Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

In their first full length effort, So Wrong, It’s Right shows Baltimore based pop/punkers, All Time Low have experience well beyond their years.  As you listen to the record, you may find yourself having déjà vu.  All Time Low is certainly talented, but you will find each song channels early ...

Why do nearly all the rock stars of yesteryear feel the need to release cover albums? Hope & Glory, Ann Wilson’s first solo is an album with only the best of intentions, even though it falls spectacularly short. The lead singer of Heart created and sang on some of the ...

As if appearing from nowhere, Band of Horses seems to be everywhere these days.  In the last few months they have graced the cover of SPIN magazine and been labeled Rolling Stones’ “hot band” of 2007. A track off their latest album Cease to Begin was even an iTunes/Starbucks song ...

Hailing from the US Gulf Coast, Castor Troy recently made their first big dent in the music scene with their Rock Ridge Records EP, Patience Above.  Their oddly compelling name might trigger a tiny tickle of familiarity in the very back of your brain, especially if you saw the 1997 Nicholas Cage/John Travolta flick, "Face Off."  The bad guy in that movie ...

As far as theatrical productions go, a ballet can be beautiful and tragic and generally the best ones often are. On their latest CD, Bone Palace Ballet, Michigan natives Chiodos adopt those notions of theatricality and run with them. Stylistically there is a marked difference between this album and their 2005 ...

Sometimes a band puts out a disc doing exactly what it should do, not really stretching for anything great, just aiming for the center of its comfort zone and nailing it. In these all too rare cases, a listener is well advised to just go along ...

Demetra is both the name of a band, its featured member, and its new CD. Demetra the band is a quartet from Queens, and Demetra the lead singer, keyboardist, and focus of the band has got that Jersey girl thing going on, which is Joespeak for “she’s irresistible.” Demetra, the ...

Fuji Minx is a southern California quartet fronted by Greta Valenti, a platinum blonde who, along with a bunch of other platinum blonde vocalists fronting a bunch of other rock bands, is trying to set herself up as the next Gwen Stefani. I have no idea whether she has the ...

Looking for the next John Mayer or Jack Johnson?  Well I've ruled one guy out for you.  Caught Looking, the album by Greg Roth attempts to be sweet, quirky and contemplative but he misses the mark by about 5 years of practice and training.  This guy is just another dude ...

Ingram Hill is a trio, at least nominally--- Justin Moore on guitar and vocals, Matt Chambless on drums, and Phil Bogard on guitars, augmented by a number of other players --- just like Rascal Flatts. They have a kind of southern rock thing going, just like another trio, Better Than ...

Laura Aidanblaise’s second album, Get Thee to the World, is a frustrating mix of acoustic innovation and droning insistence. Frustrating, because there is definitely some good stuff here; almost every song has something to invite you in. But Aidanblaise, who wrote all the songs on the CD, seems so set ...

With one single scarce exception, Luka Bloom’s new album, Tribe, lulled me to the verge of slipping into a coma. Ok, Luka Bloom is a pitch perfect musician and his songs are always meticulously crafted, but for the most part this album crawls along at a snail-slow tempo. ...

Michael Hensley has taken electronic music back to pop with his new album Fire Behind Me. Using personal lyrics and a LOT of synthesizer, Hensley has created a semi-interesting and well-produced album. Several of the songs on Fire Behind Me are catchy, especially This Machine, Totally Gone and Take ...

Are there any bands that don't come out of Canada these days? Every time I turn around another indie band from Canada seems to be on the radio. A big hit up North, Mobile are now trying to ride the waves of Canadian popularity right into the States ...

The New York trio Moment Theory debuts with a self-titled EP that seems to be influenced by bands like Incubus and The Deftones. Vocal style resembles that of Brandon Boyd, while the instrumentation also has Incubus and Deftones influence, among other pop and hard rock. While the bands listed ...

You can’t have too many funk CDs. I’m telling you. You can have everything in the James Brown discography, all of the Parliament/ Funkadelic/ P-Funk/ Bootsie Collins manifestations, The Meters catalogue, official and unofficial, and it’s not enough. It’s like a drug. And here is your latest fix, The Killion ...

Pseudosix originated as Tim Perry's solo project, but it swiftly developed into a group effort with two others for their first album Days of Delay. Now, Pseudosix is a six person band and better than ever. This self titled second album is sure to reach more listeners with its amazing ...

I have come to the conclusion that there is something seriously wrong with you if you have anything to do with Ipecac Records. That would include buying a disc with the Ipecac Records imprint, going to see a band that has ever recorded or currently records for Ipecac, listening to ...

Richard Hawley is a lost soul from a bygone era. His brand of rock brings to mind so many performers of years past that it is near impossible not to be drawn in by it. The touring guitarist for Pulp released his first masterpiece, Cole’s Corner, in 2005. His new ...

It is rock music’s blessing and curse that just about anyone can jump into it and with some practice, fortitude, and equipment form a playing band. A relative few are absolutely great, some are positively awful, and the great majority fall into an uneasy middle from which, like crabs in ...

The Bad Detectives are a bunch of wonderful British lunatics who sound as if they were raised in a nursery where West Coast 1950s rock played nonstop while they watched drive-in movies with the sound turned off. B-Movie Beat is their second proper long play, the follow-up to 2005’s GET ...

Stiff Records was one of the best music labels of the 1970s and 1980s. The story behind their creation is itself a charming one --- Dr. Feelgood, a British rock band, lent David Robinson and Jake Riviera 400 quid to start up a record label (but themselves did not record ...

Hurry Up is the debut EP from The Bosch, a New York City quartet (guitar, bass, sax/keys, and drums) that has been compared variously to Lou Reed, Joey Ramone, Brian Wilson, and Dick Dale. I’m not quite hearing that, though I can get where it comes from. Hurry Up seems ...

To me, The Butterflies of Love were a pleasant surprise. They’re one of those groups that very few people have ever heard of but also one that should be right up at the forefront of the modern rock and roll scene. They’re instantly more accessible and catchy than bands such ...

The Cringe is a young band with a lot to offer. Coming up and out of the New York music scene, The Cringe is made up of four guys who are really passionate about rock-n-roll... this is a band committed to keeping the new albums coming! They put out their ...