Plants and Animals La La Land Secret City Records By Chris Homer La La Land, the second album from Montreal trio Plants and Animals, marks a major shift in the band’s sound. While Plants and Animals’ 2008 debut, Parc Avenue, was anchored by quiet folk melodies interspersed with huge choir choruses, blasts of brass horns […]
Findlay Brown Love Will Find You Verve By Jim Simpson Looking like the love child of K.D. Lang and Morrissey — like that’d ever happen; maybe he’s Jesus, miracle birth and all — the young Brit has been touted as this century’s Roy Orbison, Truth be told, Findlay Brown sounds more like Nick Lowe crooning […]
Cinetrope Once I Ruled the World Zombino By Al Kaufman Cinetrope think big. The Atlanta band, whose name means “film music,” have created a concept album about a man-made plague that ends the world (turning people into zombies, of course), the guilt the creator of the plague goes through, and the creator’s ultimate redemption by inventing […]
Brett Harris Man Of Few Words By Leila Regan-Porter It’s been said before of amazing undiscovered gems, and we’re going to say it again: It is a wonder that Brett Harris is not a bona fide pop star. His tunes should be heard on every episode of “Bones,” every commercial for a Toyota Prius, at […]
Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers Agridustrial By Eileen Tilson Known for their ability to shake redneck country, punk, and hillbilly blues into a whiskey-infused shot of sin, Nashville-based Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers are back with their release of Agridustrial on their own Colonel Knowledge Records. The band comes back guns blazing with just a few changes […]
By Eileen Tilson; photos by Patricia Smith With the constant spinning of “Sweet Disposition” on the radio, it was not surprising to walk into The Loft on Friday, and hear the ticket girl proclaim that The Temper Trap‘s show was “officially” sold out. It was wall to wall people in the smoky Loft, as Danish […]
Jeff Beck Emotion and Commotion Atco By Al Kaufman Jeff Beck loves and respects the guitar too much to just hack out albums when he does not feel inspired. While other guitar legends, such as Eric Clapton or B.B. King, are content to rehash old material or team up with upstarts to put out new […]
Everybody Was In The French Resistance … Now! Fixin’ the Charts Vol. 1 By Jennifer Gibson Art Brut’s Eddie Argos and his girlfriend Dyan Valdes of The Blood Arm may have made one of the most intellectually-stimulating records in recent memory. Stimulating, that is, for music geeks. For everyone else, it’s just one of the […]
Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn Evelyn Eleven Records By Al Kaufman Thankfully, nobody on the planet flies their freak flag higher than Amanda Palmer, and even she needed to find a longer pole for her latest endeavor, Evelyn Evelyn; ukulele-playing conjoined twins who share “three legs, two arms, two hearts, three lungs, and a single liver.” Palmer, a […]
Review & photos by Micah McLain Janelle Monáe and the rest of the Wondaland Arts Society took over Smith’s Olde Bar this week in order to preview both halves of her soon-to-be-released album, The Archandroid. As soon as you stepped into the upstairs room at Smith’s for the second half preview on Tuesday night, you […]
Soundtrack When You’re Strange: A Film About the Doors Rhino By Al Kaufman Jim Morrison will not die. Almost 30 years after his death, the rock and roll shaman still holds many a follower in his drunken sway. By the time he died in Paris in 1971, he was a bloated, alcoholic, ragamuffin, whose poetry […]
Gift Horse Mountain of Youth By Alec Wooden In many ways, Athens-based Gift Horse began the push behind its debut full-length, Mountain of Youth, with the odds stacked against them. Gift Horse has become something of a must-see on a local and semi-regional level, developing a worth of mouth buzz with a distinctive brand of […]
Nneka Concrete Jungle Epic/Decon By Jim Simpson Hope. Love. Peace. Political awareness. Passion. Intelligence. Singer-songwriter Nneka exudes all these things and much more. With the release of Concrete Jungle, her U.S. debut, she’s been touted as the next big thing, despite having critical success in Europe since 2007, and drawing high praise from critics and […]
The Temper Trap Conditions By Eileen Tilson Apparently there is more to Australia than Vegemite and AC/DC. Out of Melbourne comes The Temper Trap sailing high above the kangaroos and kuala bears, setting their sites on the U2-like dreams of grandeur. With their debut album, Conditions, music producer Jeff Abbiss, (Artic Monkeys’, Editors, Kasabian) cleverly […]
Dommin Love Is Gone Roadrunner By Al Kaufman With the Twilight series so popular for the teenage girls, it seems to only make sense that goth-rock make a pitch for them as well. And Kristofer Dommin, the force behind Dommin, is the perfect poster child for the cause. With his pretty boy looks, lovelorn attitude, […]
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