Heavy-hearted in the Midwest since 2011
Chris Cohen seems to exist in his very own musical space. It’s a space where the Kinks Village Green Preservation Society coalesces with Johnathan Richman’s I, Johnathan and some wistful memory of a summer afternoon long ago. Cohen played with Deerhoof from 2002 to 2006(some say their best years), as well as a bevy of […]
Read More Chris Cohen : Self-TitledTimothy Showalter started releasing albums as Strand of Oaks back in 2009 with his debut Leave Ruin. The Indiana native(born in Goshen) put out folks-y, acoustic-heavy albums that dealt with personal issues like love, death, infidelity, and the struggle to keep it all together. His sound slowly developed into a more space-y, dreamy style that […]
Read More Strand of Oaks : EraserlandAndrew Bird has had quite the 20+ year run so far. Starting out in the hot jazz/old time-y retro scene with Squirrel Nut Zippers and working his way thru a few albums on his own as Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. He ended that phase of his career on the excellent The Swimming Hour. From […]
Read More Andrew Bird : My Finest Work YetTruly, one of the most surprising and enjoyable collaborations of the past couple years has been the musical coming together of Sean Lennon and Les Claypool as the Claypool Lennon Delirium. The singer/songwriter and prodigious Primus bass player have taken the genre of psychedelic music into new and exciting territory with their collaboration. When it […]
Read More The Claypool Lennon Delirium : South Of RealityThomas Ragsdale works in the shadows, but tries to bring light whenever he dives in. His musical worlds are vast, dense, and seem to attempt to make sense of existential questions we present to ourselves on a daily basis. His albums carry with them the intensity of early 70s Tangerine Dream and the lucrative sonic […]
Read More Thomas Ragsdale : Honley Civic Archives Volume 2I suppose I owe Quentin Tarantino for exposing me to Dick Dale. Sure, I’d catch an earful of his swanky surf guitar playing as a kid sitting in my room listening to oldies 97.7 out of Elkhart, Indiana. But my first slap in the face from Dick Dale was “Miserlou” in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Hearing […]
Read More Dick Dale : 1937-2019Listen, you’re either born with the Stephen Malkmus gene or you’re not. If you are, then your musical life is that much richer for it. Deep-diving into Pavement and the post-2001 Malkmus solo world can only be just short of life-changing for that Malkmus-starved brain just discovering the lanky indie rock pied piper for the […]
Read More Stephen Malkmus : Groove DeniedSteve Greene is no stranger to moody synthscapes. His work in Voyag3r as the man behind the wall of synthesizers and keyboards has proven rather fruitful, particularly on the band’s previous full-length, 2016s prog rock opus Are You Synthetic? Last year Greene released his solo debut Electronic Dreams For A Holographic Existence. That album centered on […]
Read More Steve Greene : Distant Transmissions: Kona, HawaiiThe room begins to get fuzzy as the electronic disco beat takes the place of your own heartbeat. There’s a sense of both exhilaration and claustrophobia as bodies lean into each other all around you. It’s every man for himself on the dance floor. A feeding frenzy, brought on by the smell of sweat, blood, […]
Read More Pentagram Home Video : Who’s Here? I’m Here, You’re HereThere’s a lot to be said for leaving preconceived notions at the door and letting your surroundings guide you when creating. Discarding the everyday struggles, grand concepts, and narratives and just open your head up to the universe and see what happens. There’s a certain kind of internal fire that erupts when an improvisation on […]
Read More In The Moment : Steve Greene Talks New Music Series ‘Distant Transmissions’