Music Review: Craig Marshall, After All

By Melissa Bratcher

Austin-based Craig Marshall strives to make music that is timeless and familiar. On his latest album, After All, he has achieved that in spades. With the help of his producer, Robert Harrison of Cotton Mather, Marshall dips in and out of genres easily, and handles each with great deftness.

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Dark Palms Release Heavy, Amazing Single “Ghost Horse”

By Tim Murr

Oh, Dark Palms, where have you been all my life? Their new single, “Ghost Horse, is a post-punk, fuzzed-out trip into pure American noir. I’m officially very excited for Dark Palms’ forthcoming debut album, Hoxbar Ghost Town on Rock Therapy Records.

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Music Review: Vince Guaraldi Trio, Peanuts Greatest Hits

By Melissa Bratcher

Is there a more perfect marriage of image and sound than Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi’s music? Guaraldi’s loose, jazzy scores brought a rich dimension to Charles Schultz’s gang of cartoon kids, elevating the Peanuts TV specials beyond simple cartoons. They were fine art.

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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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Concert Review: Veruca Salt At Lee’s Palace

By Less Lee Moore

July 28, 2015
Toronto, ON

Imagine, if you will, the early 1990s. Back when alternative music was all the rage, indie wasn’t a sonic genre, and bidding wars were still a thing, a time before blogs grabbed the reins of underground music writing away from printed fanzines and Facebook was just a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.

When I was nostalgic for the 1980s in the ’90s, I never thought I’d be nostalgic for the last decade of the old millennium. Yet, here we are in 2015 and Veruca Salt has reformed with the original members, released a new album called Ghost Notes, and is currently wrapping up a North American tour.

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Concert Review: Shuggie Otis At Lee’s Palace

By Brendan Ross

July 20, 2015
Toronto, ON

You know how sometimes you go see a show with a specific set of songs in mind that you really really want to hear live? You know when you go to that show and none of the songs you “really really want to hear live” get played? You know when that couldn’t possibly matter less and it still ends up being one of the best shows you’ve ever seen?

Hey guys. This was that show.

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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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