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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Ty Segall : Chrome

For the most part you know what to expect from a Ty Segall album. It used to be that one would arrive every year, if not even sooner than that. You could count on Tinnitus-inducing fuzz volumes, drum freakouts, and Ty doing his best to sound like someone singing while melting in lava at the […]

The Strokes : Reality Awaits

You remember the early 2000s boom of post-punk and new wave bands that came out of the druggy New York lower east side club scene? It was so big there was even a book written about it. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jonathan Fire Eater, DFA Records, Interpol; as well as bands like The White Stripes, The […]

Fortune Teller : The Empress

One label has remained steadfast with their mission to open eyes, open ears, and blow minds with music that delves into the Gothic, the heady, and frizzle-fried psych freakouts. Library of the Occult and it’s proprietor/head spell binder Tom McDowell has been laying out otherworldly records since 2019. Artists reimagining the eerie and hazy sights […]

Yes : Aurora

I had to do a double take when I saw that there was a brand new Yes album out in the year of our Lord 2026. Yes, the prog rock Grandfathers that started -along with Genesis, King Crimson, Soft Machine- prog rock.Yes came out of the late 60s British rock scene to show those pesky […]

Paul McCartney : The Boys of Dungeon Lane

When you’re an ex-Beatle and 84-years old I suppose you can do pretty much whatever you want. Paul McCartney is still hitting arenas playing in front of thousands of adoring fans, all coming from different generations. From great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers to great-grandsons and granddaughters. And given the fact that the man is old enough to […]

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs : Mission Of Mercy

I always felt like Mike Campbell was Tom Petty’s secret weapon. Petty took the spotlight for sure, as he was the music scholar in the band. He took his love of bands like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds and so many others and turned it into a lifelong music career. Borrowing from but never […]

Kurt Vile : Philadelphia’s been good to me

Kurt Vile has built a solid musical career out of jangly, classic rock vibes with a touch of outsider weirdness. It’s like Tom Petty meets R. Stevie Moore with a brush of John Prine and JJ Cale for good measure. His quietly genius guitar playing and stream-of-consciousness lyrical style feels both relatable and alien at […]