Video Premiere: The Venus Flytraps – “Ghost on the Phone
Just when you thought Halloween couldn’t get any stranger, Cleveland band The Venus Flytraps is releasing a visual single featuring two tracks from its debut album Night of The Venus…
Maria McKee Announces La Vita Nuova
Lead single “Effigy of Salt” is...gorgeous. Listen. It’s gorgeous.
ALBUM REVIEW: THE LOCALS, “Minutes, Seconds, Degrees”
The rock/pop mix of Chicago’s The Locals is instantly appealing on this new album, Minutes, Seconds, Degrees – a clean production, melodic guitars with a solid rhythm and tight harmonies…
Review: BATTLES – “Juice B Crypts”
BATTLES’ syncopated loops may circle triumphantly around the drains of the mind but its lineup has not fared as well. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton exited after 2007’s Mirrored, leaving the group…
Review: Tomeka Reid Quartet – “Old New”
Most of us know or associate with the cello as a staple of the classical and post-classical world, an instrument whose deeper breaths can elicit comparisons to the bowels of…
Album Review: Pitfalls by Leprous
These are songs from the inside, a discovery of hope in understanding one’s own hopelessness.
RE: Visit — Van Halen, “Women and Children First” (1980)
Van Halen sidelines pop to get their rocks off on "Women and Children First."
The MusicTAP Guide To Record Store Day Black Friday 2019
The list for 2019 displays a few prominent trends: (1) Christmas music (of course), generally in the form of a collectable 7”. (2) Live albums. (3) Replicas of long-OOP items…
ALBUM REVIEW: POPULUXE, “Beauty In The Broken Place”
This is not a band to be taken lightly – the name “Populuxe” should be self-explanatory. While the melody and song structures are of a “poppy” nature (versus abrasive and…
Video Premiere: Rachel Grimes – “For So Long”
Rachel Grimes is a Louisville-based musician who was a founding member of post-classical chamber ensemble Rachel’s (incidentally, not named after her) and, since the mid-2010s, has been staking a bold…
Review: Brat Curse – S/T
Brat Curse writes in earworms. That’s the only logical conclusion you can come to after listening to the Columbus, Ohio quartet’s new self-titled outing, which features hooky blasts of noisy…
Definitive Mick Ronson Collection On Only After Dark – The Complete Mainman Recordings
When you think early David Bowie, especially The Spiders From Mars. it’s nearly impossible to separate Mick Ronson from the band. But as most things do, David Bowie was changing…