For the Damned, the Dumb, and the Delirious is a bit of a departure from Big D & the Kids Table’s last album, Fluent in Strol’, but it’s built on the same foundation. Feel good, fuck the rules ska with a healthy dose of the harder stuff. Booze and babes are a familiar ...
I’ll be honest, I was brought to tears the first time I heard these songs. I can’t say it was the songs themselves (though excellent) that moved me so as much as it was what this EP represents. Braid was a musical powerhouse that ignited a movement. They first made ...
When singer/songwriter Kasey Chambers emerged from her home country Australia she received that unfortunate tag of being a country crossover artist. Considering Chambers split the first nine years of her life in very remote and very vast plateau called the ...
What were you doing during your senior year of high school? Popping zits and ditching study hall or perhaps forming a band that was eight months away from being signed to a record label? For the members of The Dangerous Summer, it was the latter. As they exited high school ...
Casting off the shackles of the mediocre pop-punk that littered the alleyways of their frivolous debut A Loss for Words, Drive A return with a complete wardrobe change with the World in Shambles. The release is a rough around the edges politi-punk ...
The title of this album says it all. With the sultriness of her voice, Sarah Fimm has nearly infinite possibilities of where she can take her music. Though they sound experimental, Fimm’s songs are well-grounded in their strength and reality. With her, what you hear ...
Originally planned as a solo effort for Seattle musician Tannar Brewer, Fonzarelli quickly evolved into a full four-piece band with a knack for writing catching indie rock. Backed by an almost Ramones-style speed drumming, and tight melodies, Last Chance Summer Dance is ...
Want to know a clear way to send a signal that you couldn’t care less about pandering and compromising for mainstream acceptance? Name you band Fucked Up. Thankfully this Canadian group had no intentions of tempering their music, because David Comes to Life, ...
The third album from Montreal twosome Handsome Furs, Sound Kapital, comes across almost as a rebuttal to those who thought that they weren’t serious. It’s all hard angles and edges; there are no whispers, very few soft moments, and only a hint of humorous angst. The music itself is actually quite ...
Before you press play, know that Dissimulation is not a casual listen. It is a dense, layered record that requires your full attention and more than likely multiple spins. As just another metal release, Dissimulation is a rousing success in itself, but when you consider that ...
What's the last thing a drummer says in a band? Hey guys, why don't we try one of my songs? My God is nothing sacred now? Making fun of drummers was the last, predictable standard of rock music, but thanks to Dave Grohl, we now know that the beat keepers of the world actually ...
Radiohead, Queen, a bit of Hendrix and a heavy dose of 60s and 70s rock: The Janks are reminiscent of them all, yet able to remain a totally different breed of sound. With the release of their first full length album, Hands of Time, the Los Angeles born trio has ...
While paying homage to the likes of Massive Attack - even going so far as to adapt a song title as the basis for their group’s name – Karmacoda’s newest release remains a lackluster impression of the trip hop veterans. That is not to say that Eternal is without ...
The Kellies (Las Kellies if you’re nasty) are a punky Argentine three-piece with a ‘70s new-wave feel. Their self-titled third record features short bursts of rhythm-section heavy sounds and fun accents shouting echo-y lyrics. They stretch their mulilingual muscle ...
For a band, especially a punk/ska band that has gone full circle at least twice in their career Less Than Jake proves they can still rock. Their latest release, the EP Greetings From sound is signature LTJ. Whether being driven by their DIY attitude or by ...
I’m not sure if the blame goes to Flogging Molly, the Dropkick Murphys or we go all the way back to The Pogues to harass for convincing every suburban kid in America with a shamrock t-shirt, a Celtic cross tattoo and a friend that plays violin that they ...
Newly discovered cow punk diva Lydia Loveless is taking no prisoners on her first release Indestructible Machine on Bloodshot Records. The nine-song set is equal parts twang and grunge: the opening track “Bad Way To Go,” sets up a template that features ...
“Don’t tread upon my silence, ‘cause it only gets louder,” defiantly declares vocal sensation Mehnaz Hoosein on the title track of Silence, the second release from the Seattle-based group Manooghi hi. Produced by guitarist and band leader Todd Fogelsonger with veteran mix ...
You got to give Nazareth credit for having the nerve to release a new album in this mess they call the music industry. Stronger bands gave up years ago. Still, they persist after more than 40 years of recording and performing. Few know that the band is from Scotland ...
I hate to do this, really I do … the truth must be told, really it does. Egads, this is hard. I feel guilty about it already and I haven’t even typed the word. You see, N.E.D. stands for No Evidence of Disease and its six band members are all practicing gynecologic oncologists; treating the diseases that affect some 90,000 women each year and that result in 30,000 deaths annually.
Rubblebucket is the hipster anti-Christ. The bopping eight-piece is a bit too unpretentious to have come out of Brooklyn. They know how to get down and how to get you to get down. They seem happy to be there. They appear to respect their audience. Hipster anti-Christ, I say! Their second ...
Emilie Simon is innovative enough to earn the moniker “the French Bjork.” The musical development on her newest release, The Big Machine, elevates her beyond comparison and into her own realm. The Big Machine seems to be Simon’s coming out disc in the U.S. ...
If nothing else, this is a disc of emotions, a reflection of everyday life. Some albums draw us in with their words, some with the music and some with a perfect combination of everything. Molly Sweeny’s Gold Rings and Fur Pelts is the latter. Ms. Sweeney uses her vocal ...
Marble Son, the new release from Seattle-based chanteuse Jesse Sykes and her band The Sweet Hereafter, is a swirling trip back to the heady days of Haight Ashbury psychedelia and 60’s folk pop harmony delivered over simmering guitars and rolling bass and drums bathed in ...
Now we’re talking, in a return to form that has been a long time coming, They Might Be Giants (TMBG) has returned to the rock. I don’t know how they do it. After nearly 30 years, 15 studio albums 13 compilations, seven live albums and 18 EPs, the band continues to ...