Blog: Hyperbolium

Two sides of Carole King Brill Building legend Carole King has really had two full music careers. Starting in the late 1950s and flourishing in the 1960s, she was part of the legendary stable of New York City songwriters who took their name from the sister building to the one in which they wrote their effervescent gems for Don Kirshner's Aldon Music. Together with Gerry Goffin, King wrote some of the most memorable songs of the 1960s, scribing landmark sides for the Shirelles, Everly Brothers, Drifters, Chiffons, Monkees, Aretha Franklin, and dozens more. [...]

The first single from Reno Bo's debut album, Happenings and Other Things , is graced with this artist-animated video. Bo's drawn on the styles of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, the film Yellow Submarine and television's Schoolhouse Rock . And the song is a great slice of 70s-inflected rock. Full album review forthcoming, but for now, enjoy the video!

Traditional bluegrass keyed by warm lead and harmony vocals Guitarist Audie Blaylock and his hot-shot bluegrass group return with their second release in as many years, and it's another fine album of feeling vocals, tight-harmonies and finely crafted musicianship. The quintet's been reduced to a quartet with the departure of mandolinist Jason Johnson, but their sound doesn't suffer, as fiddler Patrick McAvinue performs double duty. The group's instrumental talents live up to their hot-picking name, but it's the more reserved playing that's their real strength. McAvinue's work on the lovelorn and lonesome "All I [...]

Atmospheric indie-pop After releasing their second album, The Knot , just last year, this Baltimore duo returns with a five song EP that adds new dimension to their guitar-and-drums indie-pop. The quiet-loud contrasts, downbeat mood and buried vocals are replaced by a more outgoing tone on the opening "My Neighbor," a romping waltz that sounds like a modern-rock version of Fragile -era Yes. The quiet/loud is reversed with the hard-charging verse and sedate chorus of "Emmylou," driven by manic guitars and harmonica that give [...]

• Wye Oak - I Hope You Die

Tommy James' third solo LP offers Nashville-bred country-soul After charting fourteen Top 40 hits with the Shondells, Tommy James began a solo career on the heels of a temporary group hiatus that turned permanent. His second solo release, Christian of the World , yielded two big hits ("Draggin' the Line" and "I'm Comin' Home"), but this third solo effort – recorded in Nashville, produced by Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore, and featuring the talents of Music City's finest studio players – didn't catch on with either pop or country radio. [...]

Pop band's swansong muscles up heavy rock and soul By the time of this album's 1970 release, Tommy James and the Shondells had morphed from the garage/frat-rock of "Hanky Panky" to the bubblegum of "I Think We're Alone Now" to the pop psych of "Crimson and Clover" to the gospel-soul of "Sweet Cherry Wine." For this last album as a group – James would fly solo with a self-titled album later in the year – they reduced the psychedelic quotient from Crimson & Clover and experimental flights of [...]

James and company solidify and refine their pop Capitalizing on the success of the previous year's pop-oriented I Think We're Alone Now , Tommy James and the Shondells paired again with producers Bo Gentry and Richie Cordell to cut their second album of 1967. The album cover depicts the group in a field of blossoms, but that's as close to flower-power that the Shondells came on this album. There are production touches of the era, including the tight segue between the first two tracks, the feedback, fades and false [...]

Rock singles-band transitions to studio pop Tommy James and The Shondells kicked around their Michigan stomping grounds for several years before finding regional success in 1963 with a cover of Barry & Greenwich's "Hanky Panky." By the time the single was rediscovered two years later by a Pittsburgh radio station, the original Shondells had gone their separate ways. James recruited a band to be the new Shondells, and in 1966 toured behind the single, cut a deal with Roulette Records and turned their flop into a chart-topping hit. Line-up changes ensued and the band [...]

Teriffic Merseybeat sounds from the heart of the punk era Amid the skinny ties, safety pins and DIY ethos of late-70s punk rock, a few brave souls stood in contrast with well-crafted pop and tunefully sung harmonies. Among them, the Poppees most visibly swathed their sleeves with Beatles influences. Well, "influences," is probably an understatement. Though they weren't a Beatles tribute band, per se, "homage" is a more accurate description of the group's sound. Like the bands sprung directly from the Beatles' wake (e.g., Uruguay's Los Shakers, Poland's Czerwone Gitary and New Jersey's Knickerbockers), [...]

• The Poppees - Jealousy

Forceful contemporary acoustic and bluegrass sounds There's a power to this sextet's progressive acoustic and bluegrass sounds that leans into the listener like a poke in the chest. The instruments are mostly the standard acoustic assortment, but the verve with which they're picked, and the group's punchy vocal harmonies are heavier than one might expect from a contemporary acoustic outfit. As on their previous self-titled album, the band writes many of their own songs, generally avoids the standard bluegrass canon and stretch their genre with an acoustic reworking of U2's "In God's Country." The [...]

