Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 23 July 2021. The Old Fabled River represents a meeting of minds and cultures well-suited to Alasdair Roberts’ syncretic fervor. Responding to the invitation of Norwegian fiddler Hans Kjorstad, he found a group of musicians well-versed in folk, jazz…
Ever since Garbage came out of the box in 1995, the band – boasting Scottish front woman Shirley Manson and oft-lauded producer Butch Vig on drums – has created edgy alternative rock by wedding techno and electronic influences with dance-y, trip-hop rhythms and smart, crunchy power pop melodic hooks. The unique, noisy mix of singles…
If you took Melbourne’s Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters temperature from the opening riff on their new and fifth album, Waiting In A Corner, you would call the doctor because this band comes in hot, stays hot and never simmers. Jackson Reid Briggs’ punk style has plenty of classic rock running through their veins…
When Liz Phair’s debut album, Exile In Guyville, was released in 1993, she was a critic’s darling and an indie rock superhero for her gutsy lyrical bravado. While the album was a modest commercial success, it was named the number one album of that year by Spin Magazine and the Village Voice’s notorious Pazz &…
If I was asked to name a stand-out guitarist on the indie scene today I would absolutely and confidently say Mdou Moctar. This name for sure would get blank stares from many and I would follow up my answer with something like “C’mon, you don’t know the Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar? He successfully…
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 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…
Rubika Shah’s documentary feature White Riot re-tells the inspired story of Rock Against Racism. RAR was a grassroots movement that stymied the rise of racism in 1970s Britain by galvanising youth through politically charged music. The film contextualises a growing white supremacist sentiment born from the Nazi Party, but manifesting in numerous cultural and political…
