The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania is the 17th album for singer/songwriter Damien Jurado and first for his own label Maraqopa Records. This is an intimate affair, ten songs that capture the characters in a decisive moment in time. The brief album notes suggest it’s the “middle ground between light and shadow,” and the stripped back…
Ten studio albums and two decades into their career, any fans of The Black Keys who’ve dug in past their string of rock hits, like “Lonely Boy,” “Fever,” and “Lo/Hi,” is well aware of the band’s interest in the Mississippi delta blues music of artists like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. They covered a song…
One of the pleasures of advanced age is being around long enough to experience the development of a musician or artist over the course of their creative life. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s when I was writing about music out and about in St. Louis for one of the two major newsprint publications…
In 1991, when Scottish band Teenage Fanclub first broke in No. America with their third album, Bandwagonesque, their sound was brimming with electric guitars turned up so they were humming on the edge of feeding back, brisk pop song rhythms with Beatlesque hooks and harmonies, and two strong singles in “Star Sign” and “The Concept.”…
The sixth album from alt/rock quartet Manchester Orchestra feels like the culmination of their 15 years as recording artists, bringing together their early guitar rock inclinations with the orchestrated compositional depth that came later. 2017’s A Black Mile to the Surface embraced a cinematic, concept album/storytelling approach, inspired by the experience of founding members and…
In a case of being in the wrong place at the right time, alternative rock power trio Dinosaur Jr. had their best-selling, major label releases in the first half of the 90’s, which got them lumped in with the grunge bands of the Pacific Northwest like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Of course, they originated on…
Originally formed in the 80’s, The Choir’s long creative partnership between singer and guitarist Derri Daugherty and drummer and lyricist Steve Hindalong continues to reap rich musical rewards on the band’s 16th studio album. While no band thrives through multiple decades without some willingness to adapt to changing musical trends, The Choir has adjusted without…
As the leader of indie-pop band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Kip Berman & Co. leaned into noisy pop of My Bloody Valentine and the 80’s melodic hooks favored by bands like the Psychedelic Furs and Echo & the Bunnymen. When that band broke up in 2017, Berman traded in city club-life for…
Singer/songwriter Peter Case’s first brush with mainstream rock star level fame came when his band the Plimsoul’s appeared in the 1983 cult classic movie, “Valley Girl,” which featured Nicholas Cage. The band was featured playing “A Million Miles Away,” their near-hit, and a couple other live songs in a teen night club. In ’86, Case…
Lake Street Dive have carved out a unique place on the current musical landscape rooted in time honored pop music songcraft informed by classic R&B, with just the right dash of dance floor funk, delivered in jazzy arrangements that push the soulful lead vocals of Rachel Price to the fore. Formed by a quartet of…
