Brian Q. Newcomb 
Rose City Band Earth TripThrill Jockey Records [2021] Rose City Band is guitarist Ripley Johnson, a celebrated guitarist from Portland, Ore. who also sings and plays guitar with psychedelic rock band, Wooden Shjips, and as part of the more kraut-rock/psychedelic duo Moon Duo. Earth Trip, his third as Rose City and second on the Thrill … Read more
Faye Webster I Know I’m Funny hahaSecretly Canadian [2021] Atlanta-based, singer-songwriter Faye Webster got the biggest boost to her career when the first single from her new album, “Better Distractions,” found its way onto former President Barrack Obama’s 2020 end of year playlist, earning the song national and international attention. Smartly, the 23-year-old leads off … Read more
The Wallflowers Exit WoundsNew West Records [2021] By the time Jakob Dylan stepped into the studio with his band The Wallflowers to record Bringing Down the Horse, the band’s breakthrough 1996 sophomore album, it was more than obvious that he’d been studying the classics. But it was more complicated and interesting than simple lineage, the … Read more
Richard X Heyman Copious NotesTurn-Up Records [2021] Richard X Heyman, like most power-pop artists who came of age in the 80’s, draws on earlier generations for influences, most obviously the Beatles and British Invasion bands, LA sound bands like the Byrds, and pop songwriters from folk, R&B, and Motown. Starting out as a drummer in … Read more
Danny Elfman Big MessANTI-/Epitaph Records [2021] Rarely has an artist captured the tone and energy of their recording project as accurately and succinctly as Danny Elfman does here in the album title Big Mess. Of course, Elfman is best known of late as the composer of music scores for over a 100 films going all … Read more
The Mountain Goats Dark In HereMerge Records [2021] It’s hard off the top of my head to imagine a more prolific and talented songwriter currently working today than John Darnielle, the creative talent at the heart of The Mountain Goats. (Bill Mallonee is the only other contender that comes to mind.) But of course, quantity … Read more
Garbage No Gods No MastersStunvolume/Infectious Music [2021] Ever since Garbage came out of the box in 1995, the band – boasting Scottish front woman Shirley Manson and oft-lauded producer Butch Vig on drums – has created edgy alternative rock by wedding techno and electronic influences with dance-y, trip-hop rhythms and smart, crunchy power pop melodic … Read more
Black River Delta Shakin’SofaBurn Records [2021] After a couple of listens to the hardcore blues rock of Black River Delta’s third album, Shakin’, you’d likely be surprised to learn that this band doesn’t come from the southern U.S., or even Ohio like the similar sounding Black Keys, but is actually comprised of a quartet from … Read more
Liz Phair SoberishChrysalis Records [2021] When Liz Phair’s debut album, Exile In Guyville, was released in 1993, she was a critic’s darling and an indie rock superhero for her gutsy lyrical bravado. While the album was a modest commercial success, it was named the number one album of that year by Spin Magazine and the … Read more
Gary Louris Jump For JoySham/Thirty Tigers [2021] As befits this year of the pandemic lockdown, Jayhawks’ leader and main songwriter Gary Louris has delivered his second solo album, Jump For Joy, a more intimate project where he wrote, sang, played all the instruments, and produced. The Jayhawks album released last year, XOXO, was more of … Read more
Chrissie Hynde Standing In The Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob DylanBMG [2021] Chrissie Hynde was fresh from the release of another very good Pretenders’ album, Hate For Sale, when everyone was reckoning with the fact that the pandemic wasn’t a passing thing, and tours and concerts were going to be on hold for another year. … Read more
Lambchop ShowtunesMerge Records [2021] Lambchop is a loosely defined collaborative focused by the artistic vision and voice of Kurt Wagner, who has defined this latest project as “Showtunes for people who don’t like showtunes.” While we tend to think of showtunes as up-tempo, focused by catchy melodies that move along the narrative toward some happy … Read more
James All The Colours Of YouVirgin Music [2021] In 1993 when Manchester, England band James had a break-out single with “Laid,” no doubt as much for all of its talk of “passionate love,” and that “she only comes when she’s on top,” the band was on their fifth album and had previous British radio hits … Read more
