Few artists personify their city the way that Regina Spektor does New York. The Russian-born singer-songwriter-pianist was raised in the Bronx and has accomplished what I’m guessing is a rare New York trifecta – performing on Broadway, selling out Carnegie Hall and playing Saturday Night Live. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio even declared a Regina […]
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There is absolutely nothing fancy about The Barlow, and that’s the way they like it. The Denver-based four-piece specializes in Coors-soaked Colorado country – songs about road woes and lost loves that sound just right on a lonely mountain drive or in a sweaty honky tonk (really, the two best places to listen to country […]
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Caamp got the inspiration for the title of their latest album, Lavender Days, from periods of time in life that present “small pleasures and forgotten disappointments” – the kind of days that may not leave an immediate mark but end up resonating far down the line. After two-plus years of life-defining events – for the […]
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A fresh set of eyes can lend new credence to a long-held point of view. Many, MANY songs have been written about the spare beauty of West Texas, but Drew Kennedy writes about it as someone who chose to live there – the Pennsylvania native moved to the Texas Hill Country, raising a family in […]
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Befitting the title Teeth Marks, S. G. Goodman’s latest release is all jagged edges. The emotions are raw, the subjects (opioid addiction, one-night stands, queer Southern love) are far from conventional country fare, the guitars riffs are stabby, and the music refuses to settle comfortably into a genre – Americana, punk and early 90s alt-rock […]
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American Aquarium — Chicamacomico Fans of American Aquarium have become inured to songs with devastating messages – BJ Barham wrote that “Them sad songs/Is the only thing that makes me happy,” and fans have adopted that line from 2020’s “Starts With You” as a mantra. However, on the backend of a pandemic that coincided with […]
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A lot of people die in Drive-By Truckers songs, by all manner of affliction, from terminal ailments to family feuds and everything in between. However, emerging from a pandemic, and following a trio of heavily political albums, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (like many of us) seem to be struck by their own mortality. The […]
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No one writes about sadness, in more layers, and with just a tinge of optimism, like Angel Olsen does. Whether it’s the heartland-ish flavor of her 2016 breakthrough, My Woman, or the outright symphonic All Mirrors from 2019, she’s been able to bend any sound to fit her moody exploration of her world. While the […]
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Avi Kaplan — Floating on a Dream Funny how an artist can surprise you when you’re unfamiliar with his background. Turns out, Avi Kaplan was a member of the reality show-winning vocal group Pentatonix (I try to stay away from reading the press materials until after consuming the music). After leaving the group in 2017 […]
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The Black Keys — Dropout Boogie Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have done pretty much everything old school. As The Black Keys, they write most of their material in-studio, they record much of their high-end garage rock songs in a single take – hell, they even still make “concept” music videos (if you were born […]
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