Imaginary Cities – Fall of Romance

Imaginary Cities – Fall of Romance

Filled with sun-drenched melodies, dreamy aesthetics and a whole lot of echoing sounds and fantastical flourishes, it is obvious to anyone listening to the sophomore release from Imaginary Cities that singer Marti Sarbit and songwriter Rusty Matyas had an absolute ball making this record. It doesn’t necessarily fall into any  ...[more]

Yellowbirds- Songs from the Vanished Frontier

Yellowbirds- Songs from the Vanished Frontier

Yellowbirds’ sophomore album marks Sam Cohen’s first foray into a full band collaboration since the dissolution of Apollo Sunshine in 2009. Yellowbirds’ 2011 debut, The Color, was essentially a solo album, written and conceived simply because Cohen’s overactive mind couldn’t stop writing songs. Not surprisingly, the release felt small and  ...[more]

Baptist Generals – Jackleg Devotional to the Heart

Baptist Generals – Jackleg Devotional to the Heart

It’s been quite some time since Chris Flemmons fired up his Denton, TX collective The Baptist Generals. Ten long years, in fact, have passed since the critically acclaimed No Silver/No Gold  buzzed the music world with its’ ambient and kaleidoscopic whirling dirges and sound-scapes.  In this day and age of  ...[more]

Bonnaroo 2013- Sunday Recap

Bonnaroo 2013- Sunday Recap

Sunday is a day of exodus and closure at Bonnaroo, but this was not a year to pack up early and head for home. An extremely high-quality evening of music greeted those who stuck it out until the end. After witnessing the festival’s final acts, it was no wonder that  ...[more]

Bonnaroo 2013- Saturday Recap

Bonnaroo 2013- Saturday Recap

Saturday’s Bonnaroo bands faced a daunting task: To somehow follow up the already legendary Paul McCartney performance from the previous night. But with a new day comes new opportunity, and it ultimately proved to be the wildest day of the festival in more ways than one. Friday night, McCartney managed  ...[more]

Bonnaroo 2013 – Friday Recap

Bonnaroo 2013 – Friday Recap

Friday morning at Bonnaroo 2013 broke with the news that Jack Johnson, already on the farm because of his appearance with ALO, would be filling the freshly-vacated Saturday night headlining spot for Mumford and Sons. Attendees reacted with wildly varying levels of excitement and disappointment, but generally took the news  ...[more]

Graham Parker & The Rumour: Live at Rockpalast 1978+1980

Graham Parker & The Rumour: Live at Rockpalast ...

During their original alliance, Graham Parker and The Rumour never released a live album that accurately represented how powerful they sounded in concert (the execrable The  Parkerilla is only worth mentioning as an aside. These double-disc packages, however, stand as essential documents of the early stages of the partnership between  ...[more]

Electric Hot Tuna: Jormas 70th Birthday Celebration

Electric Hot Tuna: Jormas 70th Birthday Celebration

A constant stream of guest musicians, planned or spontaneous, usually doesn't lend itself to generating any discernible momentum during a concert as each successive unit invariably begins to gather individual steam with the entrance of a new player. At least on this DVD, Jorma's 70th Birthday Celebration avoids that drawback  ...[more]

The Doors: Live at the Bowl ’68

The Doors: Live at the Bowl ’68

The Doors video of their 1968 Hollywood Bowl performance has been available before in various formats before, but never in so comprehensive and sophisticated a package as this. The entire concert is included here as well as bonus features that place this appearance in its proper context in terms of  ...[more]

Neil Young : Waging Heavy Peace

Neil Young : Waging Heavy Peace

The cover of Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace is a remarkably accurate reflection of its contents. The Canadian rock icon’s name is emblazoned across the front and a present-day head-shot of the man himself with head down and eyes shaded by a fedora juxtaposes the back cover B & W  ...[more]

Bruce Springsteen FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the Boss: by John Luerssen

Bruce Springsteen FAQ: All That’s Left to Know ...

For most of All That’s Left to Know About The Boss, John Luerssen fulfills and transcends the FAQ moniker of his book on Bruce Springsteen. In painstaking, but never excruciating, detail he chronologically recounts the events that made this son of the Jersey Shore one of rock’s most admired figures....[more]

The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun: by Robert Greenfield

The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of ...

A writer trying to organize fifty years of popular music—a sprawling and unruly topic—has several options. One possibility is to pick a single genre, say the blues, and trace its birth and development. Another is to follow the history of an influential record label. A more dynamic approach is to  ...[more]

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