Los Angeles-based Viserra’s debut album, Siren Star, is a tight six songs in just over 30 minutes. The hard rock band pull influences from a Continue Reading
Music Dose
Arlo McKinley's Confessional Country/Folk Is Superb on 'Die Midwestern'
Impressing the legendary John Prine with your songwriting is a little bit like having Picasso say you’re a pretty good artist. Shortly before he passed Continue Reading
The Inescapable Violence in Netflix's I'm No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aqui)
One of the most enduringly popular songs by Lisandro Meza, the King of Cumbia, is “Lejanía (Distance)”. Over his accordion, he sings of “waiting for Continue Reading
Great Peacock Stares Down Mortality With "High Wind" (premiere + interview)
Great Peacock’s Forever Worse Better, out 9 October, stands as the Nashville trio’s definitive statement. It’s a deeply personal record that reflects the struggle between Continue Reading
Kristin Hersh Discusses Her Gutsy New Throwing Muses Album
Maybe the secret to making great songs is to stop worrying about making great songs. Kristin Hersh, the 1990s alternative icon of Throwing Muses, guitar Continue Reading
Laraaji Returns to His First Instrument for 'Sun Piano'
Reissues, re-appraisals, belated recognition, musician/fan curations, and re-contextualizations have all done a tremendous service for pioneering experimental, ambient, and drone artists over the last decade Continue Reading
Jim O'Rourke's Experimental 'Shutting Down Here' Is Big on Technique
Jim O’Rourke fired off “Cede” 20- or 25-odd years ago as a salvo in the battles within his alien landscape of a musical mind. Shutting Continue Reading
King Buzzo Continues His Reign with 'Gift of Sacrifice'
Ipecac Recordings advanced two singles off King Buzzo’s much-anticipated second solo LP, Gift of Sacrifice: “I’m Glad I Could Help Out” and “Science in Modern Continue Reading
Whitney Take a Master Class on 'Candid'
Historically, covers albums are a sign of trouble. They’re the products of contractual obligations, creative stasis, or cash-grabbing labels. In the grand scheme of artists’ Continue Reading
The Redemption of Elton John's 'Blue Moves'
“Blue Moves is an Elton John album. It is not his best.” Thus begins the latest book in Bloomsbury Academic’s 33 1/3 series, each volume Continue Reading
Buridan's Ass and the Problem of Free Will in John Sturges' 'The Great Escape'
Based loosely on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 first-hand account, The Great Escape (1963), directed by John Sturges, carefully recounts the story of a mass escape of Continue Reading
The 10 Best Fleetwood Mac Solo Albums
Danny Kirwan – Second Chapter (1975) This album is the second chapter in Kirwan’s professional life, following his firing from Fleetwood Mac in 1972. He is a Continue Reading
'History Gets Ahead of the Story' for Jazz's Cosgrove, Medeski, and Lederer
Drummer Jeff Cosgrove lives in the rural environs west of Washington, DC, making reasonably frequent appearances at DC clubs or in nearer-by Frederick, Maryland. But Continue Reading
Planningtorock Is Queering Sound, Challenging Binaries, and Making Infectious Dance Music
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, UK-born, Berlin-based artist Planningtorock – otherwise known as Jam Rostron – was on the remote Estonian island of Hiiumaa, visiting Continue Reading
South African Folk Master Vusi Mahlasela Honors Home on 'Shebeen Queen'
It’s tempting to compare the shebeens of apartheid-era South Africa to speakeasies elsewhere. Legal now, shebeens offered specific freedoms in a time of horrific oppression, Continue Reading
Sikoryak's 'Constitution Illustrated' Pays Homage to Comics and the Constitution
How many artists have created their own genres? Robert Sikoryak may stand among few, especially for genres within the comics form. He has an eloquently Continue Reading
Jess Cornelius Creates Tautly Constructed Snapshots of Life
The titular distance chronicled on Jess Cornelius’ solo debut album can be measured in a plethora of ways: geographical as someone born and raised in Continue Reading
'Can You Spell Urusei Yatsura' Is a Much Needed Burst of Hopefulness in a Desultory Summer
The mid-to-late 1990s saw English guitar music surrender entirely to domesticity. For a remarkable spell, Britain had been an incubator of cutting edge outsiders who Continue Reading
The Erotic Disruption of the Self in Paul Schrader's 'The Comfort of Strangers'
People are strange. This is the lesson we learn from strangers. The English “strange” derives from the Old French estrange, which in turn derives from Continue Reading
Jamila Woods' "SULA (Paperback)" and Creative Ancestry and Self-Love in the Age of "List" Activism
“Down here in the bottom, there ain’t no room for me. I don’t wanna make no babies, I don’t need a man to save me,” Continue Reading