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The last two words of the album title pretty much describes the direction 31 Knots is coming from on their newest release, The Days and Nights of Everything Anywhere. Other than saying that there’s a progressive bent to the proceedings, I’d defy anyone to come up with a categorization for ...

Alex Arrowsmith’s October 2006 release, Applewine, is a feat of smart songwriting backed by catchy tunes that form hilarious tracks from a young singer-songwriter already reaching his prime. While he cites the Beatles as his major influence, his website’s claim that he sounds like “The Beatles if they had been ...

I ran an experiment on this self-titled, first outing from ashes.are.nutritious by inviting one of my most testosterone-laden buddies over to listen to the first couple tracks.  Tony, my aggressive Italian friend, is of the school for which good music doesn’t generally have to apply when the music can sufficiently ...

It's revealed from the band Asono's website, that their name actually derived from the Spanish word sono, which actually means to create sound. After listening to their self-titled EP maybe that should be termed roughly sono grande. Big arena rock sound and stadium sized crowds is what this band is aiming ...

Every time I hear ska, I hear a slice of my untainted youth.  It’s music relegated to a certain “phase” in one’s life; not a musical style a person is inclined to have grow on him/her.  It remains the number one social lubricant between high school band nerds and eccentric ...

23 finds Blonde Redhead firmly ensconced in their New Romantic phase --- nothing wrong with that, not at all --- keeping things just familiar enough to entice their fans back and just different enough to keep them there and interested. The East Village mainstays --- improbable as it may seem, ...

With an album sleeve covered in hidden messages, and a title dubbed after a town that attracts psychics the way Conor Oberst attracts die-hard indie fans hoping for a life lesson, the expectations for revelatory meaning in Bright Eyes’ seventh album Cassadaga were lofty. Luckily, our anticipation was not in ...

Burrito Deluxe’s second album, Disciples of the Truth, is surprisingly pretty good.  It’s country to the core and slightly imitative of more well-known acts such as Kenny Chesney and Brooks & Dunn, but for the most part, the boys of Burrito Deluxe make good on their 12-track album.There is much ...

Cloud Cult’s The Meaning of 8 is a smorgasbord of elements found apparent in acts like The Arcade Fire, The Shins, and The Flaming Lips.  However, this is not just a carbon copy recyclable of the genre; being that Cloud Cult is by now the most prolific of the aforementioned ...

Out of all the countless band names out there, Cowboy Junkies is by far the coolest. The imagery invoked by the name suggests a cowboy riding off into the sunset and into a purple haze at the same time. Their music also comes closer to the sound of the Velvet ...

Craig Buhler’s Capistrano Sessions is a light jazz feast for the ears.  The gentle humming of Buhler’s clarinet and alto sax are met with the wailing of Brian Atkinson’s trumpet to make a beautiful album of standards.  Though, it should be cautioned, this album is not meant for the unacquainted.  ...

Before we go any further, my remarks aren’t meant to cast aspersions on Charlie Clouser, which I don’t think is his real name anyway. As soundtrack music for a supernatural thriller, DEAD SILENCE works fine. Outside of sitting down and watching the film while listening to the music, however, it ...

This could be my fault, but frankly From Home With Love doesn't really stand out. Again maybe this may be my fault. Maybe I was too spoiled by the likes of DJ Shadow, Aphex Twin, and The Crystal Method. Maybe I began to think that a DJ's job in this ...

Mista Cane has over the past five years been extremely prolific, beginning with the release of a quartet of mixtapes and continuing with a number of collaborations, culminating in the release of his major label release IN MY LIFE. As a prelude to IN MY LIFE DJ Iroc of Amerika’s ...

CHECK OUT OUR EXCLUSIVE DOGBOY INTERVIEW HERE! You might think you already have enough reggae CDs --- you might think that even if you don't have any reggae CDs --- but regardless, you have to at least one more, that being REBEL RIDDIM by Dogboy. I've got a stack of CDs ...

If you’re an Elvis Costello fan, you might think there’s no reason to pick up Rock And Roll Music, a reissue of some of Costello’s best songs over his varied career.  But how misguided you would be not to buy this gem.  Besides the hits and standards from Costello’s career, ...

Elvis Costello is reinventing himself these days.  He’s chosen to look back at his long catalog of successful songs and put together several compilation CDs based around particular themes.  “Rock And Roll Music” – also reviewed on music-reviewer.com – is based on pulsating harder rock songs where Costello speedily makes ...

Rascal Flatts better watch out with what can be heard on Emerson Drive’s COUNTRIFIED album.  These Canadian country rockers can take their sound about every direction there is to take a pop country sound, and beyond.  How Emerson Drive has not usurped the throne of country music’s modern pop charts ...

First impression: Cheese Alert! I put Erik Norlander’s new set of mostly progressive rock classics redone in his favored symphonic prog style, Hommage Symphonique, on random the first time through, and it landed on the ELP track, "Pirates."  The original version is pompous enough, and adding the symph prog sheen ...

In the brilliant mockumentary, "This is Spinal Tap," the titular band received a devastating review delivered to them in a very pithy manner. While I wouldn’t go so far to review Grey Level’s debut disc, Opus One in such a vulgar manner, nor in those terms exactly, I can beat ...

The Innocence Mission's latest record We Walked In Song sounds like a flower. There are pretty songs, pretty melodies, and pretty vocals. But you can get bored in all this pretty. If pixie-like female vocals and pleasant folk tunes are not your cup of tea, then maybe The Innocence Mission ...

You may have never heard of Jeff Alkire.  But you certainly have heard his style of music.  On his latest album, One Summer in Winters, Alkire plays the alto saxophone to such expertise that you’ll constantly be thinking to yourself you know his jazz beats from somewhere.  Whether it reminds ...

You have already heard the Jeremiah Houston Band before. Just like any cookie cutter country-rock band out there they stick to the same tired country music cliches you’ve listened to a thousand times over. They definitely have a polished sound and are easy on the ears but their new album, ...

Kemp Harris’s sophomore effort, Edenton, is an album of striking vocals and haunting lyrics.  One song bleeds into the next, with the subject matter straying from joyous (“Didn’t It Rain”) to hurtful (“Tryin Times”).  Harris, earning full chops as a blues-gospel artist, truly understands the concept of an album’s continuity.  ...

Leonard Cohen is probably the most famous man most of you have ever heard of – especially within the demographic that makes up the largest percentage of the readership of music-reviewer.com.  Even among people like myself who cut their teeth on the music of the late 70’s and early 80’s, ...