In 1994, Liz Phair was coming off of one of the most critically-lauded debuts of the decade. With expectations set incredibly high, she put out the follow up, Whip-Smart, just 15 months later and while she could never escape the comparisons to Exile in Guyville, decades later, that second album still remains a gem. UMe, alongside Capitol is finally re-releasing a trio of Phair records from her time with Capitol.
There are sadly way too many stories out there similar to the tale of the boys in Zuider Zee. A Memphis-based power pop band that started recording in the early 1970s, Columbia Records released their one and only album in 1975, a self-titled LP that should have been big, considering the success of other power pop like Cheap Trick, Badfinger and The Raspberries. The band also curiously opened for the…
Memphis-based roots rocker John Paul Keith has been on quite a tear lately. On the same day he turned in a full length with his band Motel Mirrors, he also released another 12-track solo record. And neither album seems to have taken a backseat to the other.
The Austrian punk trio Deecracks have been slogging it out in basement parties and clubs for 15 years now, all the while adhering to a strong DIY ethos that saw them self-releasing most of their records, when they weren’t booking their own shows across the globe. Indie Street Punk/Oi stalwart Pirate Press jumped in and offered to release the band’s latest, Sonic Delusions, giving the band a better shot at…
Over the course of four records, Oklahoma native Parker Millsap has managed to deliver four distinctly remarkable albums without retreading much on his own musical ground.
It’s pretty apt that the San Francisco Indie rock band Hi Lo Ha decided to borrow the name of Dylan’s Woodstock, New York home for their moniker. The group manages to draw deep inspiration from Dylan’s onetime backing musicians The Band for their Ain’t Gone Tonight EP. But far from being just another band stuck in the ‘60s, they also bring in some modern influences to round out their sound –…
Sometime in the past few years, someone made the decision that modern rock bands were free to add liberal amounts of funk, soul and creativity to their sound and (thankfully) the floodgates seem to have finally opened. On the heels of some of the great eclectic Americana, folk and R&B musicians that seem to have surfaced from nowhere – folks like Nathaniel Rateliff, The Wood Brothers and Shovels & Rope…
The Clash’s record label once dubbed the group as “the only band that matters” in the promotional materials introducing them to the U.S. and while the phrase was certainly polarizing at the time, you can’t help but find their influence stronger today than ever before. Whether it was adding strong, sing-able melodies to punk rock – heard in bands like Green Day and every Green Day clone since; their strong…
Shakey Graves (Alejandro Rose-Garcia) had only been in the public eye for about a year in 2012 when the mayor of Austin proclaimed February 9th, “Shakey Graves Day.” A hell of an achievement so soon out of the gate, but six years and several albums later, Garcia is still living up to the hype.
One-time go-to gun for hire Jeff Plankenhorn has played guitar and lap slide for everyone from Joe Ely and Reckless Kelly to Hayes Carll and Kelly Willis. But as of recently he’s walked back into the center of the spotlight with his own records. Sleeping Dogs, his latest, shows why he was so in demand in his adopted home of Austin.
It’s been just shy of 20 years since Social Distortion front man Mike Ness released his two (and only, so far) solo efforts, but they are finally getting a proper vinyl re-release.
Going from the front man of a strongly influential band to a solo artist has always been a tough act to pull off, trying to keep up the good will and credibility banked. But, Steve Wynn showed how to do it with style in the early ‘90s when Dream Syndicate called it a day and he decided to carry on in a decidedly different direction.
Scotland might seem like a curious place for New York-based thrash band, Anthrax, to film their latest concert DVD, but co-founder guitarist Scott Ian answers that question about half-way into the set. “You motherfuckers have always been good to us.”
On first listen, you’d be hard pressed to give a specific year that Oberon Rose put together “Tell Me About It.” The band’s specifically unique brand of psychedelic-tinged pop music brings to mind everyone from Big Star and Badfinger to Wings and The Posies, a decidedly timeless sound. Elsewhere on the record, on tracks like “No Stranger,” they play garage rock in the vein of The Flammin’ Groovies or The…
Just a couple years past the 40th anniversary of the iconic documentary, Heartworn Highways, filmmaker Wayne Price sets out to recreate, at least in spirit, one of the best documents out there on the Outlaw Country music movement. Heartworn Highways Revisited, much like its predecessor, focuses on a handful of country musicians (or at least country-ish, with elements of folks and even rock) creating their own path, outside of the…
On repeated listens you can hear everyone from The Pixies to The Black Keys on the debut from Seattle-based trio Naked Giants. And despite the slew of bands who have name checked those groups over the years, there is a genuine connection on the part of Naked Giants. While it’s not particularly hard to simply ape another band’s sound, on “Sluff,” these guys seem to have internalized the endearing, shambolic…
Well, it’s not exactly a secret that UK artists have had a habit of, shall we say liberating, American Soul and Blues music over the years and remaking it in their own image. Everyone from Cream, and The Stones to Led Zeppelin and The Animals would be career-less if it weren’t for a bunch of self-righteous pilgrims who loaded up the boats with their bibles generations ago and headed for…
Over the past 10 years, Echo Bloom has been putting out an eclectic mix of styles, with a reliance on strong melodies and significantly expressive lyrics being the common threads that run through each record. Their fourth and latest, Green is the final in the trilogy of color-themed albums that each focus on different styles. While Blue pulled in more folk influences and Red a more traditional rock theme, Green mixes…
For a British band, the guys in Brighton’s Harker have a pretty intense love for American music. You can hear everyone from the Bouncing Souls and Dinosaur Jr. to Jimmy Eats World and the Gaslight Anthem on No Discordance, their debut full length. And while there’s no denying the inspirations are all over this LP, the band has injected enough originality into the offerings that they still come off as…
The Last Gang split up for a bit in 2009, having lost momentum and the energy to get going again. But thank the gods of punk rock or whatever deity you want to credit, singer/guitarist Brenna Red and drummer Robert Wantland roped in Sean Viele to take over on bass and The Last Gang gave it another go.