COMING SOON – VINYL REISSUES: BIG STAR, "#1 Record" & "Radio City"
The start to the holiday season didn’t feel quite right – no Big Star news for me to report on… until now. While there are some definite inaccuracies in the…
Review: Risen – Angel
Angel arrived in the mid-’70s with a high-powered debut. From that point of release the band issued four more well-received albums (not including the live set – Live Without A…
Review: Winter Songs and Carols – Mary Fahl
Now that the Christmas season is in full bloom, select radio stations have started 24/7 airing of classic songs for the holidays. With traditional songs popular over this period, a…
Review: Coldplay, “Everyday Life”
Coldplay is pretentious, but that's not always a bad thing.
RE:Visit – The Top Of The Charts, November, 1979
Did Kool and the Gang choose Smooth Life in '79, or did Smooth Life choose them?
Review: Alder & Ash – “The Crowneater”
There’s no place to enter The Crowneater – the new LP from Alder & Ash, out Dec. 6 via Mendicant – because the whole record is just that damned incredible.…
Review: Various Artists, “Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits”
Tribute hits the mark for Waits as songwriter, but not Waits as artist.
Review: Opeth, “In Cauda Venenum”
There is something unsettling about this effort, and not in Opeth's typical mist-and-dread-soaked way.
Review: Frank Lenz – “Pyramid”
Frank Lenz is a musician likely only known well among attentive album credits readers. In the past, he’s added his stellar drumming to Pedro The Lion, Richard Swift and Starflyer…
Review: Bill Callahan – “If You Could Touch Her At All” b/w “So Long, Marianne”
Forever-smoggy Austin singer-songwriter Bill Callahan radiates an alarming amount of warmth on two new covers from the classic American songbook, out today via Drag City Records. The pedal steel sure…
Review: Monotrope – “Immutable Future”
Monotrope’s new record is a wondrously dense thatch of black thorns and I love it for that. In case you’re just joining the show, the quartet, which should be storied…
Vinyl Review: Interceptor by Steve Pilant
But for those progressive music fans who understand that the 80’s aren’t just a bleak stretch between The Buggles taking over Yes and Roine Stolt’s The Flower King, Steve Pilant’s…