NOVELTY ISLAND JIGSAW CAUSEWAY 9×9 RECORDS Novelty Island is the brainchild of Liverpool artist Tom McConnell. Jigsaw Causeway is the third album from Novelty Island. This is an album that is rooted in pop-rock history while still pushing [...]
WIND WALKERS I DON’T BELONG HERE FEARLESS RECORDS When Wind Walkers released What If I Break? in 2023, it was a record coated with originality. A sonically mutated, volatile experience that conquered an impressive balance of post hardcore [...]
CHEMICAL WAVES OUR LOVE IN A DYING WORLD INDEPENDENT Chemical Waves is the brainchild of Marco Cattani. This is his project, and he has been making music under this moniker for well over 10 years. Our love in a dying world is the first Chemical [...]
THRICE HORIZONS/WEST EPITAPH RECORDS Life is all about risk. Sometimes we have to take those risks to explore where the impossible can lead. For Thrice, making the direct sequel Horizons/West was long in the making before Horizons/East reached [...]
STEVE PORCARO THE VERY DAY GREEN HILL MUSIC Steve Porcaro is a legend. Besides being a founding member of the group Toto, Porcaro has worked with almost every musician under the sun, such as Yes, Chicago, Pink Floyd, Paul Simon, and Steely Dan, [...]
PANG ATTACK TEARS FOR THE WAVE INDEPENDENT Out of Montreal comes Pang Attack. Tears For The Wave is their second album, and their sophomore album has been a long time coming, eight years to be exact. Tears For The Wave not only live up to the [...]
DAFFO WHERE THE EARTH BENDS CONCORD RECORDS Daffo’s debut record, Where the Earth Bends, is a 12-song project full of quippy, fully charged anthems. Following in the footsteps of their viral hits from 2023’s Pest EP, Los Angeles-based Gabi [...]
SIGUR RÓS TAKK. . . (20th ANNIVERSARY REMASTER) KRUNK RECORDS It was the scorching summer of 1997 in Etobicoke (pronounced eh•tow•bee•ko), ON, when my buddy Grant insisted I had to hear this new, up-and-coming Icelandic band. At the time, I [...]
JR. THOMAS & ERASERHOOD SOUND JR. THOMAS IN THE ERASERHOOD DEEPMATTER RECORDS Jr. Thomas pairs up with the Eraserhood Sound duo, Maxwell Perla and Vincent John, to bring us their combination of soul music that one cannot help but visualize [...]
GEESE GETTING KILLED PARTISAN RECORDS/[PIAS] Geese is based in New York City. Getting Killed is their fourth studio album and their best. Over the years the band has worked on establishing their own distinct sound. On Getting Killed, they [...]
SLOAN BASED ON THE BEST SELLER YEP ROC RECORDS/MURDERECORDS Sloan, the iconic band consisting of Andrew Scott, Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson, and Patrick Pentland, was a dominant force on Canadian radio and television in the 1990s and early 2000s. [...]
COCHEMEA VOL. III: ANCESTROS FUTUROS DAPTONE RECORDS Over the course of 25 years, Cochemea has built a distinctive career as a modern avant-garde jazz artist of prolific status through a wide range of collaborators that includes Sharon Jones and [...]
DAVID PALFREYMAN OPENING TIME FOR THE BATTERED DITELI RECORDS David Palfreyman has been making music since 1980. He made his debut when he provided trombone for the 1980 album, The Sound of Rhodian Brass. Like Paul McCartney who put down his [...]
PROFESSOR YAFFLE EVERYONE WANTS TO DREAM VIOLETTE RECORDS Lucky accidents happen, those moments when I stumble across a band I’ve never heard of and unexpectedly fall for them. I actively pursue such situations, usually drawn in by a band’s name [...]
IMMERSION WTF?? SWIM~ Immersion consists of Wire’s Colin Newman, and his wife Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact), and WTF?? is their fourth studio and first full-length album since 2016’s Analogue Creatures Living On An Island. Matt Schulz (Holy [...]
PURITY RING PURITY RING THE FELLOWSHIP MUSIC LABEL No, Purity Ring’s self-titled album is not the duo’s first, it is actually their fourth. There could be a variety of reasons why bands and artists come up with a self-titled album [...]
THE DREADNOUGHTS POLKA PIT PUNKERTON RECORDS Vancouver folk-punks The Dreadnoughts, now based in New York, are soaked in “blood, sweat, and beer” on their latest full-length, Polka Pit. On this wild ship ride of an album, the term folk-punk [...]
AFTERNOON BIKE RIDE RUNNING WITH SCISSORS FRIENDS OF FRIENDS MUSIC Another not so easy to define Montreal band, this time a trio that goes by the name of Afternoon Bike Ride. Their third full-length album, Running With Scissors, is more proof [...]
JOE NOLAN LUV IN THE NEW WORLD INDEPENDENT A skilled artist can create a great song by blending skilled musicianship with endearing melodies and setting catchy words to music. On the other hand, the ability to create lyrics which, when [...]
CUDDLE MAGIC UNDERWATER EGGHUNT RECORDS Is there such a thing as ambient folk or folky dream pop, or both? Of course, there is a resounding yes there, as bands and artists like Big Thief have amply shown, and now you can add Cuddle Magic to that [...]
WILDER MAKER THE STREETS LIKE BEDS STILL WARM WESTERN VINYL Brooklyn’s Gabriel Birnbaum seems to be all over the place these days, either as a music curator/PR man, solo artist, or as a member/principal songwriter of dark, jazzed-up folk [...]
MYSTERY ROMANCE ELECTRIC LOVE CURRENT RECORDS Mystery Romance released their debut album, Human Sexuality, in 1989 and did extremely well with that album. Since then, the band has split and reformed, with the core of the band being the duo Mike [...]
LOS STRAITJACKETS SOMOS LOS STRAITJACKETS YEP ROC RECORDS Those lucha libre mask-wearing surf rockers, Los Straitjackets, are back with another album of groovy instrumental fun. Lately known as the backing band for Yep Rock labelmate Nick Lowe, [...]
BIG OL’ NASTY GETDOWN VOLUME 3 INDEPENDENT Over the last two decades, The Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown, which has included the efforts of well over 225 musicians, has become perhaps the largest and most fluid musical collective, consisting of a [...]
