The sheer desire to give love and to receive love is a sometimes forgotten human trait. Some people are givers, others are takers, and Priscilla The Outlaw is a giver, who has tired of the takers that burden her beating heart: “Still I dream the dream that lover’s dream. And I pray the prayer that …
Chills, baby, Chills… These songs are a punch to the uterus of all humanity… Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Vilma Flood… This album is audacious, internal, personal, portable, emotive, routinely powerful, protruberant, bleakly beautiful, true, clear, expertly played, precisely recorded, deeply felt and extremely important… Prick up your ears and listen! Coming out of a 2 …
Maybe it’s the fatigue talking, but this has to be one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a long time. I especially like the petulant ladies beating the trash can lids at the very beginning. Kevin Morby, “OMG Rock N Roll” from the album Oh My God out Apr 26, 2019 on Dead …
Of the track, Liza gushes, “I relate to it strongly (I may have been late to set that day) – but I legit jammed out to the song via Spotify Pop Rising playlist before knowing I would be involved! I LOVE the song, I blast it in the car because it just makes me feel …
It’s nearly impossible to have a lousy time at a ska show. I’ve seen only a couple of ska bands really, but small sample size be damned; it would be madness not to move your feet My wife and I bounced around like a couple of kids Wednesday as the Cat Empire took over the …
Canada is a special place. It’s like the States but without the conspicuous leisure and homicidal violence. Only in an unspoiled place like the Great White North could Moon King incubate such an innocent gem as this short-ish dance film. Watch and learn. Celebrate life for a change. This video does. When talking about “Come …
Enigmatic alt-rock artist Meg Myers is back with an empowering cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill,’ the first taste of her next project, slated for release later this summer. “Growing up, I was never really interested in covering other artist’s music.” Myers explains, “I always wanted to write my own songs because I …
Vesper Wood, the solo project of Christina Wood, will release Instar, a transcendent, soul-stirring debut album on March 1st. Originally from Kentucky via Germany and London, Wood is better known as half of the UK electro-pop duo Kaleida. Recorded in Bristol, UK with producer Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, Soccer Mommy, Jenny Hval), Instar …
Florida-based indie folk singer-songwriter Vesper Wood, the solo project of Christina Wood, has released another new single from her upcoming solo debut album Instar slated for release on March 1st. “Carson” is a raw, emotional track about being an outsider, inspired by the writer Carson McCullers. About the new single, Wood comments: “The tune has an American, nostalgic feel for me…and I tried to keep the …
Los Angeles powerhouse Lauren Ruth Ward, has turned heads with her stunning voice and 70s psych-glam swagger. In addition to releasing her critically acclaimed debut album Well, Hell, she has shared stages with Keith Urban, Shirley Manson, Eddie Vedder, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shakey Graves and Liz Phair, and played to sold out crowds in LA & across the US. Lauren recently went …
This too is very important. Stop EVERYTHING and listen. The production, song arrangement, instrumental orchestrations and heavenly vocals were put here by God Herself: Vesper Wood, the solo project of Christina Wood, will release a debut album titled Instar on March 1st. “Descend” is the first single from that project. Originally from Kentucky via Germany …
“…his brain is squirming like a toad…. In a world where few things can still shock, Lauren Ruth Ward’s multipicity of Doors covers can at least pleasantly surprise by bringing a little post-millenial optimism to some psychedelic staples. Note well the upbeat guitars on “Love Street” and the unfailing Fender-Rhodes keys on “Riders on the …
The music of Abigail Lapell has beauty, optimism, texture, subtlety, power and gently humming overtones of transcendence. As soon as you hear her songs you will love her music. “Down By The Water,” (above) a lovely work of hopeful springtime chamber folk, evokes the fantasy of escaping to somewhere isolated and hiding from the world …
This song combines the intellectual and spiritual force of Kate Bush’s “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” with the dolorous echoes of George Winston’s December excursions and the crafted pop psychoses of Brian Wilson’s “Heroes and Villains.” Needless to say, it is a masterpiece. Eventually time will reveal that it has driven you …
Simply put, this is the best folk or pop recording of “O Holy Night” ever. Hannah’s voice, like a mighty decree gone forth from Caesar Augustus, confidently proclaims Messiah’s birth as three wise strings— mandolin, dobro and guitar— follow the star-seeking lyrics bearing gifts of golden light, frank innocence and mirthful texture. Nothing more need …
I saw Stuart Adamson and Big Country perform once, at Sacramento’s now-extinct Cattle Club. November 16, 1993, during their “Buffalo Skinners” tour. The Cattle Club wasn’t a huge venue, somewhere between Seattle’s Tractor Tavern and Showbox Theater in size. I was right up front in this packed room, and holey moley, ten years after their …
Here’s a great moment from five years ago. Lightning captured in a bottle. First song opens with references to Isaiah 9:6, the Bible text which, in an enormous transatlantic and cross-cultural musical coincidence, is one of the many high (and familiar) points in Handel’s Messiah.
