DIIV : Zirp!

DIIV set the bar pretty high for themselves with their 2012 debut Oshin. Touching on shoegaze, dream pop, and jangly guitar noodling of early 90s college rock, guitarist/frontman Zachary Cole Smith showed promise for some kind of shoegaze revival. Is The Is Are soon followed in 2016 with plenty of ambition and lots of personal […]

The Olivia Tremor Control : The Same Place

The Olivia Tremor Control is the legendary neo-psychedelic garage rock band from Athens, GA and one of the original bands to come out of The Elephant Six Recording Company, along with bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples In Stereo, Of Montreal, and Elf Power. The band was powered by the lo fi geniuses Will Cullen […]

Queens of the Stone Age : Perfecth

For Queens of the Stone Age’s nearly 30 year career they have had plenty of ups, downs, over and outs, rinse and repeats. Coming from the ashes of Kyuss, frontman Josh Homme and bassist Nick Olivieri took the stoner/desert rock DNA from their childhood band and turned it into a cottage industry. Walking clumsily along […]

Jeremiah Chiu : Edge Connections

Jeremiah Chiu has been on a roll as of late. Over the last few years Chiu has had a rather fruitful creative run of intricate electronic albums; some with Marta Sofia Honer, some with the improvisational super group SML, and some as a solo artist. His In Electric Time from 2023 is a stunning display […]

Andy Shauf : The Party(10th Anniversary Edition)

Andy Shauf appeared on my musical radar 10 years ago with the release of his album The Party. The Canadian singer/songwriter came to me more so in happenstance than anything. Listening to Sloan on internet radio led to a “more like” algorithm push which led to hearing Shauf’s “The Magician”, the opening track from his […]

Sheryl Crow : Pick You Up

You’ve come a long way, baby. If I ran into Sheryl Crow while shopping for groceries at Aldi that’s what I’d say to her. Or, maybe you’ve come a long way, ma’am. From her early days as a backup singer for Michael Jackson, to the blockbuster success of her debut solo record Tuesday Night Music […]

Greta Van Fleet : Palace for the People

I will admit that I’ve never listened to a full Greta Van Fleet record. In fact, I’ve purposely avoided doing so because there are soooo many more great bands and albums to listen to that are worth one’s time. Albums by bands the Greta fellas seem to obviously admire and were inspired by. If I […]

Tron, NIN, and nostalgia for a simpler time.

I have no feelings either way about Tron. I wasn’t blown away as a kid when I saw the movie(I didn’t actually see it till I was well into teen-dom). And when the 2011 sequel reared it’s retro-futuristic head my reaction was, “Mmm. Cool.” And so when the third film in this series of sci-fi […]

Protomartyr : Hotel Usona

Protomartyr have remained one of the most consistent post-punk/rock and roll bands over the last nearly 15 years. Along with bands like METZ and Preoccupations, Protomartyr have kept post-punk still an interesting corner of the music world. Not only a tight band, but singer Joe Casey is one of the best lyricists. He speaks like […]

zakè & Coppice Halifax : Tree Grid

Collaboration is the spice of creativity, as well as life. Of course being in a room alone with just your ideas, musical instruments, and a recording device can also be a completely satisfying experience, but when you can bounce ideas off of another creative mind there’s nothing more exhilarating. Having a like-minded soul building upon […]