Dropkick MurphysThis Machine Still Kills FascistsDummy Luck Music [2022] In 2003, Boston-based Celtic punk rock band Dropkick Murphys covered Woody Guthrie’s song “Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight” for their Blackout album, which brought them to the attention of Nora Guthrie, Woody’s daughter and Arlo’s sister, who’s also the President of the Woody Guthrie Foundation. In … Read more
Death Cab For CutieAsphalt MeadowsAtlantic Records [2022] While responses to the 2018 release from Death Cab For Cutie were mixed, there were hints in several tracks on the back half of the album that suggested that songwriter Ben Gibbard and new bandmates Dave Depper and Zac Rae were beginning to see their way to the … Read more
Surprise ChefEducation & RecreationBig Crown Records [2022] In the music critic business, you would be surprised sometimes on how promoters create large reaching descriptors for artists just to grab a publication’s attention. Many times, they are not even close but sometimes just asking the band is the best source as Melbourne’s Surprise Chef describes their … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardChangesKGLW [2022] Changes wraps up King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s trilogy of new albums released in October 2022, and it’s the hardest to categorize of the three. While Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (IDPLML) and Laminated Denim felt very similar in their jammy, psych-prog explorations, Changesbreaks the mold by bringing in both the … Read more
DrugdealerHiding In Plain SightMexican Summer [2022] Michael Collins has always been an interesting character in music since the early 2010’s. After a legal battle over the name Run DMT he emerged in 2013 under the moniker Salvia Plath with the 60’s psych bent of The Bardo Story. Well, with band names like that why don’t … Read more
Guided By VoicesScalping The GuruGBV Inc. [2022] If you were to poll fans of Guided By Voices what they thought were three consecutive years that highlight the sweet spot of recordings from the band, 1993-1995 would be one of the top answers. One obvious reason of course is that the classic LPs Bee Thousand (1994) … Read more
Richard X. Heyman67,000 Miles An AlbumTurn-Up Records [2022] The speed of the earth as it moves in orbit around the sun is 67,000 miles an hour, even though we go through our daily lives entirely unaware of our constant motion. An original member of the 60’s Jersey band, The Doughboys, Richard X. Heyman follows up … Read more
The 1975Being Funny In A Foreign LanguageDirty Hit/Polydor/Interscope Records [2022] One of the challenges in describing the music and albums of The 1975 in the past is that there was always a lot to take in. And it wasn’t just that singer and primary songwriter Matthew Healy wrote about anything and everything that crossed his … Read more
Archers Of LoafReason In DeclineMerge Records [2022] I know that I was not alone in my excitement when I heard that the original four members of Archers Of Loaf reunited and made a new album, Reason In Decline. It has been 24 years since this band released White Trash Heroes (1998), so I think the … Read more
Robyn HitchcockShufflemania!Tiny Ghost Records [2022] With 22 studio albums to his credit, and the subject of a concert film by Jonathan Demme, Robyn Hitchcock may be the most-celebrated British singer/songwriter that most people have never heard of. In the late 70’s, Hitchcock led a folk rock/psychedelic band called The Soft Boys, before going solo before … Read more
Arctic MonkeysThe CarDomino [2022] When Arctic Monkeys released the lounge affair that is 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, I think every fan and follower settled in on that its thematic and low-key delivery was a one-off artistic deviation from the indie rock they ruled the air waves with on AM (2013). Well, it has … Read more
Dry CleaningStumpwork4AD [2022] After the release of their 2019 EP, Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks, TFN said that we couldn’t wait to hear how South London’s Dry Cleaning was going to progress. Well, we had to wait till last year to find out but Dry Cleaning’s debut LP, New Long Leg, was a post-punk master … Read more
SloanSteadyYep Roc Records [2022] Steady represents Sloan’s 13th full length album, and its release today coincides with the 30th anniversary of their debut record Smeared which came out in October 1992. Sloan are one of the rare bands to make it to their 13th album with all four original members which leads to their consistent … Read more
Lou ReedWords & Music, May 1965Light In The Attic Records [2022] The standard rock critic cliché often attributed to Brian Eno—he of early Roxy Music fame who went on to collaborate/produce albums with Robert Fripp, David Bowie, and U2 among many others, and a respected creator of experimental/ambient music—states that “The first Velvet Underground album … Read more
PlainsI Walked With You A WaysANTI- [2022] “If it’s all you got, yeah, it’s all you gave, I got a problem with it. If you can’t do better than that, babe, I got a problem with it.” This is the catchy chorus you hear in Plains single, “Problem With It,” and it is incredibly hard … Read more
PixiesDoggerelBMG [2022] Neil Young famously wrote that “it’s better to burn out than to fade away,” in his song “Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Blue/Into the Black)” in 1979, which appears to be a reflection on the death of Elvis, even though Young name drops Johnny Rotten in the lyric. The meaning is … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardLaminated DenimKGLW [2022] Laminated Denim is the second album King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard has released this month, and we’ll cut to the chase: if you liked the previous album (Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava), you’ll like Laminated Denim too. The album is billed as a sequel of sorts to Made … Read more
Daniel LanoisPlayer, PianoModern Recordings [2022] Here’s a sentence I never expected I’d write: Daniel Lanois has made a quiet, quaint, and charming little piano album. That’s right, the Daniel Lanois who joined with Brian Eno to produce two of U2’s most important albums, The Joshua Tree and Achtung, Baby, and produced albums by Bob Dylan, … Read more
DisqDesperately Imagining Someplace QuietSaddle Creek Records [2022] Can you imagine what it would have been like to release your debut record days before the forever changing pandemic lockdown? Well, that is exactly what happened to Madison, Wisconsin’s Disq as their debut, Collector (2020), was essentially released to silence. No touring and no real way to … Read more
AlvvaysBlue RevPolyvinyl Records [2022] For many bands there is still a standard process of releasing a new record every two or three years. More recently, we have seen some artists cranking out records even faster or just releasing a single here and there to what I believe is a focus to stay relevant. Now you … Read more
No. 2First LoveJealous Butcher Records [2022] It’s been 20 years since Neil Gust last played with his Portland, Oregon band-mates in No. 2, the aptly named second band for the singer/songwriter and guitarist. Gust’s first band, Heatmiser, recorded three albums in the 90’s, but is perhaps best remembered as the launching pad for deceased singer/songwriter … Read more
The CultUnder The Midnight SunBlack Hill Records [2022] If they gave out rewards for perseverance, there’s no doubt that singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy on the long-running band The Cult would be major contenders. The band broke through commercially with their second album in 1985, Love, which included “She Sells Sanctuary,” one of … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard WizardIce, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And LavaKGLW [2022] This is not the only King Gizzard review you’ll read on TFN in October. The Australian psych-prog song factory has announced three new albums coming out in quick succession this month, and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava is just the … Read more
Tedeschi Trucks BandI Am The Moon: IV. FarewellFantasy / Concord Music [2022] There’s a satisfying sense of closure flowing nicely through the six songs of this final chapter in the Tedeschi Trucks Bands’ I Am The Moon project, with 18 songs spread over three previous EPs released monthly over the summer. The subtitle Farewell captures … Read more
Yeah Yeah YeahsCool It DownSecretly Canadian [2022] Returning to recording nine years after their last album, Mosquito, NYC’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back with a brief 8-track album acting as if nothing has really changed, and the dance floor is calling. Formed in 2000, the arty punk/dance rock trio – Karen O on vocals and … Read more