8Ball is a Memphis rapper who has been around for well over a decade, dropping joints intermittently throughout. LIGHT UP THE BOMB is an ambitious project that results in what is arguably his best work to date. 8Ball is Dirty South, from beginning to end, with an emphasis on Atlanta...

Graceful songs to commit suicide to. That’s pretty much my take on Air’s POCKET SYMPHONY the first listen I had with it.  I wasn’t sure if I felt melancholy or like going to sleep for a while.  Either scenario, this album should have been packaged with a prescription for Zoloft. Nicholas Godin...

Anthony Hamilton is The Man. I put SOUTHERN COMFORT on two days ago and can't get it out of the player, not that I've tried. He’s got that Bill Withers’ groove going, the one that isn't always the current big thing but never really goes away either. This is what...

Any Trouble was blessed with the good fortune to release their debut album, WHERE ARE ALL THE NICE GIRLS, at about the same time that something called “MTV-MUSIC TELEVISION” began to broadcast “music videos” on a relatively new medium named cable TV. Any Trouble’s curse was that they did not...

The Arcade Fire somehow make a church organ and an accordion sound cool and hip on their latest album Neon Bible, a follow-up to their 2004 critically acclaimed Funeral.  Think of sounds that echo Bowie, U2 and perhaps a little bit of Bruce, then throw in a little Talking Heads...

You have got to give James Alexander credit. The Bar-Kays had a gig as a Otis Redding’s concert band and a monster radio hit titled “Soul Finger” on the charts when the band, and Redding were tragically killed in a plane crash in the mid-1960s. Alexander, ironically, missed the plane,...

With their first release, Blindswitch hits a home run.  Singer David Litvinsky’s selections are filled with unique and catchy chord progressions that will spin inside your head well after the music stops.  Blindswitch may be just what you need to fill that catchy Pop Rock hole in your life. Blindswitch has...

I can’t say I had high expectations when picking up Surprise Party, the first CD by a relatively unknown Bob Burger. No surprises here; a complete waste of an hour. Well, maybe not a complete waste, but pretty close. This Tom Petty “wanna be” has many songs that echo Learning To...

Danan Healy, as we are told, has a master’s degree in opera and has been through basic training in the U.S. Army. This seemingly conflicting background is well-exhibited in THE OTHER SIDE, Healy’s first full length CD release (and the follow-up to her debut EP, 2005’s YOU NEED MORE LOVE). Healy...

This is not a comedy CD!   The Dane Cook Tourgasm CD is a sampling of modern rock bands that is sure to make music fans happy, but leave those expecting comedy a little confused.  This is the most important thing to know about this project.  As one of the most popular comics today,...