// Category Archive for: Current Faves

Music Review: The Story So Far, The Story So Far

By Tyler Hodg

Pop-punk may not be on top of the world like it was in the early 2000s, but it’s still a major underground scene. The Story So Far has found success in that very scene and with the release of their self-titled third album, The Story So Far, the band continues to create music in the same vein that they have since their formation. For fans of their previous work that don’t care to see major evolution, this latest album from the group is perfect. For fans of their previous work that would like to see the band branch out and incorporate new styles and show significant growth, disappointment may be imminent.

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Music Review: Jamie Lin Wilson, Holidays & Wedding Rings

By Melissa Bratcher

Jamie Lin Wilson’s (The Trishas) solo debut, Holidays & Wedding Rings, has the trappings of a classic country album: women looking for love and taking it where they can find it, heartbreak, cheating, death, all with a hearty dose of mandolin and lap steel to anchor the songs. Wilson has a wonderful twang in her vocals, and indeed, a dusty road of Texas runs through the songs. The thing that sets Holidays & Wedding Rings apart is Wilson’s songwriting. There are unvarnished truths in her lyrics, and she doesn’t shy away from them.

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Music Review: The Grahams, Glory Bound

By Melissa Bratcher

There’s something amazing about The Grahams’ newest album, Glory Bound. It feels absolutely timeless. Alyssa Graham has an unaffected, incredibly powerful voice and the songs feel as if they could have been pulled from country radio in the ‘70s (the last truly excellent country era). There’s an ease to these songs, borne of a couple who have known each other since they were children, and now that they’re married, make the kind of music that feels as if it has always existed: rooted in the earth, clicking along train tracks through the countryside, forever.

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Music Review: Ty Segall and King Tuff, Live At Pickathon

By Less Lee Moore

Pickathon aims to answer the question, “What does it take to be the best weekend festival of the year for music lovers?” 2015 marks the fifteenth year of this unique festival, known for scheduling a diverse blend of musical acts.

Easy Sound has just released a vinyl only split 12″ of Ty Segall and King Tuff performing at the 2013 festival, which seems appropriate considering the history of Pickathon. Segall takes the first half, with six songs that are fairly stripped down, considering his reputation as a shredder.

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Music Review: The Dead Ships, EP I

By Tyler Hodg

Produced by Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, The Dead Ships’ EP I is now available for those wishing to listen to some well-crafted and diverse tracks. Having one full-length album already under their belts, the Los Angeles band brings the heat once again with their latest release and it doesn’t take long to fall under its hypnotic spell; in fact, just one listen will do the trick.

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Music Review: Banditos, Banditos

By Melissa Bratcher

When was the last time you heard a kick-ass kazoo solo (or even a bad one)? On the Banditos’ self-titled debut you’ll find one, and realize that you don’t hear enough kazoo in your daily life. And while that’s an interesting moment on Banditos, there is so much more to dig. The band is tight, taking disparate influences and deftly weaving them into a sound that is completely their own. It’s an incredibly assured, fully formed debut featuring smart songwriting and three vocalists who each add their own flavor to the songs.

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Music Review: Paul Revere and the Raiders, Revolution! (Reissue)

By Melissa Bratcher

Paul Revere and the Raiders were weirder than they got credit for. In 1967, during the making of their Revolution! album, lead singer Mark Lindsay was living at 10050 Cielo Drive with producer/musician Terry Melcher, making music and doing the sorts of things that young rock stars do. Paul Revere, the band’s namesake, wasn’t in the studio much, having been relegated to playing chords on the organ and taking a backseat to Lindsay’s musical ambition and insane charisma. This left Lindsay and Melcher free to make Revolution! more experimental and freewheeling than other Raiders outings, with a host of the finest session musicians (Ry Cooder! Taj Mahal! Hal Blaine! Glen Campbell!). And Revolution! has some excellently weird moments.

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Music Review: Them Are Us Too, Remain

By Less Lee Moore

In the press release for Remain, the debut album from southern California duo Them Are Us Too, the band is compared to both Cocteau Twins and The Sundays. It’s a description that is not an exaggeration.

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Music Review: Various Artists, Rock! Wreck! & Rule!

By Melissa Bratcher

What do you get when you marry B-movie sensibilities with punk ethos and rockabilly’s hard driving, stand-up bass flavored beats? Did you answer “psychobilly?” Of course you did.

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Music Review: Jacco Gardner, Hypnophobia

By Melissa Bratcher

On Hypnophobia, the follow up to Dutch multi-instrumentalist/producer Jacco Gardner’s 2013 Cabinet Of Curiosities, the lines between sleeping and waking are blurred. Hypnophobia is dream-like and gauzy, with gorgeous, hazy melodies. It feels like Syd Barrett joined the Beatles.

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