R&B has been celebrating its third great renaissance of the last 70 years recently, and perhaps no one captures the essence of the genre’s new generation of performers and their worship of the old school better than Seattle’s Ronnue does. Popping his new single “Something About U (The Retro-Funk Mix)” and its accompanying remix into your CD player will result in taking a step back in time to the golden…
A pendulous bell is warning us that the clock has struck midnight. As if awakening from a horrid nightmare, we hear a gasp cut through the abrasive wails of the bell. A bittersweet vocal clings to a tempered guitar part that slowly skulks about in the distance. A softly spoken prayer joins it, followed by an electrified guitar that seems to emerge out of the ethers like some sort of…
In thirteen elegantly produced tracks, John Vento invites us into his world of Love, Lust & Other Wreckage, while offering up some brooding confessions and inspiring balladry along the way. For fans of eclectic rock, Vento needs no introduction. The Pittsburgh-based performer has made a career out of never sticking to the script, and his attitude of constantly adapting and evolving his style of play has earned him a permanent place…
With a name like Gonna Sing, Gonna Shout, this compilation of various artists performing music written by the legendary Rick Lang promises to get you on your feet and singing along to the bittersweet melodies of old Appalachia. Dave Adkins stops by to dish out the churn of “Thinkin’ Outside the Box” and the humble “There is a Light;” Marty Raybon takes up the mic with “I See God” and the…
Renee Cologne’s – Coverlings, is an album you’ll be talking about for a while if you get wind of the majesty to be heard on this release full of precious gems that she put her stamp on with effortless magic. Her voice isn’t exactly unknown but as an indie artist she’s making her own footprints, and she has written or performed for stage, dance and film, including M&M’s and other…
Expanding on the freewheeling rustic tones introduced to us with the extended play Sad & Silly, Mount Hudson returns with “Write a Book,” a new single that exploits the best of the David Yim-designed solo project’s unique hybrid of alternative pop and classic folk/rock. On the strength of a rollicking beat alone, “Write a Book” comes strutting out of the darkness with a reckless abandon that is infectious and inspiring, especially…
Seven Against Thebes champions all the components of a solid rock album in the 13-track Art of Deception. Forged from the Emerald City herself, this Seattle-based four-piece hard rock bandcharts a course of cold, dystopian-like riffs, rumbles and ricochets. I quickly surrendered to the harnessed anger and perpetual percussions as they colluded with deep vocals. Seven Against Thebes – an analogy for good versus evil – goes to great guitar…
Project Grand Slam’s Greetings from Serbia URL: https://www.projectgrandslam.com/ Fans of pure jazz fusion as it was always meant to be consumed rejoice; 2019 officially commences with the release of the Robert Miller-led Project Grand Slam’s Greetings from Serbia, the group’s first live album and virgin offering to a brand new year. We begin with the rolling grooves of “You Started Something,” which as its title implies inspires something beyond infectious inside of…
A crackling dissonance not dissimilar to the sound of a needle making contact with a vinyl record for the first time penetrates the silence that opens “Suck You In,” the newest single from Lana Blac’s stellar album Nocturnal. A pummeling,treble-drenched percussion interrupts the ambience of the feedback and wakes up a cantankerous guitar riff that seems bent on discord. In the distance a grinding synthesized melody that is all too reminiscent…
Hemhora and the Glass Band deliver an exhibition in surrealist rock for the ages in their new record Helix Pattern Blues, which is available everywhere that indie music is sold and streamed this coming December 7 through Greyday Records. Endlessly eccentric and riddled with enigmatic prose that is buried beneath a smorgasbord of colorful and unforgiving textures, Helix Pattern Blues borrows only slightly from contemporary pop construction and willfully dabbles in the sort…
Philadelphia’s Hughie Mac shines new life and charm into the classic “Let’s Get Away from it All” from the album Hughie Mac Sings Some Great Songs Pt. 3. It is a great song, and Mac is a great singer. Drawing experience from his live shows in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Mac is a crooner with plenty of charisma and smooth delivery in this Frank Sinatra staple. Kim Muncie
The absence of the one that got away is hard for even the most gifted of poets to describe, but country rockers The American Revival come pretty close in their all new single “Whiskey Kisses.” The second glimpse into their forthcoming debut album, “Whiskey Kisses” digs deep with its lyrics, illustrating the feeling of yearning through a series of mammoth melodies that intertwine and create an evocative, unforgettable tour de…
Dawg Gone Davis’ 2018 emergence as one of the funnier hip hop influenced performers working today is quite a story. The technology professional made her first splash on the scene with the improbably titled “Middle Aged Woman – Hip Hop Style”, a comical and musically rewarding single facing the idea of a middle aged woman from Kansas City tackling a style you’d never expect. The song is included on her…
The sun peers through the trees and onto a spectacular patch of uncorrupted farmland as we enter the music video for Madelyn Victoria’s “Right Here With You.” Horses, cattle, turkeys and an inviting house dot the landscape in the lingering moments of daylight, but as Victoria starts to sing and darkness overtakes the sky we’re transported to a dimly lit saloon adorned with the single starred flag of Texas. Friends…
Yes I Can, the third studio album from Californian Corinne Cook, solidifies her position as one of the best song interpreters working in the independent modern country/pop scene today and establishes her as a promising songwriting talent as well. Cook’s willingness to continue growing as both a performer and artist sets her apart from countless peers and contemporaries who prefer perfecting a winning commercial formula durable enough to be revisited…
Abel Oliva Menendez has recorded and released music under the moniker Naurea and “stage name” Olimann since the early 2000’s and, nearly two decades on, sounds as witless and unconvincing as ever. His latest collection New Zombie Generation deserves the title Variations on a Theme as Menendez dazes listeners with twelve by the numbers cuts that often can pass as alternate takes on other songs. His understanding of what makes for collar-grabbing, hard-hitting metal/industrial…