GleemerDown ThroughOther People Records [2020] If you are looking for a record to sit down with and just absorb then I highly recommend the new long player from Fort Collins, Colorado group Gleemer. The band has refined their earlier indie rock sound with more driving and pulsating riffs combined with a shimmering shoegaze here that … Read more
Cathedrale Houses Are Built The Same Howlin’ Banana Records [2020] Houses Are Built The Same is the third LP from the French post-punk group Cathedrale. Where I have found their previous releases slightly more gritty, Cathedrale have grown into a much tighter force on this album with clean edge guitars, focused vocals and a multitude … Read more
The Dream Syndicate The Universe InsideANTI- [2020] Generally speaking, I hate it when a press release for a new album suggests something like “this is what all the reviewers will be saying.” (I once reviewed a Meatloaf concert for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and after making a huge gaff, he told the audience what the … Read more
Lucinda Williams Good Souls Better AngelsHighway 20/Thirty Tigers [2020] Lucinda Williams has a remarkable, ragged, resilient singing voice, that is the perfect instrument for her honest, world-weary songs. I’m often reminded when I hear her singing that it was to Williams that Elvis Costello turned to in 2004 to share vocals for his song “There’s … Read more
Car Seat HeadrestMaking A Door Less OpenMatador Records [2020] Making new music is always a risk for any artist with a catalog. Stray too far from what your fans know may alienate an entire group of followers while churning out the same type of songs can create a stale and flat arc for a band … Read more
Local H LifersAntiFragile Music [2020] It’s one thing to make compelling music as a hard rocking duo – just guitar and drums –delivering music that matters while holding an audience’s attention for 40 minutes during a live set, it’s a feat on an altogether other level to keep pulling that off for 30 years, as … Read more
X AlphabetlandFat Possum Records [2020] Of the bands that came out of the L.A. scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I tend to connect X with those bands that had a strong roots music connection that fueled their creativity. X arrived on the punk scene playing hard, fast sounds, sparked by the unique … Read more
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Chunky ShrapnelATO/Flightless Records [2020] Who: The band hails from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and have been making music together since 2010. Sound: What makes King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard so interesting is the genres they tackle. Their musical styles include: jazz, thrash-metal, psych-pop, prog-rock, psychedelic folk, and blues to … Read more
Red Dirt Boys Red Dirt BoysSelf-Released [2020] Emmylou Harris has a way of picking great back-up players for her band. Nevermind that she sang with Graham Parsons, Mark Knopfler and nearly every major country and Americana act in the last b decades, but back in the day she had the Hot Band with James Burton … Read more
Brendan Benson Dear LifeThird Man Records [2020] Brendan Benson has the enviable position of being the other front man in the Raconteurs who shares the stage with Jack White, and the rhythm section of Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler. He shares half the vocals, plays guitar and somehow fades into the shadows every-time White steps … Read more
Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt CuttersEpic Records [2020] The title of Fiona Apple’s fifth album is telling. Drawn from the British crime-drama “The Fall,” which featured Gillian Anderson as a detective who, discovering some shackles where a woman has been abused, cries out: Fetch The Bolt Cutters. Those words become a metaphor for an artist … Read more
Andy HampelNightshiftSelf-Released [2020] There is nothing better right now than being able to complete some long overdue projects with the extra time we have staying at home. For Andy Hampel, that solitude has produced his first solo record, Nightshift. Who is Andy Hampel you ask? He is a current member of Columbus Ohio’s lo-fi indie … Read more
The Black WatchBrilliant FailuresA Turntable Friend Records [2020] Since the bands beginnings in 1988, founder and consistent member John Andrew Fredrick has now written and released eighteen The Black Watch albums with Brilliant Failures. That is a very long resume of indie rock for a band that still probably will be new to most of … Read more
Soul Asylum Hurry Up And WaitBlue Élan Records [2020] Soul Asylum came of age in the early 80’s in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul playing the same clubs as Husker Du, The Replacements, The Suburbs, who all went on to sign major label record deals. Led by singer David Pirner and guitarist Dan Murphy, … Read more
M. Ward Migration StoriesANTI— [2020] On the 10th solo album from M. Ward it’s unlikely that anyone who’s encountered his music over the recent decades is expecting any surprises. In the brief label bio, Ward describes this collection of Migration Stories as “characters in a dream,” which is also a way of describing the hazy … Read more
Trace MountainsLost In The CountryLame-O Records [2020] In the two years since Dave Benton’s Trace Mountains released its debut, A Partner To Lean On, his life changed. Those changes include multiple big events that can completely alter your course such as the dissolution of his main band, LVL UP, which he co-founded in college, and … Read more
Flat Worms AntarcticaGOD?/Drag City Records [2020] Who: Los Angeles-based Flat Worms clean up a tad for their latest LP. Sound: California fuzz-noise punks get special treatment from recording engineer Steve Albini, with mixed results. TFN Final Take: Part of my joy of listening to Flat Worms albums was the sharp post-punk songs rising to the … Read more
The Strokes The New AbnormalCult/RCA Records [2020] It’s been long enough since the band’s 2016 EP Future Present Past, which was little more than a solid single with a couple of extra B-sides, to have concluded that the return of The Strokes at the top of their game on a full-length release was not in … Read more
Once & Future Band Deleted Scenes Castle Face Records [2020] Progressive rock music in 2020 is still far from the norm but Oakland’s Once & Future Band have a flare to them that brings a modern touch to their classic ELO and Alan Parsons Project sound on their sophomore album Deleted Scenes. For this record … Read more
Swamp Dogg Sorry You Couldn’t Make ItJoyful Noise Recordings [2020] Who: Jerry Williams Jr. a.k.a Swamp Dogg has been making music since the 1950s. In the 1960s he also had his hands in some production work. It wasn’t until the 70s when Swamp Dogg was born. Sound: Swamp Dogg is pure Southern soul. Listening to … Read more
Wax Machine Earthsong Of SilenceBeyond Beyond Is Beyond Records [2020] Brighton’s Wax Machine comes at you with a full psychedelic sweep on their debut full length Earthsong Of Silence. The band offers a blend of jazz, folk, funk, tropicalia, and exploratory rock which is an accurate description as this record expands on the great singles and … Read more
Watermelon Slim Traveling ManNorthernBlues Music [2020] Watermelon Slim, originally born as William P. Homans III, has come to his career in blues music by a unique path, which explains the nearly 30 years between his first recorded work and his next. A Vietnam vet, Homans tried farming, made a living as a truck driver, earned … Read more
Pearl Jam GigatonMonkeywrench/Republic Records [2020] It’s too easy to look at a band in its 30th year, long established as an arena filling commercial force, with cynicism when they release their 11th studio album as an attempt to hold on to past glories or as tired veterans taking advantage of fans with one more attempt … Read more
Soccer Mommy color theoryLoma Vista [2020] On her fourth full-lenth album, Soccer Mommy (born, Sophie Allison) has used color coding to telegraph the emotional content of her songs, but her tactic of hiding her darker, emotionally charged lyrics in up-tempo pop melodies remains on “color theory.” In fact, her quick rise in popularity following the … Read more
WaxahatcheeSaint CloudMerge Records [2020] There are typically several times in a year when a record comes out that you just know it is good from the first track. Really good! That is exactly the feeling I experienced with Waxahatchee’s fifth record Saint Cloud. “Oxford” is the lead track and in the first several lines of … Read more