So Portland has a grammy-winning artist now. Portugal. The Man won folk/pop duo/group performance for “Feel It Still.” Portugal. The Man locks down pop/duo performance Portugal. The Man at Grammys 2018: ‘We’re All About Hard Work’
At the age of five Alice Merton started taking classical piano lessons, four years later she was introduced to vocal training. After spending many years being classically trained, Alice discovered the art of songwriting through one of her high school courses in Germany. She then went on to study songwriting and pursue her dream of …
She’s all the rage in NYC. After you hear this song and see this video you will understand why she’s our unanimous 2016 Artist of the Year. Mitski insists she didn’t write this song to stick it to the smelly white boy indie rock establishment, but it works on that level anyway. Mitski will be …
I caught this on the local jazz station a few days ago. Called “Christmas Will Really Be Christmas,” this 1967 tune is an extraordinary Christmas meditation which deserves some reconsideration in 2015. As one friend described it, “Damn man, this really is a stone groove. Totally dig it.”
J’adore this modern pop tune from French singer Cheraze, “Promets pas la lune” (“Don’t promise the moon”). As far as I’m concerned, she IS the new Edith Piaf, the modern focus of sartorial elegance and a lady who knows hats. The tune is both boldly global and gamely gallic. The lithe hands of Cheraze float …
These “Aching” woods are lovely, moody, dark and deep, And I have moody promises to keep, And moody miles to go before I sleep… Just leave all your preconceptions behind and listen…
This tune is only 90 seconds or so in duration. It’s a shorty but a goodie. I’m getting into the White Buffalo in a big way. The dude’s written some instant classics.
The Joseph of the Nativity story is a cipher: one of those New Testament characters whose very blankness seems to invite us to step into their sandals and ask what we would do if we were witness to such strange events. It wasn’t until I became an adoptive father that I suddenly (if narcissistically) saw …
An amazing act which I’ve just discovered, The White Buffalo (aka Jake Smith), will be co-headlining a Wonder Ballroom show in Portland on April 8 with the equally amazing Chuck Ragan, unleashing the local manifestation of what their publicist promises will be the manliest tour on Earth. Both the White Buffalo and Ragan rock out …
This is my personal fave Supremes number because it is a sweet, soothing, detumescent lullabye with lyrics hinting at big city summertimes and forbidden roof-born romances struck with both hoody squalor and electroluminescent skylines in view. Coming towards the end of the Supremes run, this tune was the first single to feature Jean Terrell on …
In some ways, this video for “Amigos” reminds me of the classic old short film, Baptism: Sacrament of Belonging. Sure, there’s more tequila in the new version, more heaving bosoms and squirming thighs, but the message of acceptance is essentially the same.
I had no idea that “The Wave Speech” from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas had been given a name and taken on a life of it’s own amongst Thompson mavens and literary academics. I had wrongly assumed that I was the only one to find beauty in these six paragraphs and to excerpt them …