This is really good. I mean REALLY GOOD. This second album from The Shelleye Valauskas Experience, History Of Panic, which is anchored by singer-guitarist Ms. Valausakas and Mr. Dean Falcone…
Album Reviews
646 Articles
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Vivian Leva’s voice is the sound of living tradition. Raised by parents who absorbed ancient tunes and ballads during visits to legendary old-time musicians, Ms. Leva grew up steeped in…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
The Lampshades, a trio of Pittsburgh-by-way-of-Altoona ne’er-do-wells, is nothing if not ambitious. It hasn’t always entirely been this way. Sunshine, its 2005 debut, was more of a catalog of by-the-numbers…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Singer Nina June is releasing her global debut album, Bon Voyage, the result of a 3 year long journey that began in a home studio in Amsterdam, going through France…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
It’s an engaging conceit – the folk balladeer’s whispy, sometimes almost stagy voice hovering over deconstructed, ambient soundscapes – and Eric Chenaux nearly pulls it off on Slowly Paradise, a…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
A songwriter, guitarist, bluesman, interpreter and performer for more than 50 years, Chris Smither has proven himself an American original. Recorded at the gorgeous Blue Rock Studios in Texas’ hill…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
In the same methodical way she takes apart engines and makes them roadworthy again, Erica Blinn constructs American rock songs, one earnest melody at a time. She forces Midwestern air…
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David Medsker
2 Min Read
Editors have written many great songs in the past, but this is the first time that they’ve written a jam.
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
Jeffrey Gaines is a name you should be familiar with because he’s been putting out thoughtful, soul-clenching, highly personal and rewarding music for over 25 years. Alright is his first…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
The acoustic guitar scales dance with trickles of piano and the occasional tip-tip-tapping of drums, singer-songwriter Katerina Papachristou’s breathy vocals leading the way. It is a magical stew, one concocted…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
More a “mini-album” than full-length (but I won’t split hairs here), Unbreakable is the very powerful and touching debut from Ali McManus, a 21-year old singer-songwriter/pianist/guitarist from Detroit. It says…
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Dw. Dunphy
4 Min Read
The route to the Dukes of the Orient debut is complex, but the album is not.
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
How this one flew under the radar is just beyond me. Released Jan. 26 by MIE Music, Ilyas Ahmed’s Closer To Stranger is a hazy-edged dream riffing on the notion…
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Rob Ross
3 Min Read
It’s not often that an artist will nowadays deliver a double album’s worth of brand new material; it’s even rarer when it’s a triple threat. More so, when an artist…
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Rob Ross
3 Min Read
Before we get to the heart of the matter, here’s a quick history/primer on Mr. Luther Russell, the marvelous Los Angeles guitarist/producer: he’s been recording since 1991, initially as lead…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
There’s much to celebrate about Pissing Stars, the second solo LP – out today on Constellation Records – from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion co-founder Efrim…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Amy Rigby has been doing her thing since she was a member of The Shams (when I first saw her) and slicing through pop mediocrity from the time she released…
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David Medsker
3 Min Read
If there is anything holding the album back, it’s the insistence on a radio-friendly unit shifter.
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Rob Ross
4 Min Read
Dear God, this is amazing. Not because it’s Big Star – let’s make one thing clear from the outset: I don’t like live albums as a rule of thumb; I…
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Justin Vellucci
2 Min Read
I still remember the CD. My Mudhoney collection was fairly impressive in ’93, having dug deep into the band’s Sub Pop soil, but the disc I found at Vintage Vinyl,…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Jaguwar began life as a trio, formed in Berlin, Germany by Oyèmi and Lemmy in 2012. Their drummer Chris signed up in 2014 to complete the current line-up; to date,…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
Ye gods, this is GOOD. Like “mega-good”. The moment the album started playing, I thought I was wrong and that this was an old Jimmy Smith album – A New…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
As the adage goes, good things come to those who wait, and Death of Lovers’ highly anticipated debut album is not an exception. This neo-post-punk outfit’s first release—the Buried Under…
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Rob Ross
5 Min Read
To start 2018 off the right way, it’s time to step into the Wayback Machine, circa the late ’70’s/early ’80’s in the New York/New Jersey area. My band was part…
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Justin Vellucci
1 Min Read
Pittsburgh has never been known, particularly, as a hub for post-rock, that fluid genre of “music for people who read books” that flirts with everything from shoegaze to math-rock. (We…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
There’s a strange familiarity to the sounds coming from the debut self-titled album by Chicago’s Lucille Furs. I know I’ve heard the sinister harpsichord sound; the swirling organs, the ethereal…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
According to the press release, “there are many moments, memories, people, and places stretched across Alex Rose’s Arcadian Pages. The debut album from the Los Angeles-born, Austin-raised musician is a…
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Rob Ross
1 Min Read
An interesting, left-field thing – a throwback, really. Kansas City native Anna St. Louis makes her debut on a cassette-only release, something you don’t expect in this day and age. …
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Rob Ross
3 Min Read
Here are the facts about Numero Group’s 3 C.D./4 L.P. set (with hardcover book), Savage Young Dü: Most of the tapes came from the collection of Terry Katzman, the former…
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Rob Ross
2 Min Read
This tenth (!) album from Michigan native May Erlewine isn’t (as one might guess) something you would usually find on my playlist, but every now and then, a welcome change…