Of Note
Itchy, scratchy techno-tronica that makes my eardrums feel mistreated. Glasmus has that, along with the capacity to re-create the sounds of a ’90s Tijuana disco band. Or weird polit-tronica: “New World Odor,” for example, is …
A band named “Girl”: at least that’s what the group’s members (none of whom are Russian, by the way) claim Devotchka stands for in that particular language. No, this is a four-piece based in Colorado, …
Over the years, Black Sabbath has proven to be an easy mark for the creative tribute band. In a recent issue I wrote about Mac Sabbath, a bona fide tribute that, while keeping the music …
Alas, once again Los Lobos got snubbed by the nominating committee that oversees who does and who does not enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fans have expressed indignation via social media, but …
Fans of the Black Heart Procession or anything that hometown singer/guitarist/composer/producer Pall Jenkins has ever done will love Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects. Their story begins in the 1950s when a failed stuntman named …
Wayne Hancock. His nickname is “the Train,” and his act is what remains of honky-tonk, a scarce form of entertainment these days. In truth, honky-tonk defines a type of venue and an era more than …
The White Buffalo and Jake Smith are one. It’s not an alter ego so much as a nickname that stuck. When he calls the Reader from his home in Los Angeles, I ask him about …
Forty years of Robert Cray: all the while, some among us are waiting for that guitar of his to quicken into flames, rather than smolder like last night’s fire. Not a very heroic guitar hero, …
Yep, it’s country music through and through, with plenty of South Carolina drawl, reverb, guitar twang, and liberal amounts of pedal-steel guitar to close the deal. But don’t be fooled by Nikki Lane’s alt-rock roots …
When finally we connect by telephone, Holly Golightly is in transit somewhere in Minneapolis, recovering from two weeks of road flu. The conversation is abbreviated by random bouts of coughing. The Brokeoffs — two people, …
Houndmouth is one of those bands for which the songs seem to play themselves, minus fanfare or any particular direction. That’s an illusion, of course. The melodies and the storylines rise above the sloppy musicianship …
These are the last days to catch Bushwalla performing as Bushwalla. According to his own crowd source funding campaign, the singer/songwriter plans to retire the stage name and alter ego he has performed as for …
Years ago, blues guitarist Walter Trout (who recently came back from the near-dead) saw the handwriting on the wall. “Every town I go to has got its own teenaged guitar slinger these days,” he complained …
Possibly no one that saw this band live in 1988 expected them to be around for more than a few weeks, let alone 30 years, and not because they were awful, but because Mudhoney was …
Gram Rabbit, from Joshua Tree, California, has been around for at least a decade and has released several albums, beginning with 2004’s Music to Start a Cult To. An underwear manufacturer broke them out in …
She is the embodiment of every one of the best of the blues stylists I grew up listening to during the ’60s and the ’70s. Beth Hart has got Janis Joplin and Etta James and …