Two Dog Garage – Pinboy purchase this album (MySpace) Two Dog Garage is Alex Kimmell, a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter who’s spent his career to date doing the usual 21st-century singer/songwriter…
Listening Booth
277 Articles
Ted Asregadoo
1 Min Read
Every summer, the city of San Francisco has a free concert series featuring noteworthy bands, and some that are yet-to-be-noted — at least in the United States, anyway.Á‚ Á‚ Case in…
Ted Asregadoo
1 Min Read
If music were like food, the Toadies’ new CD, No Deliverance, would be a steak and baked potato entree, with maybe a sprig of parsley thrown in. The meat and…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
A couple weeks ago, a friend and I went to see Jarvis Cocker play at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The opener was Kuroma, a name that neither my friend…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
Tepoztlan, Morelas, Mexico is a place known for Aztec magic and extra-terrestrial sightings — so it only seems natural that Conor Oberst would head down there to record his latest…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
Randy Newman will be 65 years old in November. On his first album of new material since 1999Á¢€â„¢s Bad Love, he emphatically demonstrates that he has not lost one bit…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
If there’s anything that was meant by the early Black Kids press, it wasn’t about hype or the power of the Internet, or the way that the music business is…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
The final entry in Ry CooderÁ¢€â„¢s California trilogy, I, Flathead finds Cooder exploring the Southern California drag-racing culture that centered on the stateÁ¢€â„¢s salt flats. Much like the first entry…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Brian Vogan – Little Songs (2008) purchase this album (CD Baby) I didn’t mean for it to be this way — and every time I review one of these, I…
Ted Asregadoo
1 Min Read
It was either Soren Kierkegaard or Wayne Campbell from WayneÁ¢€â„¢s World who said: Á¢€Å“Once you label me, you negate me.Á¢€ And so it goes with Sia Á¢€” whose latest release,…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Various Artists – Ten Out of Tenn, Volume 2 (2008) Way back in the Paleolithic, when I still fancied myself a recording artist/label owner, I spent some time in Nashville…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Andrew Ripp – Fifty Miles to Chicago (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Name an album Fifty Miles to Chicago — or pose for a cover shot while you’re walking in…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Brandon Schott – Golden State (2007) purchase this album (Amazon) Brandon Schott is a patient man. As those of you who read Jefitoblog might recall, I assembled a “staff” of…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Stylistically, Love as Laughter have jumped around a fair amount over 14 years of existence. Holy, the sixth release from frontman and founding member Sam Jayne (who seems to be…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Looking at the six years between The Devil, You + Me, the newest release from the Notwist, and Neon Golden, the release that threw them into American ears, leaves a…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
WeÁ¢€â„¢ve been hearing the Á¢€Å“rock is deadÁ¢€ pronouncements for so many years now that we donÁ¢€â„¢t even listen anymore. Á¢€Å“It is what it is,Á¢€ we blithely proclaim, pretending not to…
Mojo Flucke
1 Min Read
Here’s the deal: Every once in a while one stumbles upon a group or whatever that just knocks you on your butt and you gotta broadcast your discovery to the…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
Success is problematic for a band. When you’re flying under the radar, no one expects much from you. But then, when you deliver a breakthrough, as The Hold Steady did…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
When one thinks of survival, it conjures up images of barren islands, a lack of vital resources or, thanks to modern times, television shows where people are purposefully cast into…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
The word together implies the combination of parts — and the third full-length from Philadelphia’s Pattern Is Movement, All Together, perfectly represents that which its title suggests. There are many…
Ted Asregadoo
1 Min Read
I was digging through some old CDs the other day and happened across a compilation disc I made in the mid-’90s that had the title: Aimee Mann: My Miserable Life….
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Their fifth studio album finds My Morning Jacket attempting to fulfill their urge to not be evilly defined solely by one genre. They’ve banked on the same aesthetic for awhile:…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
For equitable purposes, it’s probably best to mentally separate Wolf Parade from their debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary. Not because it’s too good and they’ll never top it, and…
Ken Shane
2 Min Read
What do we have here? Two bands, two albums, one package. Well yes, and no. While the bands have different names, and very different styles, South San Gabriel is the…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Leeny and Steve – Be Nice (2008) purchase this album (CD Baby) Would you take career advice from a four-year-old? That’s the question that faced Ilene “Leeny” Altman and Steve…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Collette Savard – Zen Boyfriend (2008) purchase this album (Amazon) Her debut release, 2005’s Most Improved Cheerleader, was a mostly underwhelming porridge of folk granola and deadly earnest balladry —…
Taylor Long
2 Min Read
Comprised of material from their earliest singles, everything from Wooden Shjips’ Volume 1 was actually written before the material on their self-titled release from last year. Unfortunately, it shows. Wooden…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Pop Project – Stars of Stage and Screen (2008) purchase this album (Suburban Sprawl) Oh God, yes. I don’t know how I’ve managed to remain ignorant of this band…
Taylor Long
1 Min Read
Death Cab for Cutie isn’t the only band who threw fans off with an unusual single this year. Go ahead and add Sigur Ros to that list. When they released…
Ken Shane
1 Min Read
From a place apart Morpheus, God of dreams, awakes The artist Robert Mapplethorpe died from complications of AIDS in 1989. According to his great friend, Patti Smith, Á¢€Å“His mortal suffering…