Three videos for Election Day. Who do we want to be? Some years ago Sean Kelly of The Samples penned what has to be the election day anthem. It acknowledges what we all know, it notes the reasons we have to abandon hope, and still it insists that we carry on. It’s Election Day 2016. What choice will you make about
Read moreI’m not good with video, but the Space Team Electra reunion show is less than two weeks away and I was inspired to try. If you’re in Denver (or can get here), the details follow the video.
Read morePart 1 in a series. I’ll go first. And since it’s my idea, I’ll take the editor’s privilege and cheat a bit by giving you two solos instead of one. Up first, we go back to 1974 and “Brighton Rock,” the lead track on Queen’s third album, Sheer Heart Attack. The band’s first two releases had been relentlessly self-conscious in their
Read moreHot Nun, Veronica Falls and Fish released wonderful CDs last year that belong on my top albums of the year list. As noted some time back, there are always CDs I don’t get around to during the year in which they’re released, and with the great ones I accordingly fail to include them in my year-end mentions. I’ve already done a
Read moreOh, I love that song. How many times have you been talking about music and somebody says hey, what’s your favorite tune by [fill in the blank]? I have no idea how many times I’ve asked or tried to answer that one, but many. Many many. I thought it might be fun to do a little post where I confront
Read moreNormally I try and show you “official” videos when I write about bands, because that’s where you get the best audio fidelity. I think you’re going to see why I opted for the live vid in this case, though. Sweet lord a’mighty.
Read moreA few days ago I offered up volume one of stuff that should have been in my best CDs of 2013 note, but wasn’t. So now we arriveth at volume the second, whereupon I apologize to Adam Marsland. Adam has been one of my absolute favorites for a long time. I’m a sucker for the sub-genre we call Power Pop,
Read moreIt’s easy to see how the mid-1980s Roots revival could have shaped Nashville into something completely different than the wasteland it is today. Not long ago I was lamenting the embarrassing state of Country & Western music, and if you track down through the comments of that post you’ll see a couple folks, including our boy Otherwise, recommending that I
Read moreNewman is pretty darned good. But it’s too early to know if he’s the dude Amy Winehouse or the dude Duffy. A few days ago BuzzFeed up and wet itself over Brit Soul-Pop wunderkind John Newman, calling the 23 year-old singer the “Dude Version Of Amy Winehouse.” As a famous man once said, “simmer down, Beavis.” Comparing Newman to 27-Clubber
Read moreIf C&W had a soul Jason Isbell would be the biggest thing in Nashville. Keith Urban is a judge on American Idol. Blake Shelton is on The Voice. Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and the rest of these prancing pinup models are the stars of the moment. Meanwhile, down in Alabama, Jason Isbell has produced as good a set
Read moreA wonderful recent discovery. They might remind you of Death Cab for Cutie, and there are moments where I might compare them to The Shins, Ben Folds Five or Jets Overhead, even. Thoughtful, literate Chamber Pop from my new city.
Read moreMayer Hawthorne’s new CD, Where Does This Door Go, is set to drop next Tuesday. Thanks to NPR, I’ve been streaming it for a few days now. If you recall, I loved his last disc: How Do You Do made my Platinum list for 2011. Okay, well, that may be overstating the case a tad, but as fun, can’t-get-that-song-out-of-my-ears ’60s
Read moreTunesDay usually happens on Tuesday, not Thursday. But the first video from the new self-titled Hot Nun CD was just released, so fuck the rules and roll the tape. Hot Nun is the latest project from Jeff Shelton, whom you may know from The Spinning Jennies and The Well Wishers (they’ve featured here at S&R a number of times). While
Read moreWe haven’t historically regarded the French for their rock & roll. Wine and cuisine, sure. Beautiful women, absolutely. But Europe’s greatest pop music has always tended to emerge across the channel. Then, in 2009, a little band from Versailles called Phoenix blowed up with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and one of the year’s hottest Indie singles, “Lisztomania.” Phoenix had been around for a
Read morePart 5 in a series. Once upon a time there was Def Leppard and Motley Crue and Skid Row. Then this video happened and that, as they say, was that.
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lullaby pit 