Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Pipe Dreams is the debut CD from Long Island, NY-based band Alien Canopy. Joined in February 2001, they are considered an original psychedelic retro/rock band, blending the sounds of classic rock with a modern influence. I find it reminiscent of Rush, or Blue Oyster Cult, with a pop influence. The ...

Anathema's seemingly existed for an eternity… in fact so too does their music, much of which embraces those hallowed darker moments going back to the instru- mentally strewn days of yore with their ethereal and Baroque-like quality. Place yourself momentarily within an unimaginable context of classic Pink Floyd with ...

From California's foggy bay area comes the unique rock trio, Atomic Mint. The group is comprised of Lead Vocalist/Guitarist Brianna Wanlass, and backed by a funky rhythm section which includes bassist Dave Hermacillo and drummer Amadeo Donofrio. Their sound is diverse and original, a breath of fresh air in the ...

With good four-piece hard rock bands becoming an endangered species, Bushs' new album, Golden State, is a sign that someone out there still knows how to do it right. Bush has always managed to dabble in several different styles of writing without straying so much that the music suffers. Their ...

At only thirteen years of age Aaron Carter has managed to become a true teeny bopper pop star. Originally from Tampa Florida, Aaron was born on December 7th, 1987, twin to sister Angel. Aaron's singing career began at age seven, when he and some friends formed a band called Dead ...

Considering that "Dream Theater's" sixth studio offering, "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" (6DOIT) is essentially a concept album about mental conflicts of various kinds, it's almost fitting that there is a schizophrenic quality about it. The album sprawls over two discs, the second reserved for the 42-minute, eight-part title song. ...

Think of it as 90's female-fronted rock minus the angst. Firebug serves up a blend of alternative and roots rock with plenty of blues on the side. "Fragile" is the Chicago-based group's follow-up to "Buzzin' High," which received some buzz of its own on college radio stations across the U.S. ...

He's been writing songs and doing the voice training thing ever since he was a young teen in his native France. Now, Gregori deems himself ready to show the world the sum of all his work in a brief collection of reasonably hooky and danceable love songs on his debut, ...

ll Big is comprised of five individual musicians from varied backgrounds with a wealth of talent and influences that cover just about the entire rock n roll spectrum. As a band, releasing their latest recording "SOUND OF THE HIGHWAY," ll Big delivers 10 songs in the arena rock/classic ...

It's been nearly ten years since the last solo outing from one of Rock's biggest icons and personally I can't recall Mick's performance from way back when. I'm not suggesting it wasn't a memorable effort but never being a big Jagger "solo" fan to begin with, after the big hit ...

Niacin, an essential part of anyone's musical diet, puts all audible functions in equitable balance on this new "funkadelic" release. Made up of one part Sheehan, one part Novello, and one part Chambers, they comprising of bass, guitar, keyboards and drums, all in perfect working order if not necessarily in ...

As quietly as they walked off ten years before, here they are back again, one of the 1980s most essential Pop/Rock bands reformed and ready for another go. They began twenty years ago, burned out ten years later, the Psychedelic Furs like much of the so-called "throwaway" music of the ...

Ramona the Pest is a Berkeley/San Francisco Bay-area trio and Birds, Bugs, Bones is RTP's third, independently released disc. This four-song EP makes for a practiced "how-to" treatise on the art of writing really neat songs. Loaded with crisp, succinct and catchy pop tunes, Birds, Bugs, Bones is sprinkled ...

Traveling at velocities that will often exceed the speed of sound. Lacking the use (or even the implied use) of any Steady-State musical theories. RAY CHARLES KINDA PARTY breaks the song-barrier… leaving behind eleven tracks, which can only be identified by title and not by the musical content!This is ...

Metal, power rock, whatever you want to call it, rides a cycle. The last one ran from about 1984 to 1994, then kind of petered out, though the genre never really died. The genre may be gearing up for a resurgence to its former glory, however. With bands like Poison ...

I guess you could say they give new meaning to the idea of "Combat Rock." These guys are like a cumulous cloud rolling over a beautiful blue sky and the results are unpleasant, repugnant and vile… but ya gotta love them verses. They remind me a lot of System of ...

Smash Mouth must realize how infectiously fun their music is, because they have certainly capitalized on that fact. Their sound is a sunny, California pop-rock fusion; it is a little ska, a little rock, a little punk, but all effervescent. Despite the album's less than serious attitude, the ...

At least the major label kiss-off allows Pumpkin honcho Billy Corgan to include a bonus disc (mockingly subtitled "Judas O") of unreleased and impossible-to-chase-down pearls along with the compulsory hits comp. So alongside the carefully plucked "Siva," the rambunctious "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," and half-conscious "Landslide," are all of the ...

Kinetic Records has an identity associated with ambient music, so FROM HERE ON IN by South, the group's third longplay effort, is a bit of a surprise if you're not familiar with the group, South approaches the genre from an unapologetic pop viewpoint; what the listener gets is not necessarily ...

Sting has been around for decades and has not only endured, but has shaped the culture of music. Sting wins Grammies. Sting sells multi-platinum albums. Sting acts in movies. Sting is heavily involved in charitable efforts, instead of being an old, decrepit rock star who can no longer hack ...

I kind of miss power pop, artists like Suzi Quatro, The Sweet, The Shoes, kind of early Beatlesque stuff that wasn't rocket science but was deceptively simple, music that you found yourself humming three or four days after you heard it. Maybe that's why I'm a bit of a sucker ...

Here's one for all the cool cats out there, The Hives… The Itch… The Shakes… take your pick they all apply, though their chosen moniker will surely do fine. But please don't call them Tommy James And The Shondells! They are indeed a throwback to a much looser moment in ...

Apparently, the warm fuzzies I felt after watching the September 21, 2001 "Tribute to Heroes" broadcast wasn't merely a post-9/11 stress/relief reaction. If you can get past the fact that Canadian Celine Dion sings "God Bless America", the "Tribute to Heroes," really was an excellent musical program, as evidenced by ...