Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cardinology (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) It’s been fashionable for the last few years to slag Ryan Adams at every turn. There’s no doubt that…
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277 Articles
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Tipsy – Buzzz (Ipecac, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) They call their music “drunktronica,” explain the seven-year layoff between this and their previous release by saying they were “distracted by…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Rosie Thomas – A Very Rosie Christmas (Nettwerk, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Okay, yes, I know — everyone hates Christmas music, and anyway, we’re about to bombard you poor…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Miranda Lee Richards – Light of X (Nettwerk, 2009) purchase this album (Amazon) She took guitar lessons from Kirk Hammett and R. Crumb was her godfather, but don’t expect shredding…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
October 30, 2002 – It was close to the end when Warren Zevon made what everyone knew would be his final appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. The cancer…
Ted Asregadoo
2 Min Read
The Cure – 4:13 Dream (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) For bands like the Cure, that have been able to stick it out for 30 years of recording and touring,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Cheap Trick – BUDOKAN! (Sony/Legacy, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) On the surface, I grant you, this looks like a terrible idea, especially if you’re a Cheap Trick fan. Sony…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Eric Hutchinson – Sounds Like This (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Nine times out of 10, I’ve got to believe that a singer/songwriter who got a crucial career break from…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
When I was in my early 20s, I worked for a major concert promoter here in New Jersey. I recall that each time I walked into his office, I would…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Ry Cooder – The UFO Has Landed (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) It’s a hundred degrees in the shade, easy, and you’ve been hiding from the worst of the heat…
Scott Malchus
1 Min Read
Certain albums deserve to be heard outside the confines of small headphone speakers and cranked through the stereos of traveling cars speeding down the freeway.Á‚ The Á¢€â„¢59 Sound, the sophomore…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Steadily making its way around the Internet, the Chunk of Change EP by Massachusetts’ Passion Pit started out as a Valentine’s Day gift to founder Michael Angelakos’ girlfriend. Angelakos wrote…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
From time to time, the price bands pay for innovation is the inability of music writers to accurately capture what they’re doing. It’s a strange irony that the bands most…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
In the fashion world, patchwork, the design concept that calls for small pieces put together as part of a larger design, might be considered pejorative. But when it comes to…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
Like many other people, I welcomed Lucinda Williams into my life with the release of the Grammy-winning Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, in 1998. Over the course of the…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Taj Mahal – Maestro (Heads Up, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Maestro celebrates Taj Mahal’s 40th anniversary as a recording artist, and true to contrarian form, Mr. Mahal has elected…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Ben Folds – Way to Normal (Epic, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Ben Folds has always been an artist I’ve appreciated more in theory than in practice. I’ve appreciated the…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Joshua Radin – Simple Times (Mom & Pop, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) When Joshua Radin’s new record, Simple Times, arrived unbidden on my doorstep, I assumed the worst, because…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Tony Lucca – Come Around Again (Lucca Music, 2008) purchase this album (CD Baby) Like a lot of white suburban teens, I spent a good portion of the early ’90s…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Creedence Clearwater Revival – 40th Anniversary Reissues (Fantasy, 2008) (six separate CDs — see below for purchase links) Okay, first things first — I realize the image above is for…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Nina Simone – To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story (Legacy, 2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Nina Simone made her concert debut in the early ’40s, as a 10-year-old girl…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
Work or play. Family or friends. Protein or carbohydrates. Life is about seeking balance. Lindsey Buckingham has been seeking balance too. In his case, the challenge is to balance his…
Ted Asregadoo
2 Min Read
3rd Rail has been around for about 10 years and, according to their MySpace page, were named Á¢€Å“Best Unsigned Band in CaliforniaÁ¢€ at the California Music Awards. Having been in…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Or, the Whale – Light Poles and Pines (self-released, 2007) purchase this album (CD Baby) I give all the credit in the world to this band’s publicist. Instead of holding…
Robert Cass
2 Min Read
Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Todd Rundgren’s last two albums have been released in election years. But Todd is Godd, after all, so I have to assume there’s some…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Jason Reeves – The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (And Other Frightening Tales) purchase this album (Amazon) Think The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (and Other Frightening Tales) is a long title?…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
Christmas Eve, 1970. I was at the Fillmore East to see Laura Nyro. A month earlier, Nyro had released her fourth album, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat, and it…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Amie Miriello, I Came Around (BellaSonic/Jive/Zomba) purchase this album (Amazon) The current boomlet of female singer-songwriters hasnÁ¢€â„¢t yet spawned a Lilith Fair revival, but you can just feel one coming…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
Brian Wilson – That Lucky Old Sun purchase this album (Amazon) Á¢€Å“Genius is the ability to make something very complex seem very simple.Á¢€ There goes my lead. Brian Wilson speaks…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Gabe Dixon Band – The Gabe Dixon Band (Fantasy) purchase this CD (Amazon) I was never any good at math, but I know enough to understand the basic laws…