The guys in Lonely H started out as a garage band in Washington State, but over the years and albums, they have gravitated towards more of an alternative country sound. They can still rock, but there’s a bit more of a worn in, dust-crusted on the boots swagger with their songs now. And decamping to Nashville before working on this record has made the evolution that much more stark. …
The biggest and most welcoming surprise about Hold, the debut from Highness, is that it sounds very little like what you would expect, given the resume of its band members. Collectively, the group members have put in time with Darkest Hour, Christie Front Drive and City of Caterpillar, among others. And while Highness does take elements from all – emo, metal, post-hardcore, the sound is not an obvious carbon copy…
Though it may not have the cool back-and-forth mail delivery lore of The Postal Service’s one and only record, This is Thunder is still a testament to putting up with geographical barriers to cobble together a great record. And while The Postal Service juggled different time zones for an entire full length, for This is Thunder it was just a four-song EP and not a full album yet, but the…
In just over nine years, the wildly prolific lush pop (I honestly never know what to call this genre – Orchestra pop? Chamber pop?), Morning Bell has churned out four EPs and six full length. Aside from Willie Nelson and Ryan Adams, that type of pace hasn’t been kept by musicians since the 70’s and all those bands were likely locked in the studio thanks to fists full of speed.…
It’s been two years since Ben Folds got the band (the Five)back together and they’ve been making up for lost time, hitting the studio for last year’s The Sound of the Life of the Mind then doing a lap around the globe on their reunion tour. It appears Ben and the boys were kind enough to record those shows, so that they could give us Ben Folds Five Live (clever…
With Season 5, there are no new introductions of mythical creatures (I think we covered them all with the werepanther); the episodes aren’t as dark as some of the previous seasons and the sexual tension is not boiling over this time, but it is still one of the most addicting season yet. Vampire frenemies Bill and Eric are captured and tortured by the Vampire Authority, the group that rules over…
Yes’ Magnification, originally released in 2001 warranted a few footnotes in the bands decades-long history. It was the last studio album to feature longtime vocalist Jon Anderson, only the second record to feature a full orchestra and it is the only album to not feature a keyboardist (and this from a band who is known for their keyboards!). The album, one of the band’s strongest in the past 10 years,…
Guided By Voices and Built to Spill may by the go-to bands when someone’s trying to sing the praises of lo-fi music, but the New York-by-way-of-Chicago band Kleenex Girl Wonder – just as prolific as Robert Pollard and his boys, by the way – deserve just as much credit for all that’s great about the genre. Centered around singer/bassist Graham Smith – the one constant in the group…
Coming off sounding like an alt-country band playing grunge music after gobbling a handful of mushrooms, it’s hard to find another band today that sounds like Augusta, GA’s Dead Confederate. And why bother, when this five-piece does it so well. Yes singer Hardy Morris sounds eerily like Kurt Cobain reincarnated, but the band can write one hell of a jam. In the Marrow, their sixth album, is easily their…
If there were a PHD-level class in heavy metal Louder Than Hell would be the textbook. Intimidating in size, coming in at nearly 750 pages, this oral history of society’s favorite whipping boy musical genre is as fascinating as it is comprehensive. Beginning with the numerous bands who have been credited with founding the genre (from Black Sabbath to Iron Butterfly) and delving into just about every imaginable subgenre –…
British singer/songwriter David Ford is one of those musicians you can’t help but scratch your head at and wonder why this guy is not huge? His songs as catchy as hell while still coming across as giftedly witty (give album opener “Pour a Little Poison” 30 seconds and if you aren’t humming along, check your pulse). He can even wear the fedora better than Bruno Mars and all those other…
You can’t help but catch a strong “Me too!” vibe off of Stephen Pearcy’s memory of his time as Ratt’s founder and frontman (ironically, Ratt always had a “me too” vibe attached to their music as well, being seen as a carbon copy of Motley Crue, despite coming up from the same scene around the same time). Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll is Pearcy’s attempt to one up or at…
The small indie film Save the Date may have been lost among the massive budget holiday releases when it saw its brief theatrical release at the end of 2012, but it will likely get more attention now that it’s surfaced on DVD. This smart film follows two sisters (Alison Brie and Lizzy Caplan) who are dating best friends and band mates. When one of the friends successfully proposes to one…
It’s been nearly two decades since JD Pinkus left the Butthole Surfers, but he sure as hell hasn’t faded away. A fixture on the Austin music scene, Pinkus put in 10 years with the Daddy Longhead before putting that band out to pasture; He also played with Skinny Leonard and Areola 51, but his latest project Honky (why has there never been a band by this name yet?) is one of…
If it’s possible to revive the music from the 1970’s Laurel Cannon heyday, Detroit’s alt country band the Deadstring Brothers (I know, Detroit! Who knew?) are easily the best candidates to do so. You can almost see the pot smoke in the air when this one’s playing. Now calling Nashville home, the band’s latest, Cannery Row, is yet another solid release from these guys. Ten years, and a slew of lineup…
Dave Bry’s first book is so brilliant in its simplicity it’s pretty astounding no one has thought of it before – the apology genre. Though his execution is so deft it’s almost certain if anyone had attempted this before it would not be as nearly memorable. Yes, I realize there is nothing new about self-confessional essays, but an entire book of apologies? I think we’re breaking new ground here folks.…
China Beach has long topped lists across the Internet and in countless magazines of the most-requested TV show still not available on DVD, despite being off the air now for more than 20 years. Well, our long national nightmare is finally over. Star Vista has just turned over a massive, 21 DVD collection, boasting all 62 episodes of the critically-lauded show, commentaries, gag reels, a slew of interviews, a 25th anniversary…
U2 may come to mind first when you think of 1980’s political rock bands, but Australia’s Midnight Oil were just as strident about filling their songs with strong political point of views – not exactly the norm in a music decade obsessed with inane lyrics (lest we forget, hair metal was born and raised in the 80’s and killed in the early 90’s). Their biggest hits were about the mistreatment…
With all the excitement generated months before Record Store Day and the lines of folks waiting outside to get that their hands on vinyl the third Saturday of every April, you might have assumed the independent record store was doing just fine. As the documentary Bricks And Mortar And Love reminds us, in most cases, the small mom and pop record store is still barely surviving. The movie focuses on…
With the travesty that is erupting in Syria right now, the fascinating documentary A Whisper to a Roar can serve as inspiration to just how powerful average citizens can be when they decide to say “Enough is enough” to the political status quo. Justifiably praised at independent film festivals across the globe when it was first screened last year, the film by Ben Moses looks at political revolutions in Egypt,…