Causa Sui : Pewt’r Sessions 3

If you’re not familiar with Causa Sui, then you really need to get familiar with these Danish musical space pilots. They make psychedelic music for those of us who left the hallucinogenics at home. The music that these four musicians create IS the hallucinogen. When you settle in with an album by Causa Sui you […]

Music On Vinyl: Making Spins Sound Better

So Saturday July 12th my wife and I were supposed to go to Chicago and see one of my favorite songwriters Jeff Tweedy play at the Taste of Chicago Festival. He was going to play part of the show with a small band(including his 18 year old son Spencer on drums) and the other part […]

United Waters :: Sunburner

United Waters’ Sunburner is the sound of a hot apartment in July. With the air conditioner on the fritz the windows are wide open in the blazing afternoon and the sound of the neighborhood seeps in like the humid belches of heat that consume you. In the distance a guy cranks his stereo and blares […]

Corrosion of Conformity :: IX

I didn’t start listening to Corrosion of Conformity till 1994. It was the next phase in their sound. Before the album Deliverance they were a hardcore punk band. They had street cred and lots of hardcore punk fans. But Deliverance saw the band head in more of a dirge-filled, Sabbath-oozing direction. Pepper Keenan as lead […]

Underrated : The Flaming Lips’ 7 Skies H3

I’ve been listening to The Flaming Lips 7 Skies H3 a lot since RSD and I have to say that it’s probably my favorite Lips release since Embryonic. I think I’m pretty accurate in saying that I’m speaking to a room of about 10 people that even give a s**t, but I’m going to keep […]

Wilco’s Dark Passenger :: A Ghost Is Born Ten Years Later

I don’t think there’s a more divisive Wilco record than A Ghost Is Born(maybe Wilco(The Album)). It was a record filled with claustrophobic silence, whispered musical intentions, and the sound of numbed pain. It was the record where people asked “What’s going on with Jeff Tweedy’s voice?” Well I asked it, anyways. It felt both […]

Craft Spells :: Nausea

Justin Vallesteros makes music that puts you in a particular place and time. He goes by the band name Craft Spells but like many younger, shy songwriters he’s really the only guy making all that magic and putting it to tape. Idle Labor was Craft Spells debut for the Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks and […]

My Favorite Albums of 2014 So Far…

Hi. I’m currently staying indoors as nature is most certainly trying to kill me. Cottonwood falling like snow in January, mold spores at an all-time high, the sky raining cats…okay, no cats. But all that other crap is real. Trust me. So instead of boo-hooing about my lack of allergen-fighting chromosomes I thought I’d look […]

Alex Calder :: Strange Dreams

The title of Alex Calder’s newest album couldn’t be more accurate. Listening to Strange Dreams is indeed like having a strange dream. The music wobbles and shimmers. It hops along like a hurt animal doped up on narcotics. It’s hallucinogenic demeanor oozes out of the speakers as if some symbiotic creature wanting to meld into […]

Wye Oak :: Shriek

So what do I know about Wye Oak? Well, I know Jenn Wasner has one of those voices you want to hear sing just about anything. It’s a dark and breathy kind of voice. It’s the kind of voice you want to crawl into and take a nap in. There’s an all-knowing maturity in her […]