• Infamous Stringdusters - All the Same

The singing cowboy sings of Old Mexico Varese continues to round-up the stray works of singing cowboy Gene Autry, giving grown-up buckaroos a convenient place to find ephemeral performances from film and radio. Their latest volume corrals twenty Mexico-themed tunes from Autry's feature films and Melody Ranch radio show. Among the titles collected here are some of Autry's most celebrated, including "Mexicali Rose," and movie themes "South of the Border" and "Gaucho Serenade." The material is mostly drawn from Autry's prime in the 1940s, but reaches back to [...]

Three Decemberists (plus two) add folk, gypsy and classical flavors This release debuts the collaboration of three Decemberists (instrumentalist Chris Funk, bassist Nat Query and accordionist Jenny Conlee) and two players from the Portland scene (violinist/vocliast Annalisa Tornfelt and guitarist Jon Neufeld). Though the instruments are mostly common to Sugar Hill's bluegrass and string bands, the results are quite different. Tornfelt's violin slashes and haunts and together with Chris Funk's bazouki and Conlee's accordion adds gypsy touches to several songs. Tornfelt can also bow with the ferocity of a classical player and with Conlee [...]

• Black Prairie - Red Rocking Chair

Young country singer with a jones for early country style Parsons' young years, rosy complexion and boy-next-door good looks hardly prepare you for the similarity his voice holds to that of Hank Williams Sr. on the opening track. It's no accident, as his debut pays tribute to the country music of Williams' era, and his grassroots marketing includes Little Jimmy Dickens pitching the CD in a spot airing on RFD-TV. Parson's is loyal to what he considers the golden era of the Grand Ole Opry and sings with a vibrato in his voice that [...]

Winsome teenage pop written and sung by a teenager The eighteen-year-old Indiana-born Chase Coy is sprung from the same youthful fountain as Taylor Swift. But absent the marketing that's propelled Ms. Swift to superstardom, Coy's music retains a youthful sweetness that's not yet been turned into fodder for videos and arenas. He's either the real deal or the product of a marketing flack clever enough to blog a picture of Coy's girlfriend and the explanation "she is the source of every love song I've written in the past 1 year, 2 months, and 17 [...]

Throwback power-pop and rock with modern energy Okay, their white shirts say "children of The Knack ," which would also make them grandchildren of the Beatles. And with Doug Fieger having passed away last month, it's great to hear the next generation carrying the torch for power-pop and rock. Raised in Lake Charles, LA, the Research Turtles could easily have been an Americana or redneck rock band, but they latched onto classic pop and rock sounds of the '60s, '70s and '80s, kicked up the tempo and turned up their electric [...]

• Research Turtles - Mission

Hook-filled synthpop ear-candy NightWaves are a Los Angeles duo (Kyle Petersen and Josh Legg) whose synthpop is heavy on the hooks of classic radio pop. Their latest single is the sort of catchy pop confection that once populated MTV and formed a pillar of '80s New Wave formats. It combines layers of synthesizers with an insistent rhythm guitar, a memorable vocal and a killer chorus. If you miss the Buggles, Human League, Depeche Mode, Yazoo (and the offshoot Assembly) and OMD, you're sure to love this. If you fashion yourself a remixologist, [...]

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Invigorating mix of rock 'n' roll, production pop, Tex-Mex and more Among the most intriguing aspects of this San Antonio quartet's second album is that you're never quite sure what you're listening to. Is it taking cues from early rock? California production pop? Stax soul? Tex-Mex? Neo-psychedelic grunge? The answer is 'yes' to all. At times, like the Beach Boys '65-inspired "Younger Days," the influence is pure honorific. Other antecedents are amalgamated, such as the suggestions of Little Richard and Thee Midniters in the early rock 'n' soul of "Mama's Cookin." Others are honored [...]

One of rock's great voices returns with something to say Peter Wolf's first new release in eight years will instantly make fans realize just how big a hole his absence left in their lives. It will also make you long for a time when cool rock music was everywhere, could be heard regularly on the radio, and didn't need adjectives to claim it independent of the mainstream – it was the mainstream. Wolf's solo works have always retained the fire of his earlier sides with the J. Geils Band, but they were [...]

With this season's American Idol so painfully dull (Kara and Ellen taking up space, Paula vanished, Simon checked out and no standout contestants), it's unsurprising that Taiwanese singer Lin Yu Chun's performance of "I Will Always Love You" leaves his American counterparts in the dust, bowl haircut and all.

Four-LPs-on-two-CDs reissue of Ray Charles' jazz sides Ray Charles' helped inaugurate the Impulse! with this 1961 release, the label's second album. Produced by Creed Taylor, and recorded in the same New Jersey studios that hosted Jimmy Smith and other Blue Note greats, Charles sat himself behind a Hammond B-3 and together with key members of the Count Basie band, he swung arrangements written by Quincy Jones and Ralph Burns. From the opening horn stabs of "From the Heart" it's clear that this band plays big, brassy and hard, yet Charles keeps it cool on [...]