Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

The band P.  This is the reason Johnny Depp never played music ever again.Not really.  Well sort of.  He still has one of the most extensive guitar collections and is known to make the most random cameo appearances in pop culture music circles.  He once appeared out of thin air ...

The Pamela Hines Trio’s new album, Drop 2, delivers top-drawer straight-ahead jazz. Featuring Hines on piano, John Lockwood on bass and Bob Guilotti on drums, the trio are totally in sync and make nice in the playground together, knowing when to take turns on the swing, and when to run ...

It's all about having a good time. That's their philosophy and damned if this ain't evident from the album cover alone. You got these three pale-skinned flat-topped figures, sinister scowls and cool shades and they just appear here and no one knows from whence they came. ...

Prior to releasing Pretty. Odd., their sophomore effort, Panic at the Disco literally took the excitement out of their name. Reemerging without the infamous exclamation point is probably their attempt at being taken more seriously than they previously were. With Pretty. Odd. all they accomplish is putting forth more of ...

"Crazier than I ever was… I'm bloodied up I beat my skull in… Comin' home in a body bag… And I'm ready to die for rock n' roll…" Whoa, did I miss something here? Quoting the opening to the second verse of "M-80," I'm floored by the intensity, not to ...

Jason Newsted was known for making fairly heavy music in a band called Flotsam & Jetsam several years ago, themselves, a step beneath the popularized Thrash Metal of the time from the reigning "Big 4," and fast forward some eighteen or twenty years later, Newsted's about two years removed from ...

About half of the songs on Paper Airplanes’ latest album, Boyhood, work.  The other half unfortunately can be easily scrapped.  There are too many extraneous musings about nothing, unneeded instrumental solos that go nowhere and, quite frankly, many of the songs sound similar.But, even with the downsides, the gems on ...

Would it be too much of a stretch to hail the return of Sisters Of Mercy during the opening playback… just a thought. Actually I didn't quite know what to expect of the latest PL record. It's been a few years since "One Second" made any sort of impact for ...

Who says swing is dead?  Certainly not in Paris, where Paris Combo brings a fun, intimate lounge swing act to life in their latest record, Attraction.  The group possesses a whimsical, sauntering club sound that is not the hyped ska-big band style that died with the resurgence of zoot suits, ...

The subtle “new” American style that has been slowly gaining in popularity is difficult to describe.  It is a combination of all things real, a sound that marries folk influences, jazz, rock and occasionally even a hint or two of European musical traditions, but never obscures the band’s own personality.  ...

I love the initial talk-up for these guys in their bio… "They've been around the local scene and people are happy with them." I mean that about says it all doesn't it? So what do the people from Springfield, Illinois know that maybe the rest of the world doesn't? Well ...

First of all, what message are these boys trying to get out? I hear the screaming, and the melodic music. I honestly cannot understand a word, but all it takes is one trip to a lyrics website… Horizons begins with Begin and end with the title track, ...

On the surface, the music from Vancouver’s Parlour Steps appears to be little more than catchy dance music. But as you train your ear to listen to the lyrics, the songs begin to cut so deep that it hurts. They call it “thought-rock,” but it doesn’t make you think as ...

What do you get when you combine Napalm-like aggression, images of dread painted black by indecipherable vocals and played by beings with unpronounceable names? Right, another dissident aggressor from the still developing but fast approaching Polish Death scene. In fact, Parricide's history is one of great length, having originated in ...

Partly Cloudy is a quartet (now a quintet, actually) from Lexington, Kentucky, who have parlayed their recently released five song EP, Arm Your Weapons, into a calling card for an ambitious nationwide tour. The five tracks on Arm Your Weapons are certainly competently performed, yet one gets the feeling that there is ...

This mix of current Christian Rock bands is quite a collaboration. All these performers are live on one album, and each is capable of carrying the whole thing. Chris Tomlin has a very catchy hit with Let God Arise that starts the ball rolling. He has a deep voice and ...

I'm not too sure exactly what is going to happen with country music in the next five years. The genre is in a bit of commercial trouble, notwithstanding crossovers by groups such as the Dixie Chicks, and is in some artistic trouble as well, with radio playlists tighter than a ...

That The Pat Metheny Group has existed for over twenty years is, in itself, a remarkable achievement. That Pat Metheny has been one of the most successful, innovative, and freethinking guitarists/composers/ collaborators over that same period is even more admirable. The jazz-fusion ...

Pathosray is, well, an Italian metal band. Their self-titled CD is the band’s third release since forming in 2000 (with a subsequent name change). Points of reference would be Queensryche, Dream Theatre, and, interestingly enough, a bit of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. This type of bombastic rock is somewhat lost ...

To quote a famous TV show: “Yadda, yadda, yadda.” That’s exactly what I felt when I heard Patriotic Country 3. I didn’t hear the first two iterations of this series, but I imagine this is much of the same: country artists singing about what makes them appeal to their fan ...

I have been all over the place with TWELVE, the new release by Patti Smith. For me, the reference point of her work has been and probably will always be HORSES, her debut long-player, a statement that you can listen to from beginning to end without being tempted to skip ...

A certificate is included with the new Paul Benshoof album, Still I Sing, to go to the record company website and download an exclusive song. I wish more artists would market their music using tactics such as giveaways and exclusive songs. Artists would sell more albums if something was offered ...

I'll be real up front with y'all here and state at the outset that this is not my type of music. The title MIRACLES and the subtitle, A JOURNEY OF HOPE AND HEALING pretty much says it all. In the Hartlaub lexicon of plain-speaking, "healing" = "quit whining and get ...

Sketched in the background on the cover of Paul Carr’s latest release Musically Yours, is face of man by the name of Joe Henderson. Henderson (1937-2001) left an incredible amount of material and inspiration with jazz music over his career, appearing with such heavy hitters as Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, ...

The strongest aspects of Paul Furlong’s new album, Someday, are his sweet swaying melodies and pleasingly calm guitar chords.   In many tracks on Someday, Paul begins to show a crossover from soft Christian rock to a laid-back country sound.  In fact, those elements are the most powerful things about his ...