By now, Elvis Costello’s fans have gotten used to his experimental collaborations and explorations of new musical territory. After all, he’s the same stripped-down punk rocker who gave us My Aim Is True in ’77, but by ’82 had delivered the lush, textured Imperial Bedroom. In 1986, he delivered the T Bone Burnett produced acoustic…
After releasing a handful of live releases earlier this year, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have now returned with the new studio album K.G., their sixteenth since they formed in 2010. It represents a collection of songs that saw the six members of the band home isolating and creating the record remotely. What could…
Richard Hamilton (aka Ricky Hamilton or Ricky Hell) is the formal name of the founder of the criminally under-the-radar label Quality Time Records. His new long player, My Perfect World, is a 180 degree turn in sound from his past gutter pop bands like Fascinating and Ricky Hell & The Voidboys. Right from the opening…
Wilco fans can no doubt remember when experimental jazz guitarist Nels Cline came on board, appearing for the first time on the band’s 2005 double live album, Kicking Television; Live In Chicago. While the band had plenty of experience coloring outside the lines – consider “Via Chicago”’s noisy contours shaped by drummer Glenn Kotche’s unexpected…
Bruce Springsteen, the very guy who wrote “Glory Days” about folk who spend their adult years looking back to the time when they were in their prime and their star shone brightest, should probably have seen this time in his life and career coming. Maybe it’s a little bit easier to spot nostalgia in a…
Since their formation in 2016, Sydney’s psych-rock band Kimono Drag Queens have released a string of singles, and have been slowly leading up to finally releasing their debut, Songs of Worship. It’s taken the seven-piece two years to record but I believe it was worth the wait as Songs of Worship is full of surprising…
Kathleen Edwards, Canadian singer/songwriter, returns after 8 years of relative silence with another fine album of exemplary folk/pop songcraft. Edwards had built a solid following with four solid albums, including 2012’s Voyager, which was produced by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Edwards left music after touring that album with Vernon, with whom she had a romantic…
The Mountain Goats’ singer/songwriter John Darnielle may be thought of by some as the poet laureate of all things nerdy due to entire albums drawn from the world of wrestling (Beat the Champ), Dungeons & Dragons (In League With Dragons), 80’s post-punk art rock (Goths), and obscure Bible verses (The Life of the World to…
By now, fans of Sufjan Stevens have learned to approach each new project with an open mind. On his most successful effort to date, 2005’s Illinois, Stevens revealed the breadth of his musical interests, from indie folk to pop/rock all the way to showtunes with full orchestrations, and electronica. The Age of Adz (2010) turned…
In the nearly four years since Lydia Loveless’ last album, Real, the country-rock singer/songwriter has divorced her bass player husband, left her record company, and moved house, before writing and recording her new record, which has been released on her own label. If on Real she refined her edgier cow-punk leanings with a more accessible…
