On the Record
Singer-songwriter Marc Cohn is best known for his 1991 hit "Walking in Memphis." On his new CD, Cohn takes us back to 1970, the year after Woodstock, and offers his interpretations of some of the …
Seventy-nine-year-old drummer Paul Motian makes his intentions known 15 seconds into the opener, "Mode IV," one brush slap on one drum head repeated, re-repeated, then the whole pseudo-echo empties out into a burbling cymbal brook. …
Recently nominated in the “Best Rock Album” category by the SDMA for debut Of Monarchs and Beggars, Dirty Sweet deliver the goods again with follow-up American Spiritual. “You've Been Warned” is a country strummer with …
Besides 'tweens, who's going to heart the precious, Petit Prince-like line drawings speckling the cover and insert? At first, an audio scrapbook to one's youth...from a late-20-something...seems an odd, perchance navel-obsessed construct. And at the …
In a word: soapy. That's Giuseppi Logan's saxophone tone in one word, although soap, when you think on it, can do so much. His intonation, indeed, squirts away from notes like a bar of Irish …
The Awakening EP, the newest release from Anti Citizens, comes with all the underground hip-hop bells and whistles that you could ask for from the duo. Grandiose dystopian beats ("Blackout," "2012 Armageddon"), impressive double-time lyrical …
When grunge was king, Stone Temple Pilots was the Rodney Dangerfield of the genre. Critics gave them little respect, deriding the group as bandwagoners trying to sound like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, [insert …
San Diego–based rocker Del Currie (formerly of Fono) is back with a new project, but the results suggest that Zoo Seven is actually Fono part deux, because Lifesaver sounds similar to its predecessors. Currie still …
Arcade Fire's aptitude for grand motifs accentuates the melancholy of suburban life on their latest. While The Funeral found Win Butler’s band carrying the weight of the world, followed by Neon Bible's introspective attempt to …
Tom Jones and I go back a long time. While on a beach in Barcelona in the ’60s, I was feeling homesick, and over the speakers of a beachfront café came Jones's voice belting out …
Like he's never been away. That simple. That gobsmacking. Which is why I can't get, along the subject of gobs, with all this lukewarm mumbling about "pretty good for outtakes," which of course means pretty …
Move over Morrissey, there's a new Pope of Mope; his name is Matt Berninger, lead singer and lyricist for the National, whose latest CD, High Violet, might be more aptly titled High Anxiety. Vocally and …
"Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennesse..." What is it with Memphis these days? There’s a new TV series about a blues-singing detective (Memphis Beat) and new albums out by Cyndi Lauper (Memphis Blues) and …
The Dead Weather is the latest group to feature Jack White (White Stripes, Raconteurs). The band includes vocalist Alison Mosshart (the Kills), bassist Jack Lawrence (the Raconteurs), and guitarist Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone …
Float like a butterfly, abrade like sandpaper. Thus, the curious and fascinating dichotomy between band and bandleader on this, Marion Brown's second album for ESP-Disk as a leader. Originally released 42 years ago in '68, …