indie Archive
31 Dec 2018
Musoscribe’s Best of 2018
Even having shifted my focus these last few years toward interviews and feature writing, I still manage to listen to and review quite a few albums. In one form or another, I covered some 170 albums of new music in 2018. It’s no surprise that a few have risen to the top, deemed worthy of
02 Dec 2018
Album Review: Daydream Creatures — Qalupalik
Look online for details about Daydream Creatures and you may come away with the impression that the female-fronted group plays high-energy rock ‘n’ roll. With performance photos featuring three of its members – Loren Carty, Jessica Korn and Brooke Randle – out front in matching mini-dresses and clutching electric instruments, it’s easy to make such
13 Sep 2018
Album Review: Brother Reverend — The Tables Turn Too Often
I think the publicist – however well-meaning he may be – was having a bit of fun when writing the one-sheet that accompanies promo copies of The Tables Turn Too Often. Sure, it’s useful to provide potential reviewers with some musical signposts, occasionally dropping of names in a RIYL (“promo-speak for “review if you like…”)
01 Sep 2018
Album Review: Taylor James — Insane
For me, the use of numbers and capital letters in place of, y’know, actual words is a red flag: it was kinda dumb when Prince did it, and it’s wholly unoriginal now, a generation later. So the discovery of the opening track “Back 2 U” caused me to lower my expectations in regard to finding
24 Aug 2018
EP Review: Poet Radio – Horseflesh
On the band’s website, Asheville-based Poet Radio describes itself as “a dark psych rock band with occultist undertones.” New listeners shouldn’t be warned off by that description; the trio’s new Horseflesh EP starts off accessibly enough and gets more even listenable as it goes along. “I’m Clean” begins abruptly, almost as if the band had
22 Aug 2018
Hundred-word Reviews for August 2018, Part 1
Time for some more hundred-word reviews. These days, I’m busier than I’ve ever been, so the only albums to make the cut for review are ones I consider remarkable, special in some significant way. So please consider all of these as recommended titles. Oytun Ersan — Fusiolicious When a release explicitly advertises itself as fusion,
18 Aug 2018
Album Review: Ben Delaurentis — Liar for a Muse
After making a trio of band albums, Lynchburg, Virginia singer-guitarist Ben Delaurentis has made a solo record in Liar for a Muse. But don’t assume that you’ll find a vice-and-acoustic vibe; Delaurentis has a pleasing sense for arrangement, and he makes the best of instrumentation and (especially) vocals. “As Good as it Gets” opens the
18 Aug 2018
Album Review: American Amnesia — …Yet Here We Are
The band name and the album title might suggest to some that this is an album of sociopolitical commentary. Not so much: this Connecticut trio makes hard-charging rock. The songs often have more than one good idea in ‘em. To wit: the opening track, “Time,” sounds like two completely different songs grated together. One’s fairly
01 Aug 2018
Sloan: A Question of Balance
Canadian rock foursome Sloan is unusual in the context of popular music: the band has been together for more than 25 years without a single change in its lineup. Even more remarkably, all four members of the Toronto-based group sing, play multiple instruments and compose songs. And it’s no leap of logic to observe that
05 Jul 2018
David Wilcox: Local Hero
David Wilcox didn’t start his life in Western North Carolina, but once the singer-songwriter discovered the region, he knew he had found his home. Thirty-seven years and twenty-plus albums later, Asheville remains Wilcox’s home, and living here informs his music in myriad ways. In celebration of the release of The View from the Edge, his