Music Review: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart

Published on October 24th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews |

I have long contended that one of the greatest singers in pop history is The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz. He’s not only amazingly versatile, with a distinctive voice that is equally at home singing rock, jazz (the man can scat like he was born to it), or ballads, but even when singing backup, he rises above, imbuing each note with personality. His harmonies are tight. Always.

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Music Review: Jen Wood, Wilderness

Published on October 17th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Feminism, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

How does writing an album on piano differ from writing an album with a guitar? For an answer, listen to indie/neo-folk singer Jen Wood’s new album, Wilderness. While her previous releases had been written on guitar, Wilderness is piano based and as a result, even at its quietest and most intimate, has a massive, almost filmic quality. The songs are deep and moving and meaningful, chronicling the last several years of her life.

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Music Review: Angela Moyra, Fickle Island

Published on October 17th, 2014 in: Feminism, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

Dutch singer-songwriter Angela Moyra’s stateside debut album is bound to the ocean. A charming, sweet, throwback record, Fickle Island is full of tropical vibes and lyrical imagery, and the accompanying laid back rhythms. It’s a sometimes-delightful debut.

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Music Review: Sons Of Bill, Love & Logic

Published on October 10th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

On their fourth album, Charlottesville, Virginia outfit Sons of Bill (brothers Abe, James and Sam Wilson are literally, sons of Bill) return with glorious harmonies, thoughtful, literate lyrics, and some excellent musicianship. Produced by former Wilco drummer (and Grammy-nominated producer), Ken Cooner, Love & Logic is the sonic equivalent to wispy clouds scudding across a full moon. It’s arresting and loaded with hooks, but also at times deeply lonesome.

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Music Review: The Rural Alberta Advantage, Mended With Gold

Published on October 10th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

On their third album, Mended With Gold, The Rural Alberta Advantage continue to make hooky, emotion-heavy, often gorgeous, folk-ish music. There’s an epic quality to Mended With Gold that exists in the quiet moments of introspection in frontman Nils Edenloff’s songs: a feeling of space and loneliness, and a feeling of hope. It’s a really good record. I wish Friday Night Lights was still on, because these songs would be perfect soundtrack fodder.

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Music Review: Luke Winslow-King, Everlasting Arms

Published on October 10th, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

New Orleans transplant Luke Winslow-King is spreading his ever so creative wings and trying a new musical direction. Sort of. Not every song on his new album Everlasting Arms hews to his faithful reproductions of pre-war, deep South music (though those are the best tracks), and he tries on some rockabilly pants and samba beats for size. The results are mixed.

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Music Review: Monty Python’s Total Rubbish: The Complete Collection

Published on October 10th, 2014 in: Comedy, Current Faves, Movies, Music, Reissues, Retrovirus, Reviews, Soundtracks and Scores, TV |

By Melissa Bratcher

Full disclosure: I have no idea how to review the new, incredibly comprehensive, fully-remastered, nine-disc Monty Python box set, Monty Python’s Total Rubbish: The Complete Collection. I, like any good misfit worth her salt, went through a rather serious Monty Python phase while in high school, and spent every weekend watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus with my best pal Lori (and arguing over who was cuter, Michael Palin or Eric Idle. The answer was yes), imitating the sketches, knotting handkerchiefs for our heads, and being fully immersed in Pythonalia. I have no objectivity when it comes to Monty Python. I love them. Full on. I learned more about world history from Monty Python than I did in high school (of course, if it had been taught in funny voices, I might’ve paid more attention).

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Music Review: Lucinda Williams, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone

Published on October 3rd, 2014 in: Current Faves, Feminism, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

There is no one quite like Lucinda Williams: her voice, her particularly Southern identity, her phrasing, her stunning writing. A true American iconoclast, she has been recording for over four decades, and shows no signs of compromising her integrity or sense of self. On her new album, Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone, released on her own independent label, Highway 20 Records, Williams speaks for the poor, the rejected, and the disenfranchised while asking for compassion. Of the 20 songs on the album, she wrote 18 of them, and her very particular voice could not be clearer.

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Music Review: The History Of Apple Pie, Feel Something

Published on October 3rd, 2014 in: Feminism, Music, Music Reviews, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

On their second album, Feel Something, London’s The History Of Apple Pie fully embrace the ‘90s throwback, shoe-gazey style that they explored on their previous release, 2013’s Out Of View. Listening to Feel Something is like taking a trip back to the not terribly long ago, but longer than I think it was past. The cover of Feel Something even looks a bit like a My Bloody Valentine cover.

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Music Review: Various Artists, The Soul Of Designer Records

Published on October 3rd, 2014 in: Current Faves, Music, Music Reviews, Retrovirus, Reviews |

By Melissa Bratcher

Out now on Big Legal Mess Records, the four-CD, 101-song compilation The Soul Of Designer Records is flat out amazing. Between 1967 and 1977, Memphis-based Designer Records founder, the delightfully named Style Wooten, gave any group that wanted it a chance to record in his studio, using his studio musicians if they didn’t have their own, for the low price of $469.50. In exchange, the group would get 25 copies of their single to sell or distribute, and when those 25 were gone, they could re-up for another 25. Black gospel groups flocked to Memphis to record their 45s, and Designer Records became one of the most successful independent gospel labels in the States.