Memoryhouse The Years Sub-Pop By Al Kaufman The Toronto duo, Memoryhouse, released a four-song EP, The Years, on Arcade Sound a little over a year ago. On this version for Sub-Pop, they’re up to five songs (replacing “the Waves” with “Modern Normal” and “Quiet America”). They also re-recorded the remaining three songs. At this rate, […]
Ron Pope Whatever It Takes Mason-Dixon Railroad By Al Kaufman Ron Pope loves love. His love songs are strong, strident, and unabashedly sappy. There are no songs about a girl done him wrong here, only songs about how happy his girl makes him feel. Ron Pope loves two other things; his guitar and majestic songs. […]
David Jacobs-Strain Live from the Left Coast self-release By Al Kaufman At the ripe old age of 25, David Jacobs-Strain is a seasoned vet in this folk-blues guitar game, and he sounds like it. He plays that slide guitar like a girlfriend. Live from the Left Coast, recorded at the Rolling and Tumbling temporary juke […]
Wild Flag Wild Flag Merge By Al Kaufman Supergroups of any type rarely live up to their hype, but since the hype for Wild Flag was practically non-existent, and since the women in this band don’t care about such petty things, their debut album far surpasses any expectations that may have been garnered.
Man Overboard Man Overboard Rise Records By Al Kaufman Now that Blink 182 have gone all mature with their new release, Neighborhoods, it’s good to know that there are bands like Man Overboard (who take their name from the Blink 182 song) to hold high to pop-punk, smarmy teen trophy. Man Overboard, a five-piece out of New […]
Hannah Miller O Black River Self-released By Al Kaufman “I’m not ready to settle. I’m still looking for where I belong,” purrs Hannah Miller on her fifth release, O Black River. The angelic-voiced one now calls Nashville home, but she grew up in Alabama and cut her musical teeth in Columbia, S.C. Her music has […]
By Al Kaufman With The Big Roar, The Joy Formidable created the album that people in England have been waiting for years to hear. Ever since the Welsh trio offered up the 2009 eight-song EP A Balloon Called Moaning fans have been clamoring to see what the guitar-heavy shoe gazers would do with a big […]
For a musician, Roger Clyne has had a good life. His band, the Refreshments, put out two brilliant rock albums in the ’90s that mixed the dirt and dust of their native Arizona, along with the strong Mexican culture. They caught some radio airplay with “Banditos,” (“I got the pistol, so I get the pesos/ […]
By Al Kaufman The Asylum Street Spankers have been a band … scratch that … The Asylum Street Spankers have been a musical experience for over 16 years now. Born out of a chemically enhanced after party at the Dabbs Hotel in Llano, Texas, the Spankers have been doing whatever they’ve felt like doing ever […]
The Soft Pack The Soft Pack Kemado Records By Al Kaufman “Garage rock” is a misleading moniker. While it is supposed to refer to a group of talentless guy with a bunch of passion jamming in their garage, the fact of the matter is that bands like The Strokes and, in this case, The Soft […]
Leroy Powell and the Messengers Atlantis by Al Kaufman Leroy Powell is so entrenched in classic rock that he makes the Black Crowes sound like Hannah Montana. This is tough to believe considering his resume. Powell has worked with the likes of David Allen Coe, Billy Joe Shaver, and Waylon’s son, Shooter Jennings. It seems […]
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