review Archive
30 Sep 2014
Honeymoon Hundred-word Reviews, Part 2
I’m on my honeymoon this week, so I thought it would be a good time to offer up some backlog-clearing entries in my occasional series of Hundred Word Reviews. And […]
29 Sep 2014
Honeymoon Hundred-word Reviews, Part 1
I’m on my honeymoon this week, so I thought it would be a good time to offer up some backlog-clearing entries in my occasional series of Hundred Word Reviews. And […]
26 Sep 2014
Album Review: Bombadil — Tarpits and Canyonlands
With a slightly more arty take on the approach favored by bands like Fleet Foxes, on Tarpits and Canyonlands, Durham NC-based Bombadil crafts a music that feels like equal parts […]
24 Sep 2014
Album Review: Jethro Tull — A Passion Play: An Extended Performance
Unlike, say, Creedence Clearwater Revivial – or even The Beatles – Jethro Tull have rarely been anyone’s idea of a “singles group.” As the leading folk-prog group of the rock […]
23 Sep 2014
Festival Review: Transfigurations II, Part 2
Continued from Part One… I’ve long been a fan of what is sometimes labeled “kiwi pop,” the jangly guitar-based music – mostly made by a very interconnected community of musicians […]
22 Sep 2014
Festival Review: Transfigurations II, Part 1
It’s not easy putting together the lineup for a music festival. All sorts of competing forces work against each other in the planning process. You want a lineup that’s cutting-edge, […]
09 Sep 2014
Album Review: Sloan — Commonwealth
Rock fans who fall into a certain age bracket may recall the buzz around the release of Liz Phair‘s major-label debut, 1993’s Exile in Guyville. As the popular story went, […]
08 Sep 2014
Album Review: The Legal Matters
My friend Bruce Brodeen occasionally endures some good-natured ribbing for those mini-reviews he penned in his NotLame mail order catalogs of the 90s. If you viewed his writing a certain […]
05 Sep 2014
Album Review: The Small Faces — There Are But Four Small Faces
History has a way of playing tricks on us. How many of us American fans of Beach Boys music remember that Pet Sounds was – upon its original release – […]
04 Sep 2014
Album Review: The Mojo Gurus — Who Asked Ya?
Once upon a time, rock was rock. In the days before popular music fell prey to market segmentation, the catch-all term of rock conjured – at least to some extent […]