Take cover! The new Peter Gabriel album Scratch My Back is a mixed bag of golden oldies and modern day artist songs. Mainly orchestral and sometimes radically reworked Gabriel tackles the songs with a mixture of glee and respect. The more subdued songs stand out - the melancholic piano and cello add texture to a slowed down version of Paul Simon's The Boy in the Bubble , and the strings in the Talking Heads' Listening Wind wrap the vocals like a comfy blanket. Pity that I Think it's Going to Rain Today [...]
photo: Heidi Greenwood Damien DeRose aka Peasant made some waves when he released his On The Ground album in the summer of 2008. On his sophomore release Shady Retreat he sounds more confident, having found his voice and being more adventurous in his arrangements. Acoustic Guitar and piano are still his main instruments. Spicing things up with organ has added another layer to his work. DeRose is evolving into Americana singer who should appeal to the the "in-the=know" crowd and, hopefully, [...]
Brooklyn country rockers The Morning Pages will release their full length Rising Rain , the follow-up of the band''s well received 2007 EP The Company You Keep . My Name Is Lion serves as a free taster. MP3: The Morning Pages - My Name Is Lion Live date: 03/11 The Living Room, New York, NY » themorningpages.com » myspace.com/themorningpages
Nashville based John Jorgenson is one of the world's greatest gypsy jazz guitarists, keeping the music of Django Reinhardt alive. A composer is his own right he is releasing two albums simultaneously.. One Stolen Night was made with his regular quintet, Istiqbal Gathering with the Orchestra Nashville, conducted by his long time musical friend Paul Gambill . One Stolen Night Europe in the Twnties and Thirties is brought back is a rollikcing cavalcade of guitar pickings, teh bulk of the material penned [...]
photo: Henk Otte It's hard to pin down the sound of Dutch quintet John Coffey . They come out swinging with three borderline hardcore songs on their new album Vanity before embarking on Soundgarden alike instrumental ditty called A Final Leap Ahead whcih serves as abridge for a string of three poppy rock songs pushed forward by chugging bass lines and subtle vocal harmonies, especially the exquisite Fingers and Knives . Hardcore vocals and pop clash for ...Meanwhile, at the Dog Track , [...]
Progressive groove outfit U-Melt have announced a massive tour promoting their forthcoming album Perfect World . The release party is a hometown show at The Bowery Ballroom in New York: 02/12 Castaway's, Ithaca, NY 02/13 Nietzsche's, Buffalo, NY 02/18 The Wheelhouse, Narragansett, RI 02/19 The North Star, Philadelphia, PA 02/20 The Bowery Ballroom, NY, NY (album release tarty) 02/25 8×10 Club, Baltimore, MD 02/26 Fri Sherman Theater, Stroudsburg, PA 02/27 [...]
Brooklyn band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings continue their quest for real soul music with a new album called I Learned the Hard Way . The title tracks has been available as a free download from Daptone Records . MP3: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - I Learned the Hard Way Live dates: 03/26 Snoe Down Winter Music Festival Rutland, VT 04/17 Wanee Festival Live Oak, FL 04/30 Apollo Theater New York, NY [...]
photo: C Taylor Crothers Folk jam band The String Cheese Incident reunite for a three day stand at Red Rocks and the festival at Horning's Hideout. These are the first shows after the one-off performance at Rothbury last year. 07/23 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO 07/24 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO 07/25 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO 07/29-08/01 Horning's Hideout, North Plains, OR (full festival line-up and schedule [...]
Todd photo: Lynn Goldsmith Here Comes The Flood proudly presents Crossroads , a track from the forthcoming new Todd Rundgen album Todd Rundgren's Johnson , reinterpretating the songs of legendary blues man Robert Johnson (1911-1938). MP3: Todd Rundgren's Johnson - Crossroads The world premiere of Todd Rundgren's Johnson was at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, San Francisco, December 1, 2009. Rundgren played a 45 minute set of Robert Johnson songs, with Prairie [...]
The Twin Tigers hail form Athens, GA, but they look to Ireland and Scotland for musical inspiration sounding like the bastard children of U2 and the Jesus and Mary Chain. They go for the grandiose in a subdued way. For such a fiercely named band they are pretty tame. Gray Waves is an aptly title for their full length. The songs rise and fall, but could use a bit of colour to make them stand out amongst the overcrowded shoegaze crowd. Adding lots of echo and other effects to the vocals don't equal [...]
Philly ska band Ruder Than You have been at it for more than twenty years. Their hard work never brought them world fame, but a strong cult following has stayed with them. Their new album Creation Sounds kicks off with the instrumental pRaise HaVoC and comes with a tasty bass riff and jangling guitar that will appeal to Primus fans ending with a horns blast that segues into the ska party anthem Baby Tonight . A bit of jazz is thrown in for the title track Creation Sounds and then [...]
Gov't Mule 2009/01/28 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN Set 1: Tuning Brand New Angel Brokedown On The Brazos Shape I'm In (The Band) Railroad Boy Monday Mourning Meltdown Kind of Bird Gordon James Ventilator Blues * (Rolling Stones) Dear Prudence * (The Beatles) Set 2: Tuning Maggot Brain (Funkadelic) [...]
