The June Umbrella – The June Umbrella (2007)purchase this album (CD Baby)Review by Jamie Lyon According to their bio, The June Umbrella are a four-piece band from Eugene, Oregon with…
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Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
A Brokeheart Pro – The Kitten Next Door (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby)Review by Jamie Lyon As someone once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates Á¢€” you never…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Paul Sabo – Just Like You (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby) Review by David Schrimpf One-man band records have always been interesting to me. Sometimes an artist feels it’s necessary…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Babelshack – Return of the Bottomfeeder (2007)purchase this album (CD Baby) Review by Stewrat Any band that would play someplace called Burt’s Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque is okay by me….
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
The Long Afternoon – The Luxury Problem (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby) Review by Rob Smith (EightE1) Everybody loves a power trio. You might be a Rush person. You might…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Ed James – …In the 21st Century (2006) purchase this album (CD Baby) Power pop lovers have always had it rough. The music is tough to write and record properly,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Ellsworth – American Compost (2007)purchase this album (CD Baby) His performing career is about as old as I am (and much more dignified Á¢€” he’s rubbed shoulders with Leon Russell,…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Mister Fusty – Honest Blundering (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby) Review by Jamie Lyon Back in 2000, when Damon Gough released the first Badly Drawn Boy disc The Hour of…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Alexis Gideon – Welcome Song (2007)purchase this album (Amazon) Alexis Gideon is one-half of Chicago’s preeminent transvestite rap duo, Princess, which is why you’ve probably never heard of him, and…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Schnitzel – Southbound Freight (2005)purchase this album (CD Baby) Okay, so first of all, let’s state the obvious: Schnitzel needs to change its name. Outside of maybe making them a…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Brett Dennen – So Much More (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Does Dualtone ever release a bad album? Seriously. If you aren’t sampling the label’s wares on at least a semi-regular…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Turnpike Glow – Rush Home (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby) Longtime bloggy friends 75orless Records recently licensed this eight-song EP from Italy’s Turnpike Glow, which is how I ended up…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Lipstik – Everything is Good (2006)purchase this album (CD Baby) Lipstik is positioning itself as a 21st century American heartland rock band, but Á¢€” as is often the case when…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Amos Lee – Supply and Demand (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Those who loved Lee’s 2005 debut are going to lap up Supply and Demand with a spoon. Those who dismissed…
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Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Indigo Girls – Despite Our Differences (2006) purchase this album (Amazon) Feel bad for the Indigo Girls. Not only have they become an easy punchline for granola-spoofing practitioners of snark…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Leigh Nash – Blue on Blue (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) You probably don’t know Leigh Nash by name, but you more than likely know her voice; as the lead singer…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau – What If It Works? (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) He’s an exalted power-pop god, so naturally, almost no one has ever heard of Scott…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
The Tender Box – The Score (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Before getting too far into The Score, let me just say, in the interest of full disclosure, that if this…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Tom Petty – Highway Companion (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) The waiting is the hardest part. Tom Petty knows it Á¢€” he said so in 1981 Á¢€” and his fans know…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Don Dixon – The Entire Combustible World in One Small Room (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) As concept albums go, Don Dixon’s latest — ten songs about rooms — sounds like…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Ron Sexsmith – Time Being (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) This may surprise you, given the periodic glimpses of my personal politics I’ve let seep into what is supposedly music criticism,…
Jeff Giles
3 Min Read
Billy Joel – 12 Gardens Live (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) For as long as people have been able to buy music, old music-loving farts have sat around griping about how…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Dr. John – Mercernary (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Being a lifelong, unrepentant music geek, I sometimes forget how my perspective on this or that performer is very different from that…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – The River in Reverse (2006) purchase this album (Amazon) Okay, true confession time: I am not now, and have never been, much of an…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Live – Songs from Black Mountain (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Am I the only person perplexed by the fact that Live has a major-label deal in 2006? I’m not really…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Cheap Trick – Rockford (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Cheap Trick fans are a long-suffering bunch. You Guns & Roses fanboys who’ve been waiting for Chinese Democracy all these years —…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
David Mead – Tangerine (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) Goddammit, I was supposed to have written about this album like two weeks ago, but my order (yes, from those pricks at…
Jeff Giles
1 Min Read
Jon Auer – Songs from the Year of Our Demisepurchase this album (Amazon) Despite having made a Posies detour in Bootleg City a few weeks back, I’ve never been a…
Jeff Giles
2 Min Read
Toots Thielemans – One More for the Road (2006)purchase this album (Amazon) In 1984, at what was probably the absolute peak of his popularity, Billy Joel and MTV decided to…