It’s been four years since the last Son Volt album, Honky Tonk (2013), and Jay Farrar describes his effort here as an attempt to climb inside the guitar tunings of two blues icons, Skip James and Mississippi Fred McDowell, and British folk artist Nick Drake. As such, we find Farrar approaching his songs intentionally with…
To call The Morrisons’ debut self titled album “long awaited” would be an understatement. For a band that’s been kicking around for well over five years (and longer if you count their previous incarnations) and has developed a loyal fanbase in the process, recorded music has been something of a rarity. But now with the…
Rarely anymore does a debut album get me revved up but that is exactly what happened the first time I heard the songs of Cameroon-born artist Laetitia Tamko, aka Vagabond. Infinite Worlds is an album of finding herself with no musical boundaries and that is the beauty of her record. At times, Infinite Worlds oozes…
Canadian band Heat, describes itself as “post-punk” on its Facebook page and lists Sonic Youth and Oasis as influences, while those writing about the band compare them generously to Echo & the Bunnymen, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Psychedelic Furs. That places the Heat sound firmly in the 80’s, which fits well with the…
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are a very prolific group. Their latest Flying Microtonal Banana is going to be the first in a series of 4 to 5 albums released this year. Flying Microtonal Banana-if you couldn’t already tell-is the group experimenting with specially built and tuned microtonal instruments, particularly the 24-TET tuning. What’s…
One of the hottest singers on the planet put on a concert for the ages at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, as her soaring vocals and down to earth charm electrified the 95,000 plus that hung on her every word. The massive stage features a close up of her trademark lashes, before she appears. As she does,…
On their 6th album in a little over a decade, Kaiser Chiefs, the British indie rockers have turned in from their more political, guitar-driven garage rock in a decidedly poppy direction. Once you learn that leader Ricky Wilson was a celebrity judge on the British version of The Voice, the singer contest/reality show, and it’s…
The Flaming Lips have been in the music game for at least 24 years. Within those 24 years they’ve made quite a impact from battling pink robots and wizards, messed with some dead petz, to recording a Christmas album, to celebrating Christmas on Mars, and having mixed results covering albums by the masters including King…
Of the six veteran rockers invited to play the Desert Trip concerts, dubbed “Oldchella” because of the advanced age of the artists—The Who, The Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Roger Waters— and their presumed fan-base, Neil Young is the only one who’s produced at least an album of new material every nearly every year…
