The Submarines Love Notes/Letter Bombs Nettwerk By Al Kaufman At first glance, The Submarines are bubble gum pop. They are popsicles and lemonade in the summertime. They are perky blonde Blake Hazard’s girlish vocals. But while their songs may taste like candy, they are actually quite good for you.
White Mystery Blood & Venom By Al Kaufman White Mystery is the band that White Stripes aspired to be. And maybe they could have done it if Meg White was more interesting, and if Meg and Jack White both had burning red hair.
Riley Etheridge Jr. Powder Keg Rock Ridge Music By Al Kaufman Riley Etheridge Jr is one of those man’s man type of guys. One can picture him behind the wheel of a Chevy pick-up, or raking his yard. He doesn’t seem like a leaf blower type of guy. He rakes, gets calluses, then goes in […]
Daddy A Go Go Grandkid Rock Boyd’s Tone Records By Al Kaufman Here’s why Atlanta’s John Boydston, AKA Daddy A Go Go, is important for America. While the tinny tunes of Kindermuusik and The Wiggles prepare our little ones for the sexed up, but equally soulless, Rebecca Black or Justin Bieber, Daddy A Go Go […]
The Kills Blood Pressures Domino By Al Kaufman The White Stripes started a movement. A lot of duos are coming out now featuring anvil-heavy blues guitar licks over a passionate voice. But few are doing it as well as The Kills. And that would make sense, since lead singer Allison Mosshart tackled the vocal chores for Jack […]
Vivian Girls Share the Joy Polyvinyl By Al Kaufman Finally, the world gets to find out what it would sound like if Beach Boy Brian Wilson and the late Joey Ramone had three daughters. For their first two CDs, Vivian Girls showed that they were a pretty good garage-rock band. More passion than talent, the […]
Little Tybee Humorous to Bees Paper Garden Records By Al Kaufman Little Tybee is more of a music collective than a band. They are a group of friends on the Georgia coast who enjoyed making music together. They brought their act to Atlanta, where anywhere from five to 10 of them can perform at any […]
R.E.M. Collapse Into Now Warner Brothers By Al Kaufman If R.E.M. came out with Collapse Into Now on the heels of 1994’s Monster, it would have been their biggest seller.It’s got all the power and passion that has been missing from the boys from Athens since Bill Berry left the band. But, alas, Collapse comes out […]
Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes Atlantic By Al Kaufman Sweden’s Lykke Li’s first CD, 2008’s Youth Novels, was nothing more than sugary girl pop. Some of that remains on Wounded Rhymes (“Rich Kid Blues” springs immediately to mind). But Li has done a bit of growing up since then. Wounded Rhymes is full of want, desperation and […]
By Al Kaufman Paddy Moloney is musical institution. From the time he put together his band and released what was supposed to be a one-off album, The Chieftains I, in 1962, until now, (some 49 albums later) The Chieftains have served as musical ambassadors to the world, mixing their traditional Irish music with rock (The […]
Greymarket Some Orbits Will Never Decay By Al Kaufman L. Cave McCoy has had his share of moonage daydreams concerning David Bowie. McCoy, the songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and programmer behind Greymarket (which also includes drummer Michael Gargiulo) is fascinated with space, as the bird-winged space shuttle on the front cover will attest to. McCoy also […]
Bright Eyes The People’s Key Saddle Creek By Al Kaufman “How sad it is to know I’m in control,” sings Conor Oberst on “Triple Spiral,” a melancholy song of loss with an upbeat melody. Indeed, Oberst and his accomplices, Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, have never sounded more in control than they do on this, […]
We recently received a five-song sampler of the new R.E.M. album, Collapse Into Now (release date, March 8, 2011) at the office, and, if these songs are any indication, the boys from Athens are continuing on the upward curve they began with 2008’s Accelerate. Gone is the melancholic and mopey Michel Stipe that marred many […]
Seth Glier The Next Right Thing MPress By Al Kaufman The late Chet Baker and Jeff Buckley had them. Rufus Wainright and KD Lang have them. We’re speaking of voices that transcend gender in their beauty. They are gorgeously androgynous voices that make you want to sleep with their owners regardless of your gender or […]
Eddie Spaghetti Sundowner Bloodshot By Al Kaufman You can tell spaghetti is done by throwing it against the wall and seeing if it sticks. Eddie Spaghetti takes the same approach to his music. He grew up in the south where his parents listened to a lot of country. Eddie found solace in punk rock and […]
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