“Hammock sounds utterly unique, their shimmer and shine is all their own. All their releases are gems that stand on their own, each the next chapter in a series of dreamscapes.”
According to lore, Chinatown’s producer Robert Evans disliked Phillip Lambro’s original score so much, he hired Jerry Goldsmith to compose an entirely new one.
In 1970, Lee Hazlewood left his shambling record label Lee Hazlewood Industries, broken relationship with longtime partner Suzi Jane Hokom and the Vietnam War, which threatened to draft is only son, for the calmer pastures of Sweden.
“Cherry Red has become the archival label, in my humble opinion. In conjunction with Grapefruit Records, this fantastic compendium spanning four hours and eighty tracks has arrived. All manner of sounds inhabit the three disks, anticipating the fiftieth anniversary of the Summer of Love and chronicling a tumultuous 12 month period of music in the British Isles. “
Raised and formed in Atwater Village, Southern California, the five members of Wicklow Atwater have all been friends since childhood, resulting in a long-standing bond and natural chemistry rare for musical acts.
Though not necessarily a “singles artist” per se, Tim Buckley recorded 10 singles throughout his eight-year career.
New York-via-San Francisco’s Our Daughter’s Wedding only lasted from 1979-1984, yet, in those five years, they toured with Iggy Pop, U2, Duran Duran and The Psychedelic Furs, appeared on a budding MTV as guest hosts and delivered a synthpunk masterpiece that, sadly, became lost to time.
In 1979, James Chance & the Contortions delivered Buy, the seminal New York no wave album that bent brains and bones with its twisted take on post-punk, skronk and funk.
Inspired in part by the Coen brothers’ film, Fargo, Minnesota is a moody post-punk vision of the coldest and bleakest reaches of America.
“I find myself tapping my toes and bobbing my head as I listen, and the roots of all those Jason has worked with kind of come through. “Glori” even has a spot where the guitar reminds me of Swervedriver. And “Untry Love” is not unlike The Foo Fighters circa “Learning to Fly”.”
Darrin James trenchantly tackles timely American topics on his sonically dynamic and lyrically-blistering new single.
The echoed, East River Pipe-evoking bedroom recordings on Eric Bates’s one-man Turnsole’s self-titled, early 2016 debut are more defiantly delivered on this way different follow-up, an “abstract look” at the life of France’s tragic teen Joan of Arc.
Thalia Zedek teams up with Neptune’s Jason Sanford and Gavin McCarthy of Karate for an art-noise trio that recalls the heyday of ’90s Touch and Go while looking forward to a bleak, uncertain future.
The Deaner Album is a 110% Dean Ween joint- for good or ill. Adjust your attitude and dig in!
Bastion of the Los Angeles pop scene, David Steinhart, is back once again with his band The Furious Seasons, but this time jumping head first into a new style for the first time.
Veteran New Jersey-via-North Carolina soul singer Lee Fields returns with long-time collaborators The Expressions for yet another powerful album that sounds like it warped out of the ’70s.
Although One Track Mind hails from Norway, their sound actually sounds more like it comes from the suburbs of California or the housing projects of Scotland.
Just in time for the Halloween season, ’50s teen heartthrob Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon celebrates the legacy of Chicago horror host Svengoolie with a rockin’ theme song backed by LA’s rockabilly surf punk pioneers The Gears.
Three years after their side of a split 7” with Ethical Debating Society blew minds here in the US, London’s Skinny Girl Diet finally give us a full-length that fully delivers on everything promised on that initial release.
“It’s a sophisticated, elegant record, comprised of heavenly layers of calming tones and Daniel’s lovely voice. He has no problems hitting the high notes, and has a firm grasp on what makes a great pop tune.”
Athens, GA’s Muuy Biien show just how far they’ve progressed beyond their dark ambient/hardcore origins with a bona fide garage classic of a third full-length.
Self-described as having “a punk rock core made accessible with doo-wop inspired vocal lines,” and “a Billy Joel-approved lyricism…” it’s clear the band are comfortable with stretching the genre to its breaking point.
Nearly forty years after their inception and six years into their acclaimed reformation, Bristol, UK’s The Pop Group follow 2015’s excellent Citizen Zombie with the culmination of their entire two-part career.
Dark SoCal punk trio Girl Tears finally follow their excellent 2014 debut with an even angrier sophomore release.
Saskatoon party favorites have been pushing their unapologetic, if controversial, brand of raw garage punk since 1998, and their latest album, Get Off Easy, is no exception to the rule.
Bronx-based spastic punks Poor Lily reach new heights with an ambitious thirty minute punk rock opera about the NSA and mass surveillance.
A year after Tim Buckley delivered his 1966 eponymous debut on Elektra Records, the label asked for a followup album, as well as a standalone single.
Between 1973 and 1975, electronic composer/hi-nrg disco producer Patrick Cowley recorded several tracks with friend/occasional lover/adult film icon Candida Royalle for her performances with Warped Floors and White Trash Boom Boom, as well as The Angels of Light, a performance troupe that had splintered from the legendary Cockettes.
“A sometimes jumbled, often crazy, and dazzlingly brilliant, reminding completists and slighter fans alike what a towering talent Alex Chilton was. It will make you sad but also completely joyful that this archival collection exists.”
Shake It On Down_ rises above the majority of hard rock that deals solely with partying by deftly acknowledging the shadows of life it’s running from.
Gabriel Wolfchild sends a powerful, positive, – and timely, message into a world that is in dire need of unity and peace.
San Francisco’s Hornss follow their excellent 2014 debut with an even more powerful second offering that clearly shows the trio growing further into interstellar space.
Night and Day is the result of a band finding their voice, flexing their muscles, and the statement of two musicians learning to deal triumphantly with changes.
Iconic French guitarist/electronic music pioneer Richard Pinhas (Heldon) continues his collaborations with Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Masami Akita (Merzbow) by bringing them together for a constantly flowing album of droning industrial spacerock.
“The words are recessed so deep they become part of the melodic tapestry. It moves past like a shining skein of silk, and catches you up in its musical snare.”
A stunning debut, The Last Remaining Payphone in L.A. has all of the possibilities within it to make Logan Metz one of America’s next great troubadours.
In July 1971, Italy’s premiere singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti delivered an unprecedented concept album that would ultimately be the turning point in his career.
From Poor Moon in 2011 to Haw in 2013 to Lateness of Dancers in 2014, HGM has done nothing but become more clear eyed and full hearted. The proof is in Heart Like A Levee.
Berlin, Germany-based synth punk weirdos Puff deliver a strong debut full-length in both English and German that will make you dance while scratching your head.
London’s The Survival Code straddle the fine, and some would say, oft indistinguishable line between alt rock and punk, much in line with some of their influences like Deftones and Queens of the Stone Age.
Thugs They Look Like Angels is due out October 16th, and is an album that is as comfortably footed in the recent past as it is the present, thriving in both equally.
“The sound here is crystalline, airy, and expansive, seeming to spread over a long distance as it weaves its musical web around you.”
It’s the kind of record that quietly sneaks in your life and softly demands to be played every day…
In the midst of This Heat’s dissolution, drummer/vocalist Charles Hayward went into the group’s Cold Storage Studio to record some songs with sound engineer Stephen Rickard and bassist Trefor Goronwy, who had filled in on This Heat’s final tour.
Liam McKahey and Davey Ray Moor of reformed CousteauX spotlight their darkest, starkest cinematic track yet.
“It’s a summery affair, full of hazy, gentle vocals and endlessly pleasant melodies. It’s like the band has mainlined the entire Yo La Tengo catalog and maybe tossed in late period Feelies.”
