits from seventies and eighties New York, reflecting Julian’s own versatile experiences.
The appearance of the Chicago group’s second full-length Dion’s Quest is more than welcome.
The guitarist plugs his instrument into synthesizers and boards of electronics, creating a fascinating series of soundscapes that seem to have dropped in from another reality entirely
Pianist Fred Hersch is revered for his compositional, improvisational and technical talents, a jazz musician’s jazz musician. Singer/bassist/songwriter Esperanza Spalding has used her massive talent to bridge the worlds of jazz and, well, everything else.
As well as being a bandleader in his own right, bassist Ander Jormin anchors the long-running Bobo Stenson Trio. Singer, songwriter and violinist Lean Willamark has joined her fellow Swede on numerous occasions, co-leading a quartet with koto player Karin Nakagawa and Jormin’s Stenson Trio rhythm partner, drummer Jon Fält.
Shelkett’s career in the Baltimore emo scene goes back 30 years, having fronted and released albums with Blank, Cross My Heart, Dead Red Sea, and Liars Academy; this debut solo LP was produced by hardcore/punk vet J. Robbins.
Hammock and The Reds, Pinks, and Purples have each recently released music around the theme of “the void.” Hammock writes of “love in the void” while RPP sings of “life in the void.” With uncannily similar themes from music released just a few days apart, the results are outstanding and dramatically different. Dive in.
A tenor sax ace and Hammond B-3 queen team up to make feelgood soul jazz.
Chambers channels melodies and rhythms from South American, Latin American, and African sources, and makes them all come out hard bop.
Her rich voice and intimate lyrics evoke a 1970s flower-child spirit with a fresh layer of uplifting pop. Comparisons to Jennifer Harper’s motivational music include Carly Simon, Carole King and Sarah McLachlan.
After listening to even a few of Harper’s missives, it’s all too easy to fall in love with her contemplative, assured artistry. That’s especially apparent on her second album, Change Is Coming, which Harper is currently supporting.
This live set captures a summit meeting of iconoclastic musicians as it happened nearly 30 years ago at the famed and influential Montreaux Jazz Festival. The concert predates and foreshadows a classic album for fans of ’90s fusion.
The Candle and the Flame, the eight solo album from former Go-Betweens co-leader Robert Forster, was made under trying circumstances: Forster’s wife Karin was battling ovarian cancer.
Sky’s Rust transcends genres and resists categorization but it will easily appeal to fans of Romeo Rage’s influences.
A bassist and composer of some twenty-five years’ standing, Ben Wolfe has attracted as much acclaim for his compositions as for his playing, with a career in chamber music alongside his jazz work.
One of the hidden jewels of the urban Northeast, the Royal Arctic Institute returns with From Coma to Catharsis, a sequel of sorts to its prior EP From Catnip to Coma.
On their eighth album, this Auburn/Finger Lakes, NY outfit, led by husband and wife co-lead singers Terry Cuddy and Beth Beer, further sharpens the stylistic breadth shown on 2019’s Sleeping World.
New York, NY: Pop-rock artist, Actor, Elite model, popular podcast host, and all-around shero Demi Ramos has already dropped the song of the summer with the infectious indie banger “Just a Phase.”
Though better known around his home base of Baltimore than in the rest of the world, guitarist Skip Grasso clearly commands respect.
Born in Tehran, Iran to a Persian Father and an Italian Mother his family fled when Moezzi was four years old, he grew up in Salinas, CA, and attended college in Washington DC. His lifelong love affair with music was sparked by sneaking into a BB King performance as a kid and mentoring by a member of Richie Valens’ family from the Backyard Blues Band. It’s a cultural and creative journey that is reflected in the music of his latest release, Funky Papu.
Bob’s 1997 return to form, remixed and supersized.
Dismissing any notion of the conglomeration being a one-off, the quartet returns, with Scott Robinson in place of Allen Lowe, for sophomore effort No Subject.
