There have been numerous books written about Athens-based R.E.M. dating back to the mid-1990s, but few seem as personal as the latest entry from former Athenian Robert Dean Lurie. The book strength is also, at times, its biggest weakness. The author, who moved to Athens, GA in the ‘90s, in part thanks to its burgeoning music scene, inserts his own narrative into some of the book. And while it can…
Does the world really need another psychobilly supergroup? Turns out, that yeah, we kind of do. The Bats, a trio made up of members from Nekromantix, The Brains, Rezurez and Stellar Corpses, churn through 20 (20!) songs on their debut, Bat Music For Bat People and the music manages to be catchy enough that hardly a moment drags here. Yes, they dig up the old genre tropes (“Graveyard Girl,” “Cemetery Man,”), but with a…
Over the course of the past four decades, Wreckless Eric has evolved from being that quirky Stiff Records signing – who managed to brilliantly bridge the distance between labelmates The Damned and Elvis Costello, with his punk rock ethos slathered in strong poppy hooks – to being a reliably poignant songwriter turning in one album after the next filled with smartly written-stories steeped in nostalgia and keen observations. Transience is…
Just two tracks into Umpteenth, the sophomore LP from Brooklyn-based Onesie, you’d swear this was an early ‘90s college radio rock find, sandwiched between Pavement and The Breeders. Across 11 tracks, the band play a beautifully-cohesive brand of Power Pop, but it’s clear they also have a strong affinity for some of the classic Glam and 1970s rock bands as well after listening to the chugging guitars on a song…
Despite breaking up nearly 10 years ago, there are still few bands from the ‘80s and ‘90s that can still command allegiance from the masses like R.E.M. Sure there are a slew of groups from that era that can brag about cult status, but R.E.M is among the few who have managed to hold on to their core early adopters from their I.R.S. years and bring along an entire generation…
Make no mistake, Portland’s TK & The Holy Know-Nothings are above all else a bar band. And quite possibly one of the best bar bands going at the moment. From the tear in your beer opening track, “Alone” to the boogie woogie vibe on a song like “Good Stuff,” there’s a song on Arguably OK to speak to just about anyone inside the bar. Elsewhere on the album, “Emanuel,” is…
South Jersey and Philly bands have long had a contrarian streak of playing music with no obvious allegiance to current fads or trends. The unfortunate mid-to-late ‘80s aside – a time when the region was deeply in the throes of hair metal – groups from Philly and the nearby Camden, NJ area have focused more on simply writing great songs, genres be damned, and creating intimate tight music scenes as…
Canadian artist Lucette has surrounded herself with some of the most talented names in modern Americana and country music – working with Dave Cobb on her 2014 debut and grabbing Sturgill Simpson to producer her latest record – but to call her music Americana or country would be a gross misstatement. Yes, there are hints of both here and there spread across Deluxe Hotel Room, but there’s also more liberal…
With his skin tight black jeans, leather biker jacket and Little Lord Fauntleroy jet black hairstyle, Brad Marino comes off one of the long lost Ramones on the cover of Extra Credit, his debut solo record. And the look is a pretty apt, as his songs can clearly match the Ramones in terms of catchy earworms. But unlike the boys from Queens, Marino digs much deeper into the crates for…
Megg Farrell readily admits it’s a crooked line that brought her to the sound she has now. She grew up a kid in New York jamming to indie rock and Riot Grrrl bands like Sleater-Kinney. A little later, camping and rafting through the South turned her on to Bluegrass and introduced her to the finger-picking style. Back in the Northeast, she started a band playing venues up and down the…
It’s hard to believe that Change of Pace, Andy Frasco’s latest LP comes on the heels of a break up and a realization that his cocaine-fueled lifestyle may need a little adjustment. From the opening funk-drenched title track and throughout most of the other 10 songs here, Frasco and his band have the same party vibe that has quickly attracted audiences across the globe over the past few years. But…
It’s been nearly 20 years since the Italian four-piece Peawees turned in their fantastically succinct argument that stellar garage and punk rock doesn’t belong to the ‘60s and ‘70s; Dead End City was a near-perfect expression of frenetic joy, anger, optimism and cynicism all trojan horsed in a dozen tracks. Originally released in 2001 on a small indie label in the Netherlands, it was tragically overlooked by just about most…
Mainstream Country music has gotten some bad press over the past few years because… well, it’s bad, sometimes dreadful. For the most part, it relies on clichés and unimaginative recycled themes and lyrics that appeal to the broadest, most unimaginative audiences out there. But then there’s those musicians that live in the shadows of Mainstream Country music – the authentic Americana bands, the Bluegrass groups that don’t give a shit…
Given today’s current sensitivities around, well, just about everything, it’s hard to image even a third of the movies profiled in Mike McPadden’s fantastically entertaining encyclopedia of teen comedies, Teen Movie Hell, ever being made. But for those who grew up in the ‘80s trying to catch a glimpse of nudity via scrambled cable movies on channels you didn’t subscribe to, or their slightly more watered down cinematic siblings on…
Scissor Sisters eponymous debut created quite a stir when it was unleashed on the world in 2004. It was an odd time for music, with Green going full rock opera on American Idiot, Avril Lavigne doing her best suburban bubble gum punk rock impression and a pre-douchebag Kanye West all competing for the attention of music buyers across the globe. Meanwhile, the New York-based pop/rock/dance Scissor Sisters came out of…
There’s certainly no big hole out there in the record collections of Rolling Stones fans when it comes to greatest hits albums. But if there’s any group in history of rock that would deserve yet another package of best of songs, it’s The Stones Honk collects a slew of hits (36 to be precise) that span the band’s 1971 classic Sticky Fingers up to their latest studio album 2016’s Blue & Lonesome.…
With their latest release, Rattlesnake, Canadian six-piece The Strumbellas have pivoted a bit away from their original neo-folk/alt country sound for a more pop sheen. And while this may cause some early adopters to walk away, it’s hard to ignore the charm and appeal of many of the tracks here. The album opener and lead single, “Salvation” is probably one of the band’s catchiest, most optimistic songs yet and a…
With Sotto Voce’s latest LP, Safety, it’s mastermind Ryan Gabos seems to have finally perfected his brand of moody, sometimes drowsy, pop music. The Pittsburgh native now holed up in Brooklyn (naturally), plays all of the instruments here, down to the programmed drum beats, and the result is a tidy satisfying collection of digestible pop ditties that swirl around long after you stop playing them. Residing somewhere between Yo La…
Just a year after the release of his 1974 comeback album, Professor Longhair – arguably one of the Big Easy’s most important exports – played a remarkable show on the deck of the Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, CA, at party hosted, oddly enough, by Paul and Linda McCartney. That March 24, 1975 set was recorded and released a few years later and would go on to help the…
If Tom Waits had been born and raised on boudin and Tabasco sauce somewhere in rural Louisiana, he’d sound a hell of a lot like Rod Melancon. On Pinkville, Melancon’s fourth and most personal LP yet, the Cajun Dylan delivers a powerfully searing collection of Southern Gothic, swamp rock with tinges of Americana. The album starts out slow with the two gritty opening songs, the title track and “Goin’ Out…