AltWeeklies Wire
Underground Lo-Fi Rocker Would Gladly Trade Hipster Hype for Pop Hitsnew
Don’t let his untamed hair or laid-back demeanour fool you – Kurt Vile is a consummate professional. After all, this is the guy who titled his albums Constant Hitmaker and Childish Prodigy... and meant it.
NOW Magazine |
Richard Trapunski |
02-26-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Hayward Williams' Songs From a Long Winternew
Milwaukee’s harsh winters take a well-documented toll on us physically, numbing our limbs, wearing out our backs and testing our immune systems. They can be just as rough on us psychologically. Singer-songwriter Hayward Williams’ latest album was born of this annual seclusion.
Shepherd Express |
Evan Rytlewski |
02-26-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Cotton Bell, Hayward Williams
Redneck Woman Gretchen Wilson's Search For Radio Redemptionnew
Just over a year ago, Gretchen Wilson looked into the abyss. Her third album, One of the Boys, had tanked. The label team that had guided her 2004 debut CD Here for the Party to quintuple platinum sales had largely been swept away in the wake of a corporate merger.
Nashville Scene |
Rob Simbeck |
02-26-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Damian Lazarus Talks Techno and the Changing Face of Electronic Labelsnew
Damian Lazarus is sitting at the dining-room table of his Echo Park home trying to recover from a five-day touring blitz that he and his label mates at Crosstown Rebels have just finished. He's a bit worn down, but that's part of the deal.
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
02-26-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Muted Melancholy: Tindersticks' 'Falling Down a Mountain'new
After 18 years of releasing elegantly dark mood music, Tindersticks sound happier than ever. The slow-dance Keep You Beautiful is an enchanting love song that comes off as a tender lullaby, and the R&B-flavored Harmony Around My Table shuffles appealingly along.
Tucson Weekly |
Gene Armstrong |
02-24-2010 |
Reviews
Former Jazz Students Strive for Distinctive, Unique Musicnew
It's by design that Midlake's new record weaves its spell from ancient days, conjuring that same sense of elemental, shrouded powers at play that drives fantasy art. The band worked to craft The Courage of Others into an escape, the type of music that suggests it might cast some magic on the listener.
Tucson Weekly |
Eric Swedlund |
02-24-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Courage of Others, Midlake
Slacker's 'Start a New Life' Has a Backstory Worth Tellingnew
Shem McCauley burned out of progressive house and club remixes, then packed up and disappeared in Bangkok. Two years later, he emerges with a release for the ages.
Dig Boston |
David Day |
02-24-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Slacker, Start a New Life
Snap Sounds: Elephant9's 'Walk the Nile'new
Norwegian power trio Elephant9 lays on the acid-laced, "wildly cavorting in fields of fusion" prog (light on the kraut and pop, more in tune with the jazz) on their second long-player, Walk the Nile.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
02-24-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Elephant9, Walk the Nile
Moonstone's Micah Mackert Unraveling Prog-Rock Prophecynew
If you're looking for the truth, you've come to the wrong band. In Moonstone, the five-piece band for which Reverend Micah Mackert is spiritual seer and sole spokesman, facts are made into trifles, replaced by layers of beguiling myth.
City Pages (Twin Cities) |
David Hansen |
02-24-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Micah Mackert, Moonstone
Nothing Not New: I'm No Critic But I'm Also Not a Fan. I'm a Listenernew
I'm no critic. Even though I am paid to write about music — thanks to my role as a blogger responsible for writing about one new CD a day at www.NothingNotNew.com, an ostentatious yearlong project that has me listening to nothing not released in 2010 during the year 2010.
Phoenix New Times |
Jay Bennett |
02-23-2010 |
Music
Tags: www.NothingNotNew.com, Jay Bennett
Gov't Mule's Main Man Says He Takes Time Off, But We Don't Believe Himnew
Warren Haynes reveals the depth of his blues knowledge on Gov't Mule's latest album, last year's By a Thread, which he released on his own Evil Teen label.
Houston Press |
Chris Gray |
02-23-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: By a Thread, Gov't Mule
James McMurty's Quixotic Questnew
Never-quite-was is more like it, as James McMurtry, the son of famed novelist and screenwriter Larry (Lonesome Dove) McMurtry, has yet to live up to the "next big thing" status bestowed on him when he burst out of the gates with his debut.
Seattle Weekly |
Mike Seely |
02-22-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
With its Fourth Album, Story of the Year Stays the Coursenew
Four albums into its career, the St. Louis quintet continues to defy critics – and resist pigeonholing. Exhibit A: The Constant, the band's second LP for Epitaph Records and fourth album overall, which it recorded last summer with producer Elvis Baskette
Riverfront Times |
Annie Zaleski |
02-19-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: The Constant, Story of the Year
Pokey LaFarge Forges His Own Path Through Old-Time Country and Bluesnew
The question isn't how Pokey LaFarge, a 26-year-old, guitar-plucking blues singer — who was born in Benton, Illinois, and is now based in St. Louis — got to Florida. That's easy: Love and Interstates 10 and 75 took him there.
Riverfront Times |
Roy Kasten |
02-19-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Pokey LaFarge, Riverboat Soul
Dreams of Life and Death: Looking Back with Patti Smithnew
Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe were barely 20 when they met, a couple of androgynous hippies newly arrived in New York City to live among the bohos and Beats, the Factory divas and "extravagant bums" swirling around the boroughs, the Bowery and the Chelsea.
L.A. Weekly |
Steve Appleford |
02-19-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
