Chip Raman – Edge of a Song / 2007 Rosebud / http://www.chipraman.com / It has been quite a while since a straight-forward chap with a guitar sounded this was. Individuals will hear a lot of the sixties (Neil Young, Bob Dylan) in Raman’s style. Obviously, Young or Dylan never said anything about opening up their Nokia, but the style of Raman is unmistakenly influenced by these two giants of rock.…
Range Life Records to release “Smoke Rings” November 6th, 2007. “Adrianne Verhoeven” has spent her music career lending her vocal and keyboard chops to bands like The Anniversary, Art in Manila, and Fourth of July but “Dri” as Adrianne is known to her friends has spent her 20’s seeing the world, falling in and out of love, getting lost in the hazy days and buzzed nights of Lawrence, Kansas and…
Bay Area rapper and Atlantic Recording artist, Mistah F.A.B. wowed a packed crowd at New York City night club SOB’s when he championed a freestyle battle, Tuesday night (9/18). Steve “Raze” Julien, EVP of Multimedia & Digital Content at AllHipHop.com invited F.A.B. to participate after seeing him perform at the 2007 Ozone Awards, “I saw him close down the Atlantic suite with the illest freestyle I had heard in a…
I got this tape at the punk rock show over at Jeff Kells house and boy am I happy that I got this tape. It is typical 3rd wave punk guitar chords (i.e Blink 182) and lyrics, but all together they make a really good and professional sounding tape, which is hard to do on a maxell tape.The guitars are very fast paced, and they compliment the vocals amazingly. This…
Howard Zinn – Voices of a People’s History of the USA / 2006 MVD / 120 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / Reviewed 20 March 2006 At first glance, there is not much in the way of glitz or glamour on this DVD. However, each of the speakers on “Voices of a People’s History of the USA†are the masters of rhetoric, so that every line drives chills up a viewer’s spine.…
MON 11/12 WASHINGTON, DC Black Cat TUE 11/13 BALTIMORE, MD Ottobar THU 11/15 PHILADELPHIA, PA First Unitarian Church FRI 11/16 NEW YORK, NY Blender Theater @ Gramercy SAT 11/17 ATLANTIC CITY, NJ House Of Blues Harlem Club
Dave Sasscer – Quiet Mind / 2007 Self / 10 Tracks / http://www.davesasscer.com / Dave Sasscer is the lynchpin of the eponymous project that released “Quiet Mind†this year. Joining Sasscer are the Mojo Conga Jam, a group of talented musicians that have spent time in the supporting acts of the Indigo Girls, Shaun Mullins, Omar Hakim, and Hiram Bullock. The first track on “Quiet Mind†is “(When) She’s in…
SF singer/songerwriter receives raves from Rolling Stone and pens song for Cam Archer-directed film Armed with little more than an acoustic guitar and her fragile alto, San Francisco folk singer/songwriter Emily Jane White offers complex tales of melancholy and isolation. While comparisons to contemporaries like Cat Power and Hope Sandoval are frequent, Emily’s music owes a clear debt to classic female jazz and blues singers such a Billie Holiday. The…
Wordplay / 2006 IFC Films / 85 Minutes / http://www.wordplaythemovie.com / http://www.ifcfilms.com / If individuals did not know that this film was documenting real life individuals discussing a real life thing (Will Shortz’s crossword puzzles), individuals would likely think that this is yet another mockumentary from an individual like Christopher Guest. The absurdity of this topic is definitely present, and while this film has more than its fair share of…
Kanekoa, the Hawaiian Rock Band from the North Shore, Maui, fronted by two ripping electric ukuleles will release their debut Major Hana Records album, “Under The Coconut Sky”, on November 6th, 2007. “Under The Coconut Sky” is distributed by Fontana/Universal and is available now, exclusively on iTunes.
Lorrie Ruiz – Chewy / 2007 Self / 10 Tracks / http://www.chewyonline.com / The funk meets jazz sound of “Slipping Away†gives first-time listeners to Lorrie Ruiz a good grounding in the styles that will present themselves throughout “Chewyâ€. While Ruiz does craft a sound that is rooted heavily in earlier music styles, the resulting music does not sound dated in the least. Instead, the allure of a “Slipping Away 
First to Leave have announced several tour dates in support of their October 9th release, “Forging a Future.” The band will embark on a west coast tour with long-time friends Fireworks. Following these dates, the band will head to Japan for a series of performances with Lifetime. For those of you on the east coast, don’t sweat it, more tour plans are in the works. In the meantime, here are…
Velvet Underground – Under Review / 2006 MVD / 84 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / Where I did not know much of anything about Captain Beefheart for the first Under Review DVD, I am a little bit more familiar with the Velvet Underground. I even have their disc with Nico; would this DVD still have the same magic considering I know about the band? Just as in the other “Under Review 
3 Mile Scream have announced their new headlining tour dates in support of their Corporate Punishment debut, A Prelude To Our Demise. The band will be touring throughout Canada in October and November. 3 Mile Scream is currently putting the finishing touches on their sophomore album, which is due for release in early 2008. The album was produced by Cryptopsy guitarist Christian Donaldson, who recently produced The Agonist’s Century Media…
Onesidezero – S/T / 2007 Corporate Punishment / 13 Tracks / http://www.onesidezero.com / http://www.corporatepunishment.com / Onesidezero start off their self-titled album with a musically heavy track in “Carry Your Gunâ€. When the band throws the vocals into the mix, what results is something that does not mesh completely. The vocals struggle to approximate the roughness of the instrumentation. This means that there are two distinct threads present in this opening…
After releasing two records mainly as a side project, the band got together in the months before Hurricane Katrina to start working on new material. The band reconnected in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina with a newfound purpose and focus on DOWN, and began work on their most ambitious record to date. Having already tapped Warren Riker, who produced their 2nd release, DOWN II-A Bustle in Your Hedgerow,…
V/A – Skate & Surf Fest Vol 1 / 2005 Radiotakeover / 22 Tracks /http://www.radiotakeover.com / http://www.highrollerstudios.com/ The Skate & Surf Fast DVD is more of a collection of live videos for famous bands (Midtown, Armor For Sleep) than an actual film. Sure there are interviews interspersed throughout the tracks, but by and large the disc feels like a promotional video for a smattering of Militia Group and Drive-Thru bands.…
Chicagoland’s “seminar on power pop,” ANITA, is preparing to hit the road in October to preface the release of their new EP, “Are We Not Human.” The newly slimmed-down trio is as diverse musically as they are geographically, with influences drawn from bands like the Kinks, Cheap Trick, The Mamas and the Papas and Oasis.
Seattle’s progressive youth group, The Fall of Troy will be traveling the country with their Equal Vision labelmates Coheed and Cambria on a North American tour this fall. Sandwiched between the two prog-punk bands on the tour is Maryland’s blue-collar rock band, Clutch.
John Phillips – Jack Of Diamonds / 2007 Phoenix / http://www.varesevintage.com / This album marks music from John Phillips’ “Jack of Diamondsâ€. For those that might not know, this was a previously unreleased album that marked music that Phllips created from 1972 and 1973, and was unreleased for whatever reason.  Varese Vintage here has not only committed the disc to the CD format, but has added 5 new tracks, whether…