Album Reviews

Members of Pinback, Hella, Mock Orange and more, team up on Byre’s new Here In Dead Lights EP, due out on October 11th. With leader, Aaron Tanner (Off-Ox), and Zach Zint (Thunder Dreamer) also in the band, you don’t get this type of combo just anywhere. It doesn’t matter what …

A strutting groove meets a sizzling guitar melody in “Miles Upon Your Heart,” one of the eleven songs on Dave Vargo’s new record Spaces in Between, and although the harmony that Vargo conjures up in this track is among the sharper that he’s shared with us in his career, it’s joined …

I’ve been listening to Cassidy Waring’s new single “Nostalgia” non-stop since I received the link for review. It’s a deeply personal and touching track with a message that is universal to any listener. As it’s sung in the bridge: “Hard times, sweet to remember. Sweet times, hard to forget.” That …

A harmonica moans a grim melody at the start of Brother Spellbinder’s “Aching Eyes,” and in the shadow of its glare we discover a treasure chest of textured string play and siren-like singing just waiting to seduce us in this selection from the band’s new EP We Were Children Yesterday. Eclectic, …

Canadian natives Sights & Sounds are finally back with their second full length album, No Virtue. The band burst onto the scene almost ten years ago with their debut album Monolith, and apart from an EP in 2013, have been quiet ever since. With loads of experience touring around the …

In the Next Life deliver one of the most brutal melodic rock EPs of the season in their new record 4FriendsInARoomWithAGun, a five-song affair that is best described as a sonic colon cleansing outfitted with striking vocals, intricate riffing and freewheeling lyrical diatribes. As indebted to proto-grunge ala Malfunkshun, Gruntruck and …

The last time Detroit rapper Danny Brown released an album (2016’s Atrocity Exhibition), the rap’s funniest star chronicled his downward spiral with drug and alcohol addiction. Three years later, Brown gets a chance to show listeners his growth with uknowhatimsayin¿. The album, full of eclectic beats from executive producer Q-Tip, …

Most every great blues album unpacks a lot of emotions inside of its tracklist, and in this way, Alex Lopez’s Yours Truly, Me… is no different than most of its historical brethren. Where Lopez sets himself apart in this record isn’t in his approach, but in his means of expression – in …

Ian Bouras’ live DVD collection A Chipmunk’s Interpretation of Space is built around his long-established technique of “looping” guitar sounds – recording an initial passage, replaying it, then overdubbing new passages to co-exist with the first. It may sound somewhat simplistic to the layman, but this style takes more than a …

For the past decade, legendary guitar hero Slash has been working nonstop within his various projects in the music and entertainment industry. Between getting back together with Gun N’ Roses, producing horror films and finding time to advance his solo career, it seems like the top hat wearing man never …

Fitzsimon and Brogan are a pop-rock duo based in London. After two successful albums, featuring celebrity guest musicians such as Dave Bronze, Tobias Boshell, and The Art Of Noise, they are back with a new release, a fifteen-tracks LP called The Girl Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the …

Jesh Yancey is piling the bluesy grit, countrified swing and rock n’ roll tenacity on pretty thick in his record Maybe It’s The Drugs, but one thing he’s stopping short of in this all-new, five-track slab of Americana is overindulgence. In songs like “Ridin’ High” and “When in Rome,” Yancey exhibits …