Posts by Jeff Strowe

[rating=7.00] Los Angeles-based Warpaint have developed a knack for moody atmospherics. Over the course of the past decade-plus, the band-guitarists/vocalists Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman, along with bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa-have released several albums worth of carefully constructed ambient pieces delivered with a cool detachment and an understated confidence. It’s a […]

[rating=8.00] Any author or songwriter will tell you that a piece’s opening lines are centrally important. Regardless of what may follow, a colorful lead paragraph or a lively line or two of verse is often all it takes to hook a reader in. With that in mind, it will be a tough assignment to find […]

[rating=7.00] Death-its’ finality or the omnipresent spell it casts over our day-to-day existence-features as a thematic center point for Okkervil River’s latest album, Away. Over the course of the past several years following the band’s last release, the nostalgia-tinged The Silver Gymnasium, frontman Will Sheff went through a self-proclaimed “confusing time of transition”. A few […]

[rating=5.00] Why Are You Ok, the fifth studio album from amiable South Carolina rockers, Band of Horses arrives with a bit of a fresh step. In as producer is erstwhile Grandaddy frontman, Jason Lytle, both a longtime friend of BoH’ singer Ben Bridwell, and a sharp aural detour from the likes of Glyn Johns and […]

[rating=8.00] Apparently not long on the idea of reviving the band’s early 90s heyday, Mark Olson, one-half of the songwriting presence behind Americana darling The Jayhawks, decided to split shortly after the release of 2011’s Mockingbird Time, and its’ subsequent tour. That album, heralded by many as a sign that roots rock and alt-country would […]

[rating=8.00] Cate Le Bon’s songs seem to start in the middle of things. They force you to occasionally glance down at your music player of choice to see if some sort of skip has taken place. Not one for traditional song structure, Le Bon’s verses bleed into choruses at different moments, words are repeated for […]

[rating=8.00] Kevin Morby is somewhat of a man not made for these times. A folk-rock singer-songwriter who spends a lot of time lyrically contemplating mortality and the ephemeral nature of our being doesn’t equate greatly with commercial success. Neither do his lyrical references to anachronisms; the pastoral scenes he paints and the old-school methods he […]

[rating=7.00] In the fall of 2014, a variety of musicians, actors, and comedians came together onstage at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theater to celebrate the life and music of George Harrison. Under the direction of George’s son, Dhani, the evening provided an intimate and celebratory occasion for reverence and an opportunity to bring to life Dhani’s […]

Protomartyr’s February 27th show at Dallas’ fairly new, DIY-influenced club, RBC, proved to be quite the step back in time. Unobtrusively tucked away behind snazzier, trendier, and more well-attended Deep Ellum eateries, RBC greets its’ patrons with a series of shrugs; the perpetually stoned ID checker barely taking a glance at your license, the diminutive and […]

If The Pixies are generally considered to be the masters of the “loud-quiet-loud” format within the scope of a single song, then Yo La Tengo can likely be considered the same in terms of their approach to a single show. The longtime pride of Hoboken-guitarist Ira Kaplan, drummer Georgia Hubley, and bassist James McNew-rolled through […]

[rating=8.00] Ten years and seven albums into their band life, Atlanta’s Deerhunter-Bradford Cox, Lockett Pundt, Moses Archuleta, and Josh McKay- are back with Fading Frontier, a new collection of tunes that finds the band shifting away from the grunge sensibilities of their last album, 2013’s Monomania, and treading in a brighter, more melodic direction. While […]

[rating=6.00] Carey Mercer, the mastermind behind Frog Eyes, took a fiercely independent route in crafting the material that has become Pickpocket’s Locket, his latest and perhaps most straightforward album. Armed with only the acoustic guitar bequeathed to him in his father’s will, Mercer challenged himself to write ten songs completely alone on that acoustic, free […]

[rating=8.00] Shortly into Poison Season, the latest release from Dan Bejar’s Destroyer, he mutters the lines: “I’ll take my chances on the road/On the inside I’m an ocean/Like a wheel set into motion into the storm”. Words like these in the hands of a lesser assured artist would likely ring hollow or vain. In the […]

Erika Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards brought forth a great degree of swagger to the Trees stage last Thursday night. As the evening marked the official beginning of the July 4th Holiday weekend, the mid-sized venue’s two stories were packed a little tighter than usual, and the air was tinged with an extra dose of […]

“You’re going to the Granada?” queried my Uber driver, as I settled into the backseat of her surprisingly roomy Kia. “I just drove by and there’s a huge line of teenagers waiting outside to get in”, she proceeded to tell me. I felt my heart sag a bit, and a slight tinge of panic swept […]

[rating=7.00] Ben Jaffe and Suzanne Santo have been making music as HONEYHONEY for close to a decade. With Santo’s strong lead vocals, banjo, and violin melding together with Jaffe’s soft harmonies and lead guitars, they’ve garnered positive press and a loyal following by playing a raw and honest blend of country-influenced Americana that tilts less […]

[rating=7.00] When putting together collections of songs, many artists fuss over the title. As it is typically a delicate process, some album titles are intentionally vague, random, or obtuse while others are a straightforward and direct nod to the thematic content represented. With his third release of material as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban Nielson went […]

[rating=6.00] Two years after their magnetic debut, 180 generated enormous buzz, British rockers Palma Violets have returned with Danger In The Club, their eagerly anticipated, high-stakes sophomore release. With the famed John Leckie handling production duties, the band sounds a little more polished this time around, but not glammed up to the point that it […]

There are several constants that we as humans have grown accustomed to in life. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Jennifer Aniston continues to churn out trite, similarly focused rom-com fares. And how the San Antonio Spurs always muscle their way to 50-plus regular season wins. In a similar fashion, […]

[rating=8.00] Filled, as usual, with both tautly constructed melodic fills and wildly improvisational guitar freak-outs, Portland via Idaho rockers Built to Spill are back with a new album, the delightfully potent ten-track collection, Untethered Moon. Twenty-some odd years into the business, Doug Martsch and Co. are like a warm bowl of your mother’s homemade soup; […]