indie Archive
17 Jun 2021
Home is Where the Synths Are: Sunset Lines Reinvents, Again
From arena-hopping festival headliners to the local garage band, COVID-19 forced musicians of all stripes to rethink, reorganize, and regroup. Fortunately for Liz Brooks and Paul McCorkle, the core duo behind Bay Area synth-pop project Sunset Lines, by the time the pandemic shuttered venues across the country they were already accustomed to starting over. The
01 Jun 2021
30 Days Out, June 2021 #1: The Broadcast, Firecracker Jazz Band, Sang Sara, Floyd Philharmonic
Unless something changes drastically – and here’s hoping it doesn’t – this sentence will be the last within a “30 Days Out” to mention the pandemic and its effect on live music. With that out of the way, here’s a quick rundown of four shows in and around Asheville NC in the coming 30 days.
28 May 2021
The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ Listener-friendly Depresso Pop
Glenn Donaldson is prolific. Maybe not quite Robert Pollard or R. Stevie Moore prolific, but the man records and releases a lot of music. The Skygreen Leopards, his psych-folk collaboration with fellow multi-instrumentalist Donovan Quinn, put out seven albums in eight years, plus another in 2014. Another duo, The Art Museums, featured Donaldson working with
24 Apr 2021
Album Review: The Mommyheads — Coming Into Beauty
If you’re not familiar with the Mommyheads, try this: imagine a cross between the quirky intelligence of They Might Be Giants, the sophisticated use of studio-as-instrument of Talking Heads, and the enduring pop sensibility of Todd Rundgren (more on that last bit presently). The Brooklyn band was active from the tail-end of the 1980s through
23 Apr 2021
Album Review: Snowglobe — Our Land Brains
The groups associated with the Athens, Georgia-based Elephant 6 Collective are a mixed bag. While all share a certain musical sensibility, Neutral Milk Hotel and Of Montreal each appeal to a slightly different subset of listeners than does Olivia Tremor Control (my personal favorite). And what is and is not an Elephant 6 band is
16 Apr 2021
WWNBB: An Italian-American Confederation to Combat Boring Music
The global pandemic hasn’t stunted the creativity and output of indie musicians. Far from it: especially when it comes to DIY-leaning artists who create and record their original music at hone instead of in recording studios, this period of confinement has often yielded a bumper crop of new material. And one locus of musical activity
20 Jan 2021
Album Review: Gretchen’s Wheel — Such Open Sky
On Such Open Sky, her latest album as Gretchen’s Wheel, Lindsay Murray takes a turn that’s both darker and more energetic than what has come before. From the opening strains of “You Should Know,” it’s clear that Gretchen’s Wheel circa late 2020 is a great leap forward. While her previous work has been highly melodic
18 Jan 2021
Hundred-word Reviews: January 2021 #2
Here’s five more brief reviews; this time we’ve got progressive rock, powerpop, indie chamber pop, goth rock and one album that’s simply beyond easy classification. What they all have in common is that they’re new, they’re indie, they’d be likely to escape your notice if you didn’t visit Musoscribe, and they’re all quite, quite good.
17 Jan 2021
Awen Family Band: Prolific Family
The concept of family can be a fluid one: beyond genetic connections, for many it represents a circle of people with a common set of concerns, goals or values. In the case of the Awen Family Band, it represents a shared focus on musical expression. The group has recently released Back to the Source, an
30 Sep 2020
Album Review: The Black Watch – Fromthing Somethat
It’s difficult to keep up with the steady stream of output from The Black Watch. Just last year the group led by John Andrew Fredrick released a pair of albums – the 31 Years of Obscurity compilation and the all new Magic Johnson. Those were followed in short order by Brilliant Failures, reviewed in April.