AltWeeklies Wire
The Old 97's Go Through a Second Childhoodnew
While it's still quite good, the group's latest can't quite match up with the band's previous releases.
Tucson Weekly |
Andrew Mortazavi |
05-29-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Blame It on Gravity, The Old 97's
The Cowboy Junkies Celebrate the 20th Anniversarynew
The seminal alt-country band returned Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity to re-record their pivotal second album, The Trinity Session, with some old friends.
Tucson Weekly |
Gene Armstrong |
05-29-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Cowboy Junkies, Trinity Revisited
Sure, Mocking ScarJo is Trendy Right Nownew
By now we all know Maxim hottie Scarlett Johansson has released an album of Tom Waits covers. But, y'know, Anywhere I Lay My Head is actually not so bad.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Caralyn Green |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Van Morrison Once Again Ventures Into the Slipstreamnew
What has eluded Morrison in recent years -- and what the famously press-skeptical artist has certainly done nothing to court -- is a galvanizing, buzz-worthy, late-career "comeback" on the order of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan or Neil Diamond.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Atmosphere Explores Other Folks' Lives in First Personnew
When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold is "dedicated to all dads," bracketed by the sounds from a child's music box, and focused on the lives of girls and women.
The Memphis Flyer |
Chris Herrington |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
The Roots Still Fight the Fightnew
The state of "conscious" rap is in serious flux right now, which is why the Roots' aggressive, disorienting Rising Down feels timely and urgent.
Foxy Brown Gets Too Predictablenew
Since her days as a 16-year-old prodigy on her multiplatinum debut Ill Na Na, her voice has lost all traces of vulnerability, and here she's morphed into a law-evading, fucking, materialistic caricature.
Bassist Avishai Cohen Takes a Lead Role on His New Trio Albumnew
Jazz "neocons" -- those who maintain that if it isn't blues-based, it isn't jazz -- will surely reject Gently Disturbed. There's not a 12-bar or a blue note to be found, because the disc is too subversive, and too damn good, to bother with such rigid constraints.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
Unrest's Bridget Cross Recalls Her Old Bandmates for New Projectnew
Cross now lives in Alaska, but for most of the tracks on Maybe It's Reno's self-titled debut, she reunites with her former Unrest mates, Mark Robinson and drummer Phil Krauth, to deliver an agreeably familiar mix of dreamy guitar and gawky grooves.
Washington City Paper |
Casey Rae-Hunter |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
Jamie Lidell's Latest is a Little Sad and Sometimes Sappynew
The Brit soul singer jumps into the way-back machine for a ride to 1960s Motown in his new album, the simply titled Jim.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Patricia Sauthoff |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
Hemlock Offers a Perfect Antidote to Our Poisonous Eranew
With America sinking into an abyss of war and recession, this Las Vegas band offers aggressive, eardrum-mashing solace of the highest order.
Tucson Weekly |
Jarret Keene |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Hemlock, No Time for Sorrow
The World Needs Billy Braggnew
Bragg's first new record in six years breaks no new ground, but it shows that Bragg has lost neither his commitment to his ideals nor his knack for writing fantastic songs.
Tucson Weekly |
Kristine Peashock |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Billy Bragg, Mr. Love and Justice
The Baby-faced Wunderkinds of Black Tidenew
With their major-label debut, Miami's baby-faced heavy metal savants Black Tide have produced an introduction that should provide the critical mass needed to unleash the hurricane that's been stirring Florida’s music scene for the past few years.
Orlando Weekly |
Bao Le-Huu |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Black Tide, Light from Above
Annuals Make Major-Label Debut on Split EP with Sunfoldnew
Where Annuals takes cues from the kitchen-sink, simmer-and-swell indie crowd, Sunfold refocuses '90s alternative rock with the familiar tools: "Between the Worlds" has the guitar harmonies Rivers Cuomo has been searching for since Pinkerton.
The Morning Benders Makes Music its Own Waynew
It's small surprise that Talking Through Tin Cans feels like an informal balancing act between snappy pop-rockers and moodier midtempo numbers. Kinda like the flip sides of an old-school vinyl album.
Pasadena Weekly |
Bliss |
05-20-2008 |
Reviews
