For the love of music
Greetings, Rykarda! I’m not sure where in the world you are at the moment, but I hope all is well with you. It’s so good to be in touch with you again after first interviewing you in 2010 for this site. Your latest album, the masterful, arresting, and personal Against The Sun, has an April 15th release date for Europe and possible distro … [Read more...]
The press kit to this album nails it: Dormarion, it says, “is the sound of a man figuring out exactly who he is.” Give the guy who wrote this a raise, or maybe fire him, because the problem with this album is that it can’t figure out what it is. Michael Benjamin Lerner, the man and the band who is Telekinesis is wildly talented, but also … [Read more...]
The mysterious effects of remote Texan territory that births some of music’s most recent high points (here’s to Sonic Ranch for some of 2012’s best albums) is beginning to look more and more assured. Residing in Austin, instrumental band Balmorhea has always impressed with a calmly classical viewpoint, forming into a soft-forming, sometimes … [Read more...]
When I reviewed guitarist Sam Moss’s Eight Constructions for Delusions of Adequacy a little more than a year ago, I made a point to address his keen application of restraint to what could have otherwise been a piece of gratuitous showmanship. When virtuosity becomes a heedless exercise, what was once a spellbinding demonstration of unthinkable … [Read more...]
The first time Andrew Bird’s music graced my ears, I had the good fortune to be outside. On a balmy summer evening in August of 2008, I was in attendance at Tanglewood – the western Massachusetts summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra – meandering around the manicured lawns in preparation for a show being headlined by Wilco. … [Read more...]
Pensive guys with acoustic guitars and a flair for mystery have faired well in popular music over the years – just look at the singer/songwriter legacies left behind by luminaries like Nick Drake, Elliott Smith, and Ray LaMontagne. Jackson Emmer may at first present like one of these tortured souls, churning out deeply wounded biographical … [Read more...]
The Twilight Sad released a stripped-down acoustic EP as a free download in the spring of this year and it showcases the strength of the band’s bleak, stark, vivid lyrics and James Graham’s richly disaffected, emotive vocals. The songs on this acoustic EP originate from Forget the Night Ahead and The Wrong Car and are less overtly dramatic … [Read more...]
Hello Princess Chelsea – Your debut album Lil’ Golden Book in on the New Zealand label Lil Chief Records and is out in the U.S. on September 6th. Has it been released already in other countries or online? At the moment those are the two official release dates. However, fans from other countries can purchase the album online direct from Lil' … [Read more...]
You know how the music of classical composer Aaron Copland is indelibly linked to panoramic imagery of American life in the 20th century? I can’t help but sense a similar sort of jingoist pride when I listen to Portland’s Blitzen Trapper. Please don’t misunderstand me – I’m not setting out to argue that songs like “Wild Mountain … [Read more...]
The last time we heard from the Morning River Band in the spring of 2010, they were assiduously plugging their debut EP of golden-hued Americana. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Fields and buoyed by the ace performance of pedal steel guitarist Dennis Bonfiglio, the New Jersey quartet was long on charisma but lacking in development, with … [Read more...]