Is it good or bad to sound too much like yourself?
Album Reviews
77 Articles
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
For Australian prog rocker Dan Webb, timeliness is everything. He set a self-imposed deadline to finish recording by Election Day and to release his new LP, Oedipus the King, on Inauguration…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
For awhile now, I’ve been intrigued by the burgeoning musical hotbed of Asheville, NC. I had a friend who worked in a coffee shop there who wanted to break into…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
If you’re like me, you get tired of the same old polished pop littering the iTunes store and Spotify streams, not to mention terrestrial radio. What happened to the down-and-dirty,…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
The music business of the last 50 years is dead. Everyone knows that. The few major labels left standing are all but on their last gasps. Artists can’t rely on…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
Last May, I profiled up-and-coming Australian pop outfit Monks of Mellonwah’s single “Never Been Good,” a taste of their then-in-the-works EP, Disconnect. Much to the relief of fans who’ve seen them on…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
From the beginning of time, we have told stories through music. Whether it’s an epic battle of good vs. evil or a tale of woe and heartbreak, setting poetry to…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
Although Slim Loris hails from the land of Ikea and Abba, the Swedish quartet embraces a lot of universal influences, many of whom are of interest to my regular readers….
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
With a background in punk, rock, and metal bands glimmering alongside a few pivotal roles in musicals like Sweeney Todd (in which he played the “demon barber”), Los Angeles-based artist Nic…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
The advantage (and sometimes curse) of being a recording artist in 2015 is that you can post something on the internet, be it via SoundCloud, YouTube, Bandcamp, or any other…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
A mainstay of the NYC cabaret and nightclub scene for the past half-decade, Anne Steele’s music is infectious, liberated, and downright happy. But underneath its exuberant hand claps and soaring…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
Traditionally, the colors blue and gray have been associated with the military because of the colors of the Union and Confederate uniforms in the Civil War. Perhaps that’s why it’s exceptionally…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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,…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
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…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
It’s not often that I get to write about a musician who’s talented and also loves jug bands. (See my bio below for why this matters.) So, immediately, chalk up a…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
Though upon first listen it’s evident that a whole host of influences came together to create the artist known as John Helix, the San Diego-based singer/songwriter himself uses Weltschmerz — a German…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
As synonymous with the New York every-man music scene as a protagonist in a Billy Joel Song, Dan Greenwald’s Workers have been a mainstay on the local scene for over…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
Sometimes when an artist is nondiscriminatory with his or her influences, the result is unfocused, muddy, and downright confusing. Many feel compelled to use a whole spice rack of ingredients…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
A lot of singer/songwriters pen songs with a conscience. But, unless they’re Bruce Springsteen, rarely do those tunes mix catchiness and a playful vibe with a biting edge and in-your-face…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
1 Min Read
With a name like “Billy Roberts and the Rough Riders,” one can almost hear the type of proto-barn-stomping, hard-folking, country-shocking rockers made-to-order on the band’s new album, The Last of the…
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Allison Johnelle Boron
2 Min Read
Progressive, experimental, and yet, so personal and universal. Woodstock, NY-based musician Ben Vita deviates from his history of politically-charged material and creates something truly extraordinary — and wholly refreshing. At…
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Brian Boone
1 Min Read
Record Store Day isn’t just in the spring anymore. The annual tradition now happens twice a year, once in the spring, and once on Black Friday. Since you’re already out…
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Thierry Côté
3 Min Read
Following the releases of new albums by David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine and Justin Timberlake, 2013 might go down as the year of the unexpected comeback (your move, Dr. Dre)….
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