Elephant9 & Terje Rydpal : Catching Fire

I’ve been listening to Elephant9 & Terje Rydpal’s live album Catching Fire for a couple months now. Letting the immense 80 minute concert recorded in 2017 soak into my brain just to try and put words together to describe it. Putting this into some narrative has eluded me, but I figured what the heck. Elephant9 […]

Tim Heidecker : Slipping Away

Tim Heidecker, one half of comedy duo Tim and Eric, is secretly a pop songwriter and musician. Well, it’s not really much of a secret these days. After releasing albums like What The Brokenhearted Do and High School the comedian/actor known for his absurdist humor and surreal characters has established himself as a great songwriter, […]

Japandroids : Fate & Alcohol

Canada’s Japandroids were, at one time in the early 2010s, the saviors of rock n roll. While Williamsburg was the hub of all things indie – which included bands like Grizzly Bear, The National, and Dirty Projectors – Vancouver’s Japandroids(which included guitarist/vocalist Brian King and drummer/vocalist David Prowse) arrived in 2009 with Post-Nothing. That album […]

David Gilmour : Luck and Strange

David Gilmour is known as much for his crystalline guitar tone and soulful vocals as he is for being the guy that replaced Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd back in the 60s. Of course his main gig over the last 50+ years is hard to overshadow, but Gilmour brought a grounded, bluesy component to Pink […]

White Hills : Beyond This Fiction

At this point the New York psych rock duo White Hills have become an institution. Muti-instrumentalists Dave W and Ego Sensation have for the better part of 20 years now been consistently writing, recording, and releasing rock and roll records that bring everything from psych, noise, industrial, garage, and Krautrock into their sound. This duo […]

Juicer : Retire The Fences

Once in a while I come across an album that hits me hard with a quiet, melancholy simplicity. It locks into gorgeous pop sensibilities while never being too sweet and sunny for its own good. Bands like Wild Nothing, DIIV, Shy Boys, and Beach Fossils to name a few lock into sounds of old and […]

The Smashing Pumpkins : Aghori Mhori Mei

There was a time when The Smashing Pumpkins were a revered, loved, slightly misunderstood but ultimately great band. Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were all monumental albums. Gish was the psychedelic little brother to the giants Siamese and Mellon Collie. Siamese laid the groundwork for Big Muff guitar fuzz that […]

Mr. Big : Ten

At the end of my freshman year of high school the supergroup Mr. Big dropped their debut, self-titled album. Supergroup you say? Well, if you were a 15-year old fledgling guitarist that worshipped at the alter of Vai, Satriani, and Gilbert then yes, they were a supergroup. The band consisted of David Lee Roth’s former […]

Chris Cohen : Paint A Room

Chris Cohen is one of those musicians/songwriters that seems to ride a completely different wavelength than the rest of the world. As a collaborator he’s worked with everyone from Deerhoof to Ariel Pink to Cass McCombs to Weyes Blood. But as a solo artist is where his magic truly lies. His solo work feels aged […]

Dr. Dog : Dr. Dog

Dr. Dog have been consistently putting out records for over 20 years now. The pop/rock/soul indie stalwarts from Philly started out as lo-fi, rough-around-the-edges rockers that combined soaring 4-part harmonies, Beach Boys earnestness, the Beatles knack for genre-hopping, and a touch of The Band for good measure. There was also touches of Pavement, Guided By […]