Death Cab For Cutie Kintsugi Atlantic Music Kintsugi, the latest work from American group Death Cab For Cutie, is titled after a Japanese form of art involving fixing broken pottery where breakage and repair is not hidden but is acknowledged and [...]
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015 Mom + Pop Music “C’mon fellows, we’ve got pay respect!” Jon Spencer howls on “Funeral,” kicking off the Blues Explosion’s second post-hiatus LP. After 2007, the Jon Spencer [...]
Killawatt émigré Osiris Matthew Watt, widely known as Killawatt, shows the progression into a more mature artist with his debut album émigré. He is no longer simply putting out dubstep, but venturing into the realms of electronica, bass, and [...]
AWOLNATION Run Red Bull Record Run is an ambitious and impressive project. AWOLNATION’s sophomore album was written, performed, and produced entirely by lead singer Aaron Bruno. The album features 14 new songs that go in many different [...]
Tobias Jesso Jr. Goon Arts & Crafts Records Goon, the debut album of Vancouver-based songster Tobias Jesso Jr., sounds like it came straight from the 1970s. Part early solo-McCartney, part Billy Joel, and part Randy Newman, the songs on Goon [...]
Twin Shadow Eclipse Warner Bros “That moment when something pure and constant is broken, where you’re filled with vulnerability, that moment is what I live for in art,” says George Lewis, Jr., aka Twin Shadow. “I’ve [...]
Joel Plaskett The Park Avenue Sobriety Test Pheromone Recordings Without being too hyperbolic, Joel Plaskett’s latest album The Park Avenue Sobriety Test is perhaps his best yet. The album is a tribute to the artist’s own life. The acronym The [...]
Dope Stars Inc. TeraPunk Independent Dope Stars Inc. is an alternative and industrial rock band from Rome that was founded in 2002. The band has released four albums and three EPs, along with their upcoming TeraPunk. Described as having a [...]
The Lookouts Spy Rock Road (And Other Stories) Don Giovanni Records Thirty years before anyone would ever even conceive of Green Day, three guys got together and The Lookouts were born. The California punk band released a remastered album March [...]
Simple Minds Sparkle In The Rain: Super Deluxe Reissue Universal Music “Don’t You Forget About Me”….wasn’t that the song from the John Hughes movie? Yeah it was and it’s still probably the most well known song associated with the Scottish [...]
Purity Ring Another Eternity 4AD Another Eternity showcases some experimentation with space-like beats and synth patterns, with Purity Ring’s distinguishable sound infused within. The Canadian synthpop duo finally released their second [...]
of Montreal Aureate Gloom Polyvinyl Records Another year, another of Montreal release. Another smattering of discord psychedelic-funk-glam-breakbeat tracks that fascinate and confound in equal measure, with catchy melodies, sing-along hooks and [...]
Sonny & The Sunsets Talent Night At The Ashram Polyvinyl Records If you didn’t know it, you would never guess San Francisco native Sonny Smith is nearing his mid-40s. Imaginative, quirky, and possessing the ability to spin stories akin to a [...]
Drake If you’re reading this it’s too late Cash Money Records If there’s an Aziz Ansari equivalent in the rap genre, it might be Drake. But comedian Ansari’s swag lust and posturing comes off as personable and self-aware. Drake, [...]
Danko Jones Fire Music New Damage Records The return of Danko Jones comes with great timing, challenging a music scene that is overrun by shoeless, whistling and clapping hipster bands. Their new release Fire Music cuts through the crap and [...]
Alex Conde Descarga For Monk Zoho Music Reinventing the classics: In Descarga for Monk, pianist Alex Conde and his band interpret nine of Legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk’s compositions through the lense of Conde’s Spanish [...]
Father John Misty I Love You Honeybear Sub Pop Records I Love You Honeybear is a well thought out album. The slow romantic music, accompanied by realistic lyrics of relationships and the American education system, makes for an interesting album. [...]
Prima Donna Nine Lives And Forty-Fives Alive Naturalsound Records Los Angeles foursome Prima Donna is back with an impressive 11-song studio album. Nine Lives and Forty-Fives features eight original songs, and three covers: “I’m On Fire” (Dwight [...]
The Gothsicles Squid Icarus Negative Gain Records The Gothsicles’ fourth album Squid Icarus, released in December of last year by Negative Gain Productions, lives up to the standards of humor and cleverness we’ve come to expect from the ‘sicles. [...]
The Pop Group Citizen Zombie Freaks R Us Records Punk was declared dead not long after it exploded in popularity in the U.K. and the U.S. It was dismissed as a fad and no longer taken seriously as a revolutionary force. By the late ‘70s Punk [...]
Bob Dylan Shadows In The Night Columbia Records Shadows in the Night is Bob Dylan’s 36th studio album. It was released by Columbia Records on February 3, 2015 and contains 10 songs originally made famous by Frank Sinatra, though Dylan himself [...]
Karl Latham, Ryan Carniaux & Mark Egan Constellations Double Moon Records Constellations, the jazz/funk interpretation of Björk’s 2007 Volta, goes beyond categorizations. Drummer Karl Latham, trumpeter Ryan Carniaux, bassist Mark Egan, and [...]
Emmy The Great S EP Bella Union S, the new EP from British singer-songwriter Emmy The Great, packs a punch. The album features four songs with names starting with the letter s and, more importantly, offers up powerful lyrics and catchy pop. [...]
Ty Segall Live In San Francisco Castle Face Ty Segall gives a head banging, body shaking, ear splitting good time on their Live In San Francisco LP. Segall began his solo career in 2008 with the release of Horn the Unicorn, the same year as his [...]
