review Archive
17 Mar 2009
Album Review: Hayseed Dixie – A Hot Piece of Grass
Hayseed Dixie is bluegrass music’s answer to Dread Zeppelin. But then, who asked the question? Hayseed Dixie’s high-concept approach recasts hard rock songs in a bluegrass context (for a secret […]
16 Mar 2009
Album Review: Isaac Hayes — Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?
Finally we have an Isaac Hayes career retrospective that is both succinct and sprawling. Of course “The Theme from Shaft” is here; it leads off the first disc on this […]
15 Mar 2009
Album Review: Holding Mercury — Downfall of an Empire
There’s a strong and proud tradition of Midwestern power pop. Cheap Trick, Material Issue, The Shoes; I could go on. The straightforward, hard-yet-melodic approach of these and groups like them […]
14 Mar 2009
Album Review: The Fuzztones – Horny as Hell
Now there’s a concept: take classic garage-punk songs from the 1960s (plus a fistful of Fuzztones originals) and put together new arrangements that add…wait for it…a horn section. No kidding. […]
13 Mar 2009
Album Review: Fluttr Effect — Marking Time
This disc gets off to a good start. The instrumentation is varied and intriguing; tempos shift and keep the listener on his or her toes. But the band’s shtick seems […]
12 Mar 2009
Album Review: DJ Envy & Red Cafe — The Co-op
On first listen, my attention was grabbed by a track (or “skit,” as it’s called on the disc) in which a character named DJ Death Murder Homicide rattles off every […]
12 Mar 2009
Concert Review: Japanese Motors, Raleigh NC 03/11/09
A quick listen — heck, even a careful, critical series of listens — to “Single Fins & Safety Pins,” the latest single from Japanese Motors, would give most people the […]
11 Mar 2009
Album Review: Cradle of Filth — Thornography
This is some very silly music. The first track “Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan,” comes in with a bombastic movie-soundtrack vibe, all robed-choruses and scratching cellos. […]
10 Mar 2009
DVD Review: Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven — The First Annual Camp Out Live at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace
OK, here’s the thing: I like Cracker. And I really like Camper Van Beethoven. Camper’s genre-blending of Eastern ethnic sounds with, well, everything from C&W to punk to bluegrass was […]
08 Mar 2009
Album Review: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians — Stranger Things
Edie Brickell is back. Actually she never left. While she recorded and played with New Bohemians in the early 90s, she dropped the band for her ’94 and ’03 releases. […]