Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Craving an honest expression that transcends the superficiality we hear on the radio everyday? Well your in luck because Portland based Adrian Orange and Her Band are about to release a self titled album that will end your search. Orange's voice is not what most vocal coaches would consider beautiful. ...

It pains me to say this, it really does, but STATION by Alan Vega blows. STATION is Vega’s METAL MACHINE MUSIC, and it is sonic fingernails on a digital blackboard. I mean, look, I can accept musicians going through stylistic changes. Jerry Lee Lewis switched styles; Neil Young has been ...

Moo, You Bloody Choir, the third album for the Australian indie band Augie March, lays down a lush sound of mellow rock rich in poetry. Led by singer-songwriter Glenn Richards, who croons like an operatic razor blade, the band also includes Edmondo Ammendola on bass, Adam Donovan playing both guitars ...

The songs on Street Gospels infuse reggae with enough indie pop character to allow each song to stand out from the others while staying true to their reggae base. Canada’s Bedouin Soundclash take what the English Beat started a few decades back and rejuvenate it with thoughtful pop hooks and ...

Big Brother and the Holding Company —for those who don’t immediately recognize the name— is the group that helped launch Janis Joplin into the stratosphere. But that was a long time ago. Forty years, to be precise, during the fabled Summer of Love. No doubt modern music could use a ...

I’ve been watching the music industry implode under the weight of its own b.s. for awhile now, amazing how the playing field has been leveled in some ways and is more uneven than ever in others. There’s a band out of Brooklyn, Bishop Allen, that is doing some very interesting ...

A long time ago --- 30 years, to be exact --- when commercial cable television as we now know it was in its infancy, there was no MTV, no BET, no CMT, no VH1. There was, however, SNN, which stood for Satellite News Network. SNN was like a campus radio ...

Karaoke singer gets hold of recording equipment so that she can self-harmonize, and put the thoughts rambling around her head down on tape. And that’s pretty much what Carol Martini’s The Rose in the Boxcar sounds like. The lyrics are trite, clichéd, the vocals are wavering and probably better suited ...

Chuckanut Drive takes its name from a scenic highway near Bellingham, Washington, not exactly what you would expect from a country rock band, but there you go. Of course, Chuckanut Drive doesn’t conform to preconceived stereotypes. For but one example, the band lists the Rolling Stones as an influence. Good ...

Artistically, the band is a 10 in perfection and quality. From the first listen, you can tell that Circa Survive poured every bit of creativity they could muster, producing something lasting that would communicate beauty in all forms... from the sleeve art right down to the lyrics.. “And infinite silence/And we fall asleep ...

This is a Robert Pollard project. Do I need to say anything else? Okay, I will. Circus Devils is a side project of Robert Pollard’s which has been going on since 2001, well before the plug was amicably pulled on Guided By Voices. Circus Devils is similar to GbV, only ...

I’m one of those people who always have music playing, no matter what I’m doing. I usually try to find something that sets the mood, meshing with whatever I’m up to. But some music stops me in my tracks, and forces me to slow down.Coco is one of ...

It is often noted that the leader of the band Down To the Bone, Stuart Wade, is not a musician, he’s a producer.  He doesn’t sing.  He doesn’t play an instrument. Instead he hums tunes into a Dictaphone and later has those tunes recorded by instrumentalists.  His creative tunes and ...

Every once in a while, I get to thinking that reviews would be better if done a couple months after a disc is released, especially when the band in question is one of your favorites, and you’re past the initial, “Holy wow! New disc from a fave band!” stage. The ...

Githead is a band headed by Wire’s Colin Newman and Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel. The group’s third album, Art Pop is exactly as it is named. It is pop music with a touch of artful edge that keeps it interesting. The songs range from almost straight-up pop, such as On your Own, ...

Glen Reynolds has been around the Texas music scene for a bit, and he is no stranger to the recording process, having created a couple of projects with the band Chomsky and one with Liquid 3. IN BETWEEN DAYS is Reynold’s first solo project, recorded over a period of roughly ...

The latest release from the gypsy punks known as Gogol Bordello does not stray far from their signature mix of punk, gypsy and cabaret. Super Taranta! is more of what Gogol Bordello has been doing the past few years. With band members hailing from countries as diverse as their influences, ...

New indie band Half Past Forever, with front man Chris Sligh, former American Idol contestant; say it all in the title of their debut album Take A Chance on Something Beautiful. It certainly does feature some beautiful songs, but it’s not exactly a great album. However, it certainly does deserve ...

Sam Beam, more commonly referred to as Iron and Wine, is one of those artists better known for a cover of someone else’s song than he is known for his own. His version of the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” graced the critically acclaimed soundtrack to Garden State. With his new ...

Jack Conte only gave us four songs clocking in at barely over 15 minutes on his EP, Nightmares and Daydreams.  Fifteen minutes is not very much time from which to glean the full scope of a musician's talent.  Yet somehow Conte has  poured himself into these 15 minutes, focusing talent ...

I initially thought that Jake Smith was a country artist, a misapprehension which was corrected about two seconds after I started listening to REAL, Smith’s debut effort. For one thing, Smith is signed to Rocketown, Michael Smith’s (no relation. I don’t think) genre-bending Christian music label. For another, “Get Up,” ...

Confession time: I’m not a Christian, but for certain reasons, I’m exploring. Recently, that exploration includes grabbing Christian-related CDs from the music-reviewer.com’s virtual stockroom for review purposes. So far, I haven’t really found one that speaks to me. I grabbed the new Jeff Deyo CD, Unveil, cognizant of his former role ...

Josh Rouse is one of the most underappreciated singer/songwriters of our time. If you’re asking yourself who Josh Rouse is, thank you, you just proved my point. Rouse just released his new album, Country Mouse, City House on July 31 to critical acclaim. Rouse gained exposure when his song “Directions” was ...

The 1998 Disney film A Bugs Life was a cute movie right? I thought so. It explored the notion that perhaps bugs lives are similar to our own in a lighthearted way. But surprisingly enough, now there are other, less jovial explanations of the same concept. Share This Place takes ...

The ever popular NOW series has done it again with another collection of overplayed and played out (I know I basically said that already, but it’s a point that I can’t help but continue to drive home) radio hit singles. If you live under a rock and do not own ...