Reigning Sound A Little More Time With Reigning SoundMerge Records [2021] Reigning Sound’s singer/songwriter Greg Cartwright has returned to Memphis to record a collection of power-pop tracks that get back to basics. After working in the studio with Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach for 5 tracks on 2011’s EP, “Abdication… For Your Love,” and the R&B … Read more
John Hiatt With The Jerry Douglas Band Leftover FeelingsNew West Records [2021] It’s hard with a songwriter like John Hiatt, who seems to wear his heart on his sleeve, to imagine that on his 24th album he’d still have Leftover Feelings. On songs like “I Stood Up,” which describes him coming to sobriety, or “Your … Read more
St. Vincent Daddy’s HomeLoma Vista Recordings [2021] One of the most intriguing aspects of the musical artistry of St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, is that as she adapts her musical style to match the artistic aim of each project, she evolves in the way she presents herself, adapting a character to fit the concept. On … Read more
The Black Keys Delta KreamEasy Eye Sound/Nonesuch Records [2021] Ten studio albums and two decades into their career, any fans of The Black Keys who’ve dug in past their string of rock hits, like “Lonely Boy,” “Fever,” and “Lo/Hi,” is well aware of the band’s interest in the Mississippi delta blues music of artists like … Read more
Damien Jurado The Monster Who Hated PennsylvaniaMaraqopa Records [2021] The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania, the 17th album for singer/songwriter Damien Jurado and first for his own label Maraqopa Records, is an intimate affair, ten songs that capture the characters in a decisive moment in time. The brief album notes suggest it’s the “middle ground between … Read more
Tim Foljahn I Dreamed A DreamCart/Horse Records [2021] Guitarist Tim Foljahn has been around for a while. In addition to making six albums with the New Jersey outfit, Two Dollar Guitar, he’s toured as a support player with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Cat Power, most famously his band was hired to record an album with … Read more
Weezer Van WeezerCrush Music/Atlantic Records [2021] Back in 2018, when Weezer shared a co-headline tour with The Pixies, everything about the former’s end of set theatrics suggested the band’s need for an album like Van Weezer. As suggested in The Fire Note concert review at the time, when the set design switched from the “garage … Read more
Finn’s Motel Fireworks Or LightningVictory Over Gravity [2021] One of the pleasures of advanced age is being around long enough to experience the development of a musician or artist over the course of their creative life. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s when I was writing about music out and about in St. Louis … Read more
Teenage Fanclub Endless ArcadeMerge Records [2021] In 1991, when Scottish band Teenage Fanclub first broke in No. America with their third album, Bandwagonesque, their sound was brimming with electric guitars turned up so they were humming on the edge of feeding back, brisk pop song rhythms with Beatlesque hooks and harmonies, and two strong singles … Read more
Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of GodLoma Vista Recordings [2021] The sixth album from Atlanta alt/rock quartet Manchester Orchestra feels like the culmination of their 15 years as recording artists, bringing together their early guitar rock inclinations with the orchestrated compositional depth that came later. 2017’s A Black Mile to the Surface embraced a cinematic, … Read more
Proper Nouns Feel FreePhone Booth Records [2021] Feel Free is the debut Baltimore’s Proper Nouns, a power pop three-piece led by singer/songwriter and guitarist Spencer Compton. Joined by Jon Birkholz on bass and Joe Martin on drums, Proper Nouns delivers the kind of fast, punchy, punk-influenced, 80’s alt/pop associated with artists like Elvis Costello, Squeeze, … Read more
Dinosaur Jr. Sweep It Into SpaceJagjaguwar [2021] In a case of being in the wrong place at the right time, alternative rock power trio Dinosaur Jr. had their best-selling, major label releases in the first half of the 90’s, which got them lumped in with the grunge bands of the Pacific Northwest like Nirvana and … Read more