The second edition Harvest Of Hope Fest will be held at St. John's Fairgrounds in St. Augustine, FL - March 12-14. Over 70 acts have been confirmed for a good cause. Billy Bragg , Twin Tigers and Dead Confederate are among the performers: The second annual fundrasier Harvest of Hope Foundation Music and Arts Festival, March 12-14th, 2010, located at the St. Johns County Fairgrounds in St. Augustine, Florida features a three day, multiple stage alternative music festival that is unique in many ways, but mostly because [...]
Gov't Mule 2009/01/29 Taft Theatre Cincinatti, OH Disc I 1st Set Crowd Blindman In The Dark Mr. High And Might Steppin' Lightly * Inside Outside Woman Blues Disc II 1st Set Con't Brokedown On The Brazos > Rockin' Horse > Thorazine Shuffle Feel Like Breakin' Up Somebody's Home # Peter Solo > [...]
On February 16, Stockholm Syndrome will release a 7-song EP recorded live at Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz last September, including four previously unreleased tracks. There hasn't been aan album since theri 2004 debut Holly Happy Hour , mainly because it's basically a side-project of the band members. Stockholm Syndrome : Dave Schools: bass Jerry Joseph: guitar, vocals. Eric McFadden: guitar Danny Louis: keyboards Wally Ingram: drums They will be on the road again in February and March: [...]
photo: Skid Severson Singer-songwriter Tracy Shedd used the piano as her main instrument for her new EP88 . With husband James Ridden riding shotgun on guitar, the couple play up a gentle storm of lush melodies. The big numbers are the drawn out Husbands & Wives , with meandering guitar striking up a conversation with the percussive piano motives, and West Inn Love , with the added glow of a lonesome cello. Beautiful and bittersweet, the only flaw of this collection is it [...]
Geoff Halliday and Ryan Sweeny are Hands , an LA duo that mashes traditional acoustic picking with hypnotic beats and pulses served on top of harmonized soft spoken lyrics. They released an EP called Cities in 2008 and the new single Hold is more electronic with plenty of echo and a nice drum sound. This is the kind of stuff that has "music geeks only" written all over it - it's that good. Assorted trivia: all their songs have one word titles. They wrote the music for [...]
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Doug Keith used to be a member of the rather brilliantly named punk band The Gods Hate Kansas , before he went solo with an album called Here's To Outliving Me in 2009. Reviews were friendly and with the follow-up release The Lucky Ones he changes the main mode of his songs to folk-tinged pop ( The Lowest Low , On the Kid & the Days ) with some hints of punk rock riffing thrown in for good measure ( Maria del Bosco ). [...]
Memphis folk soul band Star & Micey have upped yet another freebie. The Dockside Demos EP contains four songs that weren't included on their self-titled debut album . They sound pretty smooth and it makes you wonder why a track like Taylor was shelved. I Love You on the other hand is a bit too schmaltzy, not unlike the Alessi Brothers, but sung in a lower register. Tracks: There Is A Love (Demo) I Think [...]
Who: Yeasayer with single #2 of Odd Blood. What: I’ve gotta admit that their first single ( Ambling Alp ) didn’t make me run to [...]More about Yeasayer
Actually, it’ll technically be YOU breaking your legs, “The Warning”’s lyrics notwithstanding – but you can blame it on Hot Chip. Here’s why: first, find a [...]More about Hot Chip
I dag dök nya albumet från Massive Attack, Heligoland, upp på Spotify. Min recension: Helt jävla grymt! Splitting The Atom fick vi ju [...]More about Massive Attack
My friends and I created a mixtape club a few years back with the idea that we'd meet, share mixtapes, listen to mixtapes, eat pizza and have a [...]More about Vampire Weekend
This has been a tough week as a literature teacher. Brian alluded to the heartfelt loss we feel as a reading community at the [...]More about Phoenix
NOTE: I didn’t include singles for 2010 albums like “Cousins” and “Norway” because in my mind they are 2010 songs. So that’s why they are not [...]More about St. Vincent
aesop rock - daylight tor - the cn tower can work it out (final fantasy feat. q-tip) (Q-tip never lets down. Tor's [...]More about Kid Cudi
To neatly bookend the Ten For '10 series, I thought I would recap the bands featured and throw in a few releases by established artists. Y'know, [...]More about Beach House
Sorry for not having the Graboid up last week, but I’ve included those releases (Spoon, Surfer Blood, Editors) in with the already incredibly amount of great releases that are [...]More about Spoon
Lil Wayne: Rebirth Lil Wayne finally releases Rebirth, after several delays. The album represents the rapper's first foray into rock music.Like many other entertainers, [...]More about Lil' Wayne
The Strange Boys - Be Brave
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB | UNDERCOVER MARTYN
Phonat - "Love Hits The Fan" music video
Die Antwoord - Enter The Ninja (Official)
Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields - Official Trailer
Wolfmother – White Feather (Acid Washed remix)
NEW MAJOR LAZER
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
This Week's Other Releases
