Never more have I listened to an album desperately hoping the artist gets the proper production values they deserve on future outings.  What you have here on Postcards from California by 54 Seconds is an eclectic meeting of styles and talents that never reaches its lofty and rightful home…due to bad...

A>S>H>S, an acronym for Audible Stellar Hypnotic Solutions, is the brainchild of Houston percussionist Jason Williams. The music is a fusion of jazz, electronica, fusion, and funk; the ensemble at it’s core is a sextet which includes Williams, Joseph Berryman on tenor sax, Xavier Gonzalez on congas, bassist Scott Nichols,...

Any Trouble almost made it big in the early 1980s. They had everything going for them. They were on a quirky label called Stiff which had managed to also sign a weird, very talented guy named Elvis Costello. They had something called a music video that was on medium rotation...

Landing somewhere between quirky B-52s style pop and the bizarre noisiness of a They Might Be Giants kid's song, Architecture in Helsinki's third album is just as enjoyable as it is difficult to categorize.  The sextet from Australia really don't hold back here, incorporating a wide range of instruments to...

EX-SENSITIVE is Ben Jolen’s love letter to the earth. Oh, wait a minute, I mean to The Earth. That pretty much tells you all you need to know. This is one of these records where The Artiste shares his concerns over the environment as he flies around the world recording...

I would say they don’t make records like THE SCENE OF THE CRIME anymore, but they do. Bettye LaVette, a Northern Soul original, has been making them for quite a while. I had a conversation with someone who was talking about how good LaVette sounded despite being so old, and...

I used to hear Christian Scott perform in New Orleans on a regular basis, at clubs such as The Funky Butt (no longer in business) and Snug Harbor (still kicking), leading his own fine group or backing up guys who were the young lions of the city at that time,...

At once deeply spiritual and earthy with life, Corrine West’s sophomore album, Second Sight, sizzles with folk and bluegrass and simmers with Americana. West, who wrote all the tracks (co-writing “All Good Things” with Mary Shero and Kenny Davis), sings with a flat no-nonsense delivery straight from the gut, packed...

Empire Dogs are a Swedish rock band. It has been my experience that there is something about Scandinavian rock groups that just don’t quite get it right. It’s kind of like Canadian video. There’s something off. It’s not wretched, just a bit off-putting. I know, I know…ABBA. Ace Of Spades....

Every Avenue is being marketed as a punk act, though I would beg to differ with that description. A quintet from Marysville, Michigan, Every Avenue’s AH!, their debut EP, is closer to the hard rock of the Church of Latter Green Day than to, say the anarchic, anthemic spirit of...