Rumors of the Great White Skunk, the third album from Oklahoma based duo Cliff and Jeana Downing, builds on the success of Captain Ledge Band’s first two albums with a collection that shows their exponential growth as songwriters since the band first formed. The duo’s journey to a third album has been well chronicled and you hear a lot of the gratitude they share for making music together coming through,…
When people are living in harmony and love is plentiful, communities at peace and joy is more common than fear or hatred, there is always music. In times of distress and chaos, where no one seems to want to get along and there isn’t any singular uniting shelter that we can come together under from the storm, there is always music. Music is in fact the one element of our…
Unforgettable Ride with mid-tempo melodic rocker “Slow Release”. Hart has an once or twice in a generation yowl ideally suited for this style and his straightforward singing reveals lung strength and vocal control among the best that we’ve heard from a hard rock band in some time. This is fun music, without a doubt, and raids the treasure trove of tropes and familiar turns that’s defined this popular form, but…
Featuring the talents of The Howling Tongues in tow, Beau + Luci’s new release Live from Aggie Theatre is a powerful audio document testifying to the strong literary qualities, spirit, and bluesy atmospherics at the tandem’s disposal. Their highly individual brand of Americana/roots music has enchanted national audiences, but their performance from Aggie Theatre brings the duo and their musical style “back home”, so to speak, and plays well for an appreciative…
Steve Wheeler’s EP release Terminal Velocity marks a divergent point for this talented composer when he affords himself the opportunity to step away from his “day job” as a media composer for major network sporting events and video games in favor of a more personal project. The instrumental EP is brief, only three songs and running less than ten minutes, but Wheeler’s writing makes the sort of impact music tailored to accentuate…
Canadian Tia McGraff, originally from the region surrounding Toronto, first met her musical partner and eventual husband Tommy Parham in Nashville and the couple have been recording and playing live together for many years. Parham is her chief collaborator, as well, on McGraff’s well received studio recordings and recent years have seen the tandem land their music on important radio shows like BBC 2’s Bob Harris Country and earn them…
There are few feelings that are as tumultuous and difficult to process as heartbreak. We are never sadder and at our most defenselessly defeated as we are when we’ve lost love, and knowing that we’re not alone out there can make all the difference in the world when it comes to getting through the storm of emotions we have to endure. Reaching out through the darkness with a bursting light…
Some of the best music, regardless of genre, is the music that we can dance to and get crazy with just as easily as we can enjoy it on its own without any external interference. The best artists though, are the ones who have the ability to bring all of the magic from the studio with them out on the road and atop any stage, no matter how big or…
Costa Rican-born pianist and composer Esteban Alvarez is back and better than ever in his new album Piano Meets Mariachi and its accompanying single “La Bikina,” both arriving just in time for the summer record season (and making quite a splash in doing so). Unsatisfied with turning out a predictable album that would merely placate the needs of his longtime fans and the critics alike, Alvarez pulls out all of…
In a dazzling explosion of colorful tones and mammoth, glowing melodies that seem to melt through the stereo speakers like some sort of magical elixir, Fitzsimon and Brogan’s new album Big Blue World is making some gigantic waves even before it hits stores this June, and it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who has been following the European indie underground lately. There’s been a lot of energy gathering in the…
I’ve been down this road before – the Detroit music landscape. It’s crinkled edges dog-eared for rock’s dingy clubs. Or maybe it’s the Motown avenue, where vocal groups in perfect harmony have synchronized themselves walking down the street. Still yet, maybe Detroit is the hardened, rough streets where rappers use lyrics instead of fists. There’s always room for more, the ghosts of Detroit remind me. Always.
Hi Lo Ha’s intriguing new offering Ain’t Gone Tonight opens in the gentle daze of its leading track “Cold Weather Clothes,” a slow churning journey through a sonic oasis delicately pieced together in an ethereal patchwork woven by its four equally talented players. Its essential harmony isn’t buried in feedback but instead presented to us in an extremely vulnerable clarity that creates a unique feeling of intimacy between the listener and Hi Lo…
“I’m so proud of my dogs, I don’t care if I’m not what you thought” Mike Ra announces in his single “Dogs,” out now courtesy of the masterminds behind DXB Studios. In a slowly unfolding chapter play of verses that swing and slide along the lines of Desiigner without the glaze of neo-G overproduction. I hear a lot of Future and early Young Thug when I listen to Mike Ra,…
Although I just recently became familiar with her work, I must say that singer/songwriter Cat Dail’s discography has been becoming a bit of a regular in my playlist lately. Her sixth studio album Fight For Love grabbed my attention immediately the first time that I gave it a spin as an indie pop/rock record easily in contention for album of the summer, and for good reason. Its excellent fusion of…
It’s not the easiest task in the world to balance soft lyrics with loud, unruly guitar driven music, regardless of the general manner in which an artist chooses to deliver their craft. Rock music, country, punk rock, heavy metal, whatever you want to call yourself; the tantalizing equilibrium of music that can move us emotionally as much as it can physically is one that every artist seeks out from the…
Disobey is the third album from the Seattle band The Refusers and solidifies their position as one of the more politically active rock bands in recent history. They’ve garnered considerable renown as a band opposed to vaccinations, distrustful of virtual any organized institution in American life, and clearly of the opinion that we are getting the collective shaft as a nation. They bring us into their world from the first…
In his first single “My One & Only Love,” ShaQ:Muzik gave us an incredibly intimate and wildly sonic love song that got R&B and electronica fans very intrigued with his unique blend of slick, stylish grooves. The track shimmered with what seemed like a million different colors colliding into one another like a reckless but loving embrace. It was a feast for our ears, and he made sure to keep…
Conor Gains has earned a well deserved reputation as a singer/songwriter on the rise thanks to his work with the Conor Gains Band, but his first solo release Compass is a ten song collection representing how his expanding ability for realizing his musical and lyrical vision has taken a quantum leap forward. The process of assembling Compass has been a lengthy one and Gains pared down nearly a hundred songs…
Forget the Super Bowl, if you can figure out a way to predict who is going to dominate Top 40 radio in the next decade, you’re going to be one incredibly rich individual. It’s true, there is perhaps no other facet of pop culture as totally and unreliably volatile as popular music. Society’s taste in music changes a lot faster than its taste in politicians or trite sitcoms, and when…
New York’s Greg Jacquin has released the full-length album, Hudson River. According to his biography, Jacquin traces his roots and inspiration to the Hudson Valley. He was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York, in 1970. Jacquin’s release is one of the more impressive Americana albums to come along in 2018 – his pulse putting to music feelings of being alone, depression and even people watching make Hudson River a two-thumbs…
