A staple on the LA music scene, darkening the doorway of legendary venues like the Whisky and the Roxy, singer, songwriter, and guitarist TJ Doyle combines his unique brand of…
Album Reviews
Okay, it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke: what do you get when you take five former residents of the USSR, put them in a band, and move…
Seemingly since the dawn of time, or at least since man’s vocal cords were developed enough to create hums and grunts, life and death have concurrently inspired song. For Kings…
Get your aural tastebuds ready, because the Splashing Pearls are going to rearrange everything you ever thought you loved about music. This amalgamation of ukulele, steel drums and upright bass…
It’s only fitting that a former schoolteacher could write so eloquently and with a sense of poetic finesse. Thus, Rachel Garland delivers these kinds of lyrics on her new –…
No Pier Pressure is another triumph in a legendary career
This new album from Austin, Texas native Joe Pug has a lot going for it, considering its genesis was in a not-so-positive situation. From imbibing too much alcohol to feeling…
You can make the argument that “classic/’60’s style pop” is making an upward surge in a big way from the United States and leading the charge would be New Jersey…
It’s no secret that music is linked to social change and causes. From the Civil Rights Movement to “We Are the World” and everything that Bono thinks he’s doing right,…
A thoroughly enjoyable and tuneful collection of songs, Medicine For The Soul, the new release from the U.K.’s The Vagaband, is an exercise in melody. For a sophomore release, this…
The best albums can take you somewhere else, and not just sonically — they’ll seem to bring you to a place you can almost feel and touch. ”Let the Good…
A true artist in every sense of the word, London’s Mark Maze taps into his rough-and-tumble upbringing in a council estate outside of Leicester, England. Channeling his past into music…
Vince Grant’s story is familiar to many musicians: he left his hometown of Chicago to pursue his musical dreams in the City of Angels, only to spend years busking on…
Now, that is what the fuck I’m talking about. From the first grungy, then vaguely pixelated, guitar chords of album-opener ”Trembling Hands,” Arizona, the second record proper by loop-rock ”band”…
Some of the greatest rock record of all time spring from bands traveling — literally — outside of their comfort zones. Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run was largely recorded in Lagos, Nigeria…
There’s been something of a buzz about Nadine Shah as of late – of which I remain ignorant, as a buzz will usually mean I have no interest in it. …
An interesting story here – this album, from Buffalo, Missouri native Lyal Strickland, was originally recorded in 2013, but he decided to resuscitate it, re-release it and tour behind it. …
Though their name might read more like your AIM screen name circa 1999, the duo known collectively as CommonUnion59 and separately as Steve McKenzie and Laura Malasig churns out the delightful sound of California pop…
It’s not often that a “classic” band can come back together after disbanding and put out a new album that sounds fresh – but then add to that, this new…
If you’re a softer Soft Cell fan like me, it’s been hard to keep up with Marc Almond all these years. If you’re more ambitious, it’s been quite the ride…
You may as well give up any notions of resistance to The Weeklings, because this is quite simply, the good old fashioned rock and roll we ALL grew up with…
Like a breath of warmer spring air, the opening, chiming strums of “Wake Me When Tomorrow’s Here”, the first track on George Usher and Lisa Burns’ The Last Day Of…
From the moment “Outta My Head” begins, I love this album. Liz Longley’s self-titled debut on the legendary Sugar Hill label is a thing of beauty. Her voice, filled with…
Having been a fan of The Bangles from the moment I first heard “The Real World” sometime in late ’82, I was always curious-to-irritated as to why the five song…
From the opening strums of Big Sky Country, the newest album – 6th, overall – from Sweden’s Sofia Talvik, you know you’re in for an aural pleasure experience. Her sweet,…
In this fine, first edition of Welcome To Pittsburgh, a new, somewhat-irregular Popdose column dictating the independent musical pulse of the Rust Belt’s cultural capital, we find ourselves saddled with…
Coming from Oxford, Mississippi, Young Buffalo are about to make their mark on music with this fine debut album, House. A five-piece, Young Buffalo are like a fresh breeze on…
This is the story of a man and the guitar that took hold of him. The man styles himself Sir Richard Bishop, a Phoenix-bred guitar master known best for his…
It’s appropriate for a Valentine’s Day release to have an element of love in it, though one could argue that every song and every album needs love to successfully communicate…
Here’s a guy with one of the most varied and impressive resumes in music – across the boards. Journalist, publicist (starting at Apple Records), D.J., photographer and now singer/performer. Irish…