Carley TanchonPeridot By Al Kaufman Carley Tanchon is one of those young women who is as fat in voice as she is lithe in body. There are plenty of pictures on the accompanying booklet  of her exposing her long, limber arms. Just as there are plenty of moments on this album that allow her to […]

It’s Elephant’s Gets Along By Julia Reidy The danger latent in having a frontman with such a recognizable voice — in this case one with a crackling, blues-rock bent that bends and scoops from pitch to pitch — is that everything else will go unnoticed. But Brent Jay’s vocal performances, for Atlanta band It’s Elephant’s, […]

Broken Promise Keeper Ice Cold Pop By Scott Roberts In the recent movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the wide-eyed, backwards-aging title character is asked about whether he’s too old to be working on a tugboat. “There’s no age limit,” he innocently replies, “as long as you can do the work.” I suppose the […]

The Morakestra Witness To Connection Stratking Records By Chris Homer On their sophomore album, Texas’ The Morakestra creates a record of hook-filled rock songs built around multiple soaring guitar riffs and the haunting vocals of Will Mora. The LP’s tracks range from the acoustic folk sound of “Angel” to the upbeat Franz Ferdinand-style rhythms of […]

Todd Snider The Excitement Plan Yep Roc Records By Noel Wurst I was 16 years old when Snider’s first album, Songs for the Daily Planet, came out. “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” was a hidden track on it (remember how awesome hidden tracks were?) and it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard in my […]

Foma Inverness By Eileen Tilson Sitting right on the cusp between EP and LP at eight tracks and 25 minutes in length, Inverness is full of complexities in its design and build yet is very organic in its execution. Listing contributions from six musicians (Edward M. Burch, Chani Hawthorne, Jeffrey Schmidt, Hun Kim, Charith Premawardhana […]

Country Line StrangersHeartbreak Motel By Eileen Tilson Lead singer Matt Megrue needs to take up unfiltered Camels and Jeremiah Weed straight out of the bottle. His vocals are too smooth for the intentions of the band; in fact, his lyrics bring you to places you have definitely been… middle school dances, seedy bars and rural […]

Ben Folds Presents:University A Cappella!Epic By Al Kaufman Leave it to Ben Folds to make geek chic. A cappella music has been the butt of jokes on everything from The Office to Scrubs. But Ben Folds, who is not adverse to meeting cheese head on (the guy produced a William Shatner CD for crying out […]

Deleted Scenes Birdseed Shirt What Delicate Recordings By Ben Grad “Turn to Sand,” the first track from Deleted Scenes' Birdseed Shirt, is the best track on their new album. By itself, it's enough to make a listener very very eager to see their Star Bar show tonight.  The Washington, DC-based band plays a (on first […]