Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

…”We traveled around the world collaborating with the most happening musicians, authors, scientists and thinkers… 70 % Water, 18% Carbon, 5% Nitrogen, 2% Calcium.”   … 1 GIANT LEAP is a twelve-step program (tracks) with a very unique time signature - 4/4²… but I think this is not: water, carbon, ...

The film A Walk To Remember took a lot of slack for being a middle of the road love story. It should come as no surprise then that A Walk To Remember’s soundtrack serves as an equally lukewarm companion piece.  When all goes according to plan, a movie and it’s ...

The specter of Sept 11th seems to have chilled the assortment of politicore bands that once enjoyed ramming their rants at will. Free speech just so long as you pay at the door. Non-conformists to the core, Anti-Flag seize the fulcrum of recent events to unleash their most jarring statement ...

Armchair Martian is described as a high-energy punk rock trio out of Fort Collins, Colorado. I don't know where that description originated from, because their new CD WHO WANTS TO PLAY BASS, doesn't fall in that category at all. Maybe the label, MyRecords, should reconsider the genre, because this CD ...

I love it when my pundit pals get it wrong. In their collective endorsement of Mississippi bluesman Asie Payton's debut album back in '99 (hands-down, "Worried" was the best blues disc of that year), the majority of reviews noted that the reluctant performer and seldom-recorded guitarist/vocalist wasn't currently touring or ...

Along with a back-where-they-belong alliance with the Epitaph label, the prodigal return of guitarist Brett Gurewitz to Bad Religion was a welcomed indication to followers that the band was still focused on its mission in making the music matter. Not that either band or Mr. Brett grew soft during the ...

Singer Celine Dion seems to have accomplished the unthinkable -- securing herself a position as a bankable, Streisand-like diva for a new generation. Few women have managed to capture and sustain the spotlight as long as Dion. Testing her fans loyalty, she took a hiatus from making hits and instead, ...

Chao is a band in the sense that Nine Inch Nails is a band; it's the vision of one person with a revolving cast of occasional guest musicians. In the case of Chao, it's Regina Chellew, formerly of Dallas' Captain Audio. HITSTHEMISS is a dreamy sort of compilation, with Chellew ...

Cyclefly’s latest album arrived from my editor with a host of other ones and I listened to it accordingly, and other then noting its overall tightness and obvious influences it didn‘t sharply stand out except for being much mellower then many of the CD's I have been getting lately. Later ...

It's not imagination that Jurado always seems to get shuffled to the bottom of the deck while other pop songsmiths get their due. Not as uneasy as Ryan Adams, not as pensive as the Eel's Mark Everett, nor as assertive as Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carraba, Jurado's work naturally reflects some ...

This CD is exactly as labeled, no surprises. It feels like you are in the dream of a Tibetan monk, a dream being lived out underwater while communicating only with whales. It's actually making me nauseated... and a little scared. But, making it was probably fun. I have never heard ...

The buzz that has surrounded “Souljacker” since its release earlier this year has been so deafening that you might think you’d need to put on a beekeeper's outfit prior to tearing off the shrink-wrap.  Now that everyone has hyped this album up, you may wonder, what’s it all about?  If ...

At first blush it might seem strange to think of Chicago as being home to an Americana cum rock outfit like Great Plains Gypsies. Those of a certain age associate Chicago with Muddy Waters, Chess Records, and, if cursed with long memories...Chicago, the band. But there's a thriving Americana scene ...

Yeah, I had never heard of these guys Gruvis Malt either, and when ...WITH THE SPIRIT OF A TRAFFIC JAM... arrived at casa de Hartlaub without a sleeve or  anything, just an advance copy of the disc. I didn't have time to do a web search on them so I ...

Apparently the third time's the charm for MyRecords, which released HAPPY MEALS 3: SONGS TO RUN AWAY FROM. MyRecords, created by Joey Cape, seems to be repetitive when it comes to the artists featured on the Happy Meals volumes. Bands like Armchair Martian, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, Saltine, ...

We need Harry Manx. WISE AND OTHERWISE is the indispensable followup to last year's brilliant DOG MY CAT. And thank the stars and all above and beneath them, it's more of the same: absolutely brilliant blues guitar by way of the far east (and played lapstyle), Manx' understated vocals, some ...

Once again, here's tangible evidence that the most visceral and brutal music isn't clunking around the metal realms, but spewing from the indie underground. Like brethren noisemakers Burnt By The Sun, this Atlanta trio seem to have mastered the Art of the Albini outburst- shattering spinal chords with a warped ...

It's hard to listen to Jerry Cantrell's latest solo album without thinking about former Alice in Chains lead vocalist Layne Staley. And maybe it's only right to admit that my interpretation of the record is unavoidably colored by his recent death. But even before Staley's battle with heroin claimed his ...

Lee "Scratch" Perry is raving bonkers. He is also possibly the most influential force in modern music. The guy arguably created reggae music, certainly created dub, and inarguably, through his influence on toaster and dancehall music, created rap as we know it. Marley may be a household word, but it's ...

These gents, who are of late going under the name Miggs Band, hail from the San Francisco Bay area. San Francisco has a humming, diverse music scene, and while it may not get the national pub it used to during its heyday in the mid-60s, there is quite a bit ...

The mainstream popularity of come-hitherly artists like Diana Krall and Blu Cantrell has led to a small explosion of creative popsters roaming the fabric of jazz for some new vocabulary. Norah Jones is a young Texas pianist/singer who stole a huge chunk of Charlie Hunter's 8-string thunder out from under ...

Time was when just about every band on the planet wanted to sound like the Allstars. 'Course, that was back in '70, when every garage group had just discovered weed and the joys of continually jammin' "Purple Haze" and "Spoonful" for weeks on end.  A few crude riffs, some rudimentary ...

Despite the shrinking territory and its traditionalists, the blues always seems to have plenty of room for a big, rowdy fella like Kent "Omar" Dykes. Like many breakout stars, the Texas-bred Omar has become a fixture on the European circuit, mesmerizing overseas fans with his strong, strapping voice and brawny ...

Lousy title. Great, great sounds.That about sums up BELLYDANCING BREAKBEATS, which fuses hiphip, rap, and house with...bellydancing music. I know, I know  Bellydancing, at least for me, conjures up memories of safe bachelor parties, or wives making a last ditch effort to get their husbands interested. I'd never buy a ...

I wouldn’t look that close to see what shade of pastel the gown is, but I wouldn’t be off base to consider Phil Perry as the perennial bridesmaid-but-never-a-bride. Dozens of stylists from Ray Charles to Boz Scaggs have used Perry’s striking intonation and sugary falsetto among the background vocals of ...