Scottish drummer Sebastian Rochford was inspired – nay, compelled – to write the music for A Short Diary after the loss of his father, poet Gerard Rochford.
With a ton of jazz veterans and soul luminaries on her resumé, it’s no surprise Lakecia Benjamin comes across as assured and confident in her abilities and her message on Phoenix, her fourth album as a leader.
Based in Lille, France, this duo of Lola (singer/guitar/bass) and Alex (bass/guitar) worked in video production at the Academy of Cinema; since 2020, they’ve been releasing singles of their narcoleptic, sinuous dreampop, a dozen of which are collected here.
Though it’s been disputed, it’s said that composer Johann Sebastian Bach preferred the clavichord over the harpsichord or the piano as an instrument for his compositions.
Over the course of forty-odd minutes, the duo make all kinds of noises, from pick scrapes and mouthpiece burps to rumbling fret taps and haunting legato – but rarely do they descend into straightahead noisemaking.
Globus have really delivered a rollercoaster ride of an album that surpasses the already high bar set by the band.
Discovered in 2005 at age 17 by Trent Reznor — she’s opened three Nine Inch Nails tours — L.A.’s multi-talented Carré Callaway (who’s also an actress, sculptor, podcaster, and skincare product founder) has released three albums as Queen Kwong.
Clay Joule is back with a new single, Realm, again blending great music with a poignant and timely message.
For its fiftieth anniversary, groundbreaking collective Art Ensemble of Chicago staged a special concert in a country near and dear to their hearts.
On Mercy, Cale brings his classical training and avant-garde sense of pop music into the 2020s, collaborating with younger artists and generally making it clear he’s paying attention to modern music without jumping on trends.
The King struts his stuff on big stages and goes small behind the scenes.
Tyler Mitchell may be a longstanding member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, but the bassist also leads his own bands, often with his Arkestra boss Marshall Allen in tow.
Part of the new generation of ECM players taking the label tradition down new trails, Mette Henriette presents her second album.
The production on the album was aided by Tony Maimone of Per Ubu, and the songs truly benefit from a bombastic, larger-than-life sound. Lord Sonny the Unifier truly outdid himself here.
At 79, piano great Kenny Barron has been around long enough to let over forty years pass since the last time he did an unaccompanied solo album.
Most notably the bassist in the reformed lineup of Psychic TV from 2003-2020, Hoboken, NJ-raised Alice Genese now shares lead vocals in this Asbury Park-based outfit with Pretoria, South Africa pianist/artist Shaune Pony Heath.
London psychedelic pop artist Black Market Karma announces their upcoming tour with The Black Angels as they gear up for the band’s eleventh full-length album Friends In Noise, an international collaboration rooted in friendship and spontaneity, to be released via London boutique label Flower Power Records.
Old Town Crier (aka Jim Lough) quietly put out the “You” EP last summer. Over the Christmas break I listened in enthusiastically and asked him to tell us all about it, and what’s next in 2023.
It’s insane to record something with a scale this large, but What Strange Beasts executes their vision with skill and ingenuity that is truly awe-inspiringly impressive.
College rock / power trio ON have released their self-titled ON album, via Indiestructable Records, which ON guitarist Steve Fall says is “a document of friendship navigating explores in pain, and hope. Looking at the world with a collaborative effort to document what we see, witness and feel through songwriting and chemistry as a band.”
What better way to announce the new year than with a letter? South Carolina -based alternative pop duo The Yets are doing just that with their new video for “Letter To A Boy”. This is the latest offering from their self-titled EP, a six-track debut offering indie pop sensation and sonic temptation with a fresh but seemingly familiar adult alternative vibe.
Singer/keyboardist Joe Darone, once the teen drummer of Totowa, NJ’s The Fiendz and later for New York City’s The Rosenbergs, follows up 2020’s fifth LP Hide and Seek with this spirited two-song digital single.
