The Strumbellas Hope Glassnote Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Canadian band The Strumbellas play a familiar tune. Album Review: Canadian band The Strumbellas rode into to public acclaim on the back of their airplay single, “Spirits,” on the same post-banjo Mumford wave that brought us the likes of Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men, and … Read more
Band Of Horses Why Are You OK Interscope Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Band of Horses release their best major label record to date. Album Review: Band of Horses have every reason in the world to be one of the biggest rock acts currently on the scene. They have great songwriting, a superb voice in … Read more
Steve Gunn Eyes On The Lines Matador Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Gunn’s Matador debut is full of masterful psychedelic guitar groovers. Album Review: Sometimes an album catches me off guard, or maybe it’s just that it catches me at just the right moment, and that album then dominates my listening for a month or … Read more
Male Gaze King Leer Castle Face Records [2016] Fire Drill Album Review: Male Gaze’s debut album, Gale Maze (2015), was full of gloomy post-punk. It was a great out of the gate record that sounded familiar but yet full of new energy. The band works to ride their debut success with the sophomore King Leer … Read more
The Strokes Future Present Past (EP) Cult Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Fututre Present Past engages and entertain long time Strokes fans. Album Review: Probably the best thing to announce about this new four-song EP by The Strokes for their label, Cult Records, is that this suggests that the band is busily writing new music … Read more
The Claypool Lennon Delirium Monolith Of Phobos ATO Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Talented pair takes you for a trip. Album Review: From the surface, the pairing of Primus frontman Les Claypool and Sean Lennon (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger) seems crazy. It is like someone developed an odd couple of rock series … Read more
The Hotelier Goodness Tiny Engines [2016] Fire Note Says: Surprise! The Hotelier have matured into a world-beating rock and roll band. Album Review: There was something about The Hotelier’s 2014 breakout LP, Home, Like NoPlace Is There, that just felt different than your typical, run-of-the-mill Emo band. They were smarter, that’s for sure. Singer/bass player … Read more
Black Pistol Fire Don’t Wake The Riot Modern Outsider Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Black Pistol Fire keep hitting the target. Album Review: Black Pistol Fire’s third full-length album, Don’t Wake The Riot, continues to build on the duo’s sound. Kevin McKeown (vocals, guitar) and Eric Owen (drums) have an infectious energy and swagger that … Read more
Peter Wolf A Cure For Loneliness Concord Music Group [2016] Fire Note Says: Artful and engaging, Peter Wolf continues to serve up well-crafted songs. Album Review: Peter Wolf is an old school rock singer/icon, schooled in blues, soul, R&B, and country, essentially all the roots musics that came together to create the bastard child that … Read more
Ryan Adams Heartbreaker (Deluxe Edition) PAX-AM Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Breakup masterpiece get’s the deluxe treatment that enhances rather than detracts. Album Review: It’s early 2000, you are Ryan Adams and your band Whiskeytown is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. You are 27 years old, and you’ve got your whole career ahead of … Read more
Mudcrutch 2 Reprise Records [2016] Fire Note Says: 2 succeeds with the writing skills and delivery of Tom Petty. Album Review: One of the challenges that artists fortunate enough to have a long and fruitful career have to face is how does one keep their work fresh, inspiring and entertaining for themselves and for their … Read more
Whitney Light Upon The Lake Secretly Canadian [2016] Fire Note Says: Whitney deliver with a timeless approach on their warm debut. Album Review: When the Smith Westerns called it quits in 2014, I was somewhat bummed because I thought the group continued to show promise on every record. With the break, several of the formally … Read more
Suuns Hold/Steady Secretly Canadian [2016] Fire Note Says: Montreal act deliver their darkest record yet. Album Review: The Canadian four piece who go by the Google-friendly monicker Suuns (pronounced “Soons” by the way) have a penchant for creating hypnotic beats and nightmarish lyrics. On their first two records (both produced by The Besnard Lakes’ Jace … Read more
The Jayhawks Paging Mr. Proust Sham Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Paging Mr. Proust is focused on strong songs and the band’s reliable sound. Album Review: Fans of Americana with a long enough memory, will remember The Jayhawks as one of the best bands of the mid-90’s, when albums like Hollywood Town Hall and Tomorrow … Read more
Awards Banquet In Not Now Then Summer Scioto Records [2016] Fire Note Says: JP Olsen returns with his engaging Awards Banquet. Album Review: Awards Banquet is the new band from the once Columbus, Ohio based JP Olsen, who now calls Brooklyn home. He has a list of bands on his resume that you might know … Read more
David Bazan Blanco Barsuk Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Bazan returns to synths and drum machines, but retains his songwriting chops. Album Review: David Bazan fans have come to expect upheaval when it comes his musical output. The longtime singer, guitarist and songwriter for Pedro the Lion—favorite emo-inflected indie rock band of disaffected Christian teens … Read more
Santana Santana IV Santana IV Reocrds [2016] Fire Note Says: This collaboration is long overdue and worth the wait. Album Review: At the Woodstock Festival in 1969, Carlos Santana and the band that bears his name was coming into their full musical power. In the next two years they produced three of their most memorable … Read more
Yak Alas Salvation Octopus Electrical/Kobalt [2016] Fire Note Says: It might be a bit early in the year to call Album of the Year…but Debut of the Year is a lock. Album Review: London –based Yak has hit the ground running. Alas Salvation is a frenetic and enormously interesting debut LP. Alas Salvation is a … Read more
Knifeworld Bottled Out Of Eden Inside Out Music [2016] Fire Note Says: UK octet perfect their craft on quirky yet accessible third album. Album Review: Knifeworld is the pet project of one Kavus Torabi – a name not many people outside the progressive rock community know but with each release he and his band inch … Read more
Eric Clapton I Still Do Bushbranch/Surfdog Records [2016] Fire Note Says: I Still Do finds Clapton in fine form creating music that first inspired him. Album Review: Clearly, with the release of his 24th solo studio recording, Eric Clapton feels he has nothing to prove. Given the 71 year old’s stunning history as one of … Read more
Sturgill Simpson A Sailor’s Guide To Earth Atlantic Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Country like it should be! Album Review: If like many, you’ve given up on modern country music, which these days sounds more like 80s AOR bands Foreigner and Loverboy than outlaw country icons Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and the like. … Read more
Black Mountain IV Jagjaguwar [2016] Fire Note Says: Black Mountain return with a solid effort. Album Review: It has been a few years since we have had a Black Mountain LP. Wilderness Heart was out in 2010, so what shape and sound does a 2016 Black Mountain take on? Well, they have welcomed keyboard-tinged psych-rock… … Read more
Various Artists A Tribute To Pet Sounds The Reverberation Appreciation Society [2016] Fire Drill Album Review: Revisiting the Beach Boys 1966 classic, Pet Sounds, always brings new and fresh perspective for me on an album that now has turned 50. Most people will scoff at you when Pet Sounds is brought up as one the … Read more
Mock Orange Put The Kid On The Sleepy Horse Topshelf Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Mock Orange just might be the best band you’re not listening to right now. Album Review: Evansville, Indiana is not generally considered fertile ground for music elitists (such as myself) but Mock Orange couldn’t have come from anywhere else. An … Read more
Pity Sex White Hot Moon Run For Cover Records [2016] Fire Note Says: Pity Sex keep growing on their newest LP. Album Review: As an Ohioan, I’m not sure if I am allowed to admit that anything good comes out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. That good thing is Pity Sex. No, this is not a … Read more