John Amen – Ridiculous Empire / 2007 Self / 10 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/johnamen / After seeing the front of the cover of “Ridiculous Empireâ€, I was expecting something related to punk, something angry, and something that looked to change things. I was right, but on the last count. The style of music that John Amen plays on his “Ridiculous Empire†plays on the protest music of the sixties. “Harbingers and…
Audiocrash – Time Sensitive Material / 2008 Dirty Garage / 10 Tracks / http://www.audiocrashmusic.com / “My Fault†begins with little more than a guitar softly strumming. The vocals come in soon after, with a sound that blends equal parts current Bon Jovi and Geddy Lee. The style of music that Audiocrash plays is a very time-tested brand of rock music, ultimately current but playing heavily on the classic rock genre.…
In the Fall of 2007 Lights found themselves in Greg Weeks’ (Espers) Hexham Head studio in Philadelphia. With some analog tape and a little help from their friends, the band wove together their self-titled LP. The album is to be released (late Spring 2008) on Weeks’ Language of Stone label: M & D through Drag City in the U.S.; it’s being released on Andy Votel’s Twisted Nerve label (part of the B-Music collective)…
Hanging Like a Hex #17 ($3.95, 201 Maple Ln., N. Syracuse, NY 13212) First off, this zine is absolutely packed with all sorts of information, whether it be interviews with bloodlet, ted leo, milemaker (isn’t this like the third zine this issue to interview them?), the timeline about the 9-11 events, or the absolutely crazy amount of reviews that Ryan puts in this issue. Looking at the cover of this…
SUNDAY MORNING IN SATURDAY’S SHOES is Richard Julian’s follow up to his critically acclaimed SLOW NEW YORK. Produced by the legendary Mitchell Froom, the new album again showcases Richard’s confessional, whip-smart and witty songwriting prowess. Equally engaging on stage as on record, Richard kicks off a two-month long tour on March 8th.
David Crawford was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Centennial High School in Compton, California. David received a full scholarship to California Institute of the Arts and received a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Music, with a Flute Major.
Lazy Boy / $2.00 / 36S / :20 / gomek@comcast.net / I reviewed Dorothea #1 a few months back. Luckily Mike, the author of Dorothea, found the review and sent me “Lazy Boyâ€, a zine about Mike’s experience with sex, masturbation, and self-doubt. The original aim of Lazy Boy, as described in the one-sheet stapled to the back cover, was to “be a gay men’s magazineâ€. I personally like the…
Having gone platinum in the UK, Kate Nash’s Paul Epworth produced debut saw its US release via Geffen on January 8th and debuted at #36 on the Billboard album charts.
One of R&B’s brightest stars, J. HOLIDAY will hit the road for a nationwide tour with very special guest TREY SONGZ. The 21-city tour, which launches February 25th in Chicago, will criss-cross the U.S. through late March, giving fans across the country the chance to experience the thrill of this electrifying performer up close and personal.
Guff #2 / $2.99 / :25 / 28M / weja5@yahoo.com / The style in which Jeff draws eir comics is interesting, to say the least. For me, I think that it seems that Jeff’s pages are too small for the amount of material that ey put in the issue. Everything is very detailed, and as a result, individuals have to strain their eyes to pick up all the nuances of…
Steve August, Jazz Pianist, composer and arranger and author resides from beautiful Northern Michigan and has performed in the area for over 20 years in clubs, resorts and in concerts. He performs often in a solo as well as a group setting. He has performed with many of his own Jazz trios and Jazz quartets and as a sideman in various settings. He recently achieved a Master of Music degree…
PROTEST THE HERO announces that they will be playing the Ernie Ball stage every day of this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. The Whitby, Ontario five-piece is touring in support of FORTRESS (1/29/08), their sophomore Vagrant release that debuted at #1 in Canada and #95 in the U.S.  Protest The Hero just wrapped up a sold-out Canadian tour with Silverstein and as the tour moves south, their first U.S. date…
The second round of artist announcements has been made by the A3C Hip Hop Festival premiering the legendary Jeru The Damaja, with Southeastern underground stars, Little Brother and recent Atlantic Records signee, B.o.B. Further propelling the festival into the role of showcasing the best in Hip Hop today, the A3C is solidifying its place in the festival world as an event which features the newest emerging artists coupled with established…
Steaming Dookies is an ongoing techno industrial electronic project founded by me, Billy Pfrommer, a lifelong Chicago musician who, for the last 5 years, have been known to most of the area as the party animal side man and rhythm guitarist for Chicago punks Genral Patton and His Privates. After many tours of active duty with the Privates, I decided to try my hand at electronica, and almost overnight, developed…
Grrrl: A Novel / $13.95 / 260M / 2:00 / Grrrl has a pull quote from the magazine of the publishing company with which it is affiliated. That is a conflict of interest. However, it is meaningless in regards to an interview. Whiteford, the author, did a zine called Matilda for a few years. This book is the story of Marlie, a 10th-grade student (at the time) that jots journal…
FESTIVAL is the work of Brooklyn-based sisters, Alexis and Lindsay Powell and Come, Arrow, Come! is their debut release. The album was recorded in Nashville with engineer and co-producer Jeremy Ferguson of Battle Tapes Recording and is being released on Greg and Jessica Weeks’ Language of Stone label in Spring 2008.
Jeremy Jay resides in Angel town, next to Larchmont where he hang out. He’s tall (6’3) blond (really) and handsome and wants a cat for his apartment. He writes and plays piano and guitar. He says one of his favorite things to do is drive around with the moonroof open and listen to music with his friends. It seems that hes both a small town boy and a big city…
Kaz is an award winning songwriter born in Scotland but now living in Australia. She won the first prize in The Great American Song Contest, Pop category, in 2003. Kaz was born in Dundee, Scotland but now calls Melbourne Australia home. It took many years of writing and performing before finally getting into the recording studios. The result was “The Dinner Party”, recorded with a superb band of session musicians…
Kassin+2 – Furismo / 2008 Luaka Bop / 17 Tracks / http://www.luakabop.com / This is the third album by the +2s (each member of this trio has had an album named after them), and it becomes obvious that the act is hitting on all cylinders. Where we live in a period of song titles that have little to do with the song themselves, the opening salvo (“Tranquiloâ€) perfectly matches the…
Not since the late 1960s and early 1970s has there been a musical artist who so completely spoke for an entire generation. After the breakup of the Beatles and the tragic deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, there were few music icons left of their magnitude – until the meteoric success of Nirvana and their breakthrough Nevermind. Following Kurt Cobain’s suicide three years later, Kurt became the…