// Category Archive for: Music Reviews

Music Review: Daniel Romano, If I’ve Only One Time Askin’

By Melissa Bratcher

Daniel Romano’s new album, If I’ve Only One Time Askin’, is the best kind of time machine. It shares both DNA and feeling with country classics (Romano covers George Jones’s “Learning To Do Without Me” and does it with an panache that’s admirable) but there’s a modern edge to it as well. The songs bleed into each other, sometimes using a plucked bass line, a hum of neon. a chorus quietly fading, or a lo-fi version of the track that just played. This adds a rich dimension to the album, making it cohesive and fascinating, and keeping If I’ve Only One Time Askin’ from feeling like a self-consciously retro pastiche.

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Music Review: ¡Vamos!, Spiderbait

By Tim Murr

Chicago’s ¡Vamos! have released their debut full-length album, Spiderbait. It’s a raw, passionate, hook-filled, garage-punk slab of rock brilliance. This trio creates a big noise that may remind the listener of Teenage Fanclub by way of The Stooges without necessarily sounding like either band. They also remind me a fair bit of another great Midwest punk band, Columbus, OH’s Grafton.

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Music Review: Little Wings, Explains

By John Lane

Kyle Field, a.k.a. Little Wings, is an enigmatic, charismatic cat, and a little difficult to pin down in a world that demands we identify, tag, and shelve everything and every individual who comes down the pike. Since 2000, Field has released 11 albums marked with near-baritone, ropey vocals, lo-fi acoustic guitars, and sometimes makeshift percussion. His songs have been one continuous quasi-folky, poetic thread. He’s a modern-day Walt Whitman with less self-consciousness.

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Music Review: Direct Divide, Own Your Ocean

By Tyler Hodg

Seattle has been home to a number of incredible bands—Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Band of Horses, to name a few—and one up-and-coming group plans to prove they are worthy of being added to that list. With their latest EP Own Your Ocean, Direct Divide showcases their unique style of music through five songs of unapologetic symphonic-rock. While the EP isn’t absolutely perfect, it’s an ideal indication of what is to come from the clearly focused band.

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Music Review: The Dustbowl Revival, With A Lampshade On

By Melissa Bratcher

The Dustbowl Revival is the kind of band that isn’t easily classified. Are they bluegrass? Are they a brass band that uses mandolins? Are they a cabaret act? Whatever they are, it is easily brilliant.

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Music Review: Continental Drifters, Drifted: In The Beginning & Beyond

By Melissa Bratcher

If you didn’t know who the Continental Drifters were, and happened upon Drifted: In The Beginning & Beyond, you might be struck by the indelible, vivid lyrics of their songs, or perhaps the band’s excellent playing. Maybe their fine harmonies might get you. Or it could be the various singers in the band, each with their own honed, matchless style. Perhaps you would be drawn to the hooky Americana or the eclectic, delightful cover songs on disc two of this collection.

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Music Review: Institute, Catharsis

By Less Lee Moore

Tell me who’s got a conscience that’s more pure / A servant of God or a girl they call a whore?
—Institute, “Christian Right”

If you didn’t know they were from Austin, Texas, you might assume that Institute was from the UK. On Catharsis, they’ve got a laconic, sardonic edge that sometimes comes across like the post-punk of bands like Joy Division or Magazine, but at other times recalls The Minutemen. Regardless, don’t let Moses Brown’s disaffected, distorted vocals fool you into thinking these are dumb punks. Unlike a lot of other bands that trudge through the same fertile ground, Institute are sharp, smart, and firmly committed to not only their sound but their specific aesthetic.

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Music Review: Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free

By Melissa Bratcher

After his confessional, revelatory Southeastern from 2013, it would be forgivable for Jason Isbell to coast. Southeastern was huge: deeply personal, immediate, and gripping, not to mention successful. Isbell won Album of the Year, Song of the Year (for “Cover Me Up”), and Artist of the Year at the Americana awards. With his incredible new album, Something More Than Free, it’s clear Isbell isn’t going to take it easy.

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Music Review: Galactic, Into The Deep

By Melissa Bratcher

One of the genius things about New Orleans’ Galactic is their use of wildly diverse vocalists on their albums and tours. Each singer brings their own flavor, but no matter who is singing, the sound of the finely tuned Galactic machine is unmistakable. Their newest, Into The Deep, eschews their previous concept album themes (2007’s urban From The Corner To The Block, 2010’s bonanza of incredible NOLA artists Ya-Ka-May, and 2012’s Mardi Gras-themed Carnivale Electricos) and embraces a number of disparate singers, but never loses sight (or sound) that it is a Galactic album. And it is ripping.

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The Sword Release New Single For Upcoming High Country Album

By Tim Murr

I was late discovering The Sword. I came across their album Warp Riders at the library last year and checked it out based solely on the fact that there were tracks called “The Chronomancer I” and “The Chronomancer II.” Since I like a little sci-fi with my metal, I gave them a chance and just fell in love with the band’s brand of classic stoner metal.

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