The beauty of Shotgun Jimmie's music has always been the perfect purity of its heart. Since first appearing before listeners with a group called Shotgun & Jaybird in 2003, “Shotgun” Jimmie Kilpatrick has embodied a charmed (and charming) musical...
It's so nice to have Mudhoney back. With some alt-rock and grunge bands trying to “change with the times” and alienating a lot of older fans with that ambition (see Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains and The Melvins) and others trying to act like...
By 1995, the alt-rock scene in Seattle was already well on its wat to falling apart from exposure and the evils associated with it. By then, Kurt Cobain was dead, in-fighting, substance abuse and a general sense of dissatisfaction had started to dissolve Soundgarden...
At sixty-eight years old, Eric Clapton is admitting he's an old man. That's the message I get from Old Sock, his latest studio release. As I listen to it, I picture Clapton in a rocking chair on the porch (probably in some sunny clime, like the cover photo),...
If ever a record embodied the possibility of a new wave of dream-pop music manifesting somewhere in the music spectrum, it would be on Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO – The Besnard Lakes' fourth album. In listening, those who experience the record will...
Let's hear a cheer for being playfully malign! The Stranglers had been basically out of commission for the better part of a decade (sure – they could still pull a crowd, but they were losing creative steam quickly after issuing their Coup De Grace in 1998) or...
Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say I'm relieved we got a new Bronx album this year. I first saw the Bronx about ten years ago in San Diego opening for Lagwagon. Lead singer Matt Caughtran proudly announced before they came out, "We saw it was going...
Hiya junky,So I dunno if you heard about dis, but I got excited about it feraminit. If you ain't noticed, ol' fi' dollar Billy got ridda a buncha the busted-ass links inna dead zone thit's called The Leak on Ground Control. The way he wis sayin' it,...
How long has it been since Depeche Mode released an album that you happily told people was essential listening, dear reader? For me, it has been fifteen years; for me, the last truly inspired moment that Depeche Mode enjoyed was the moody, gothic assault of Ultra. On...
The hardest albums to review are the ones which are only “half good.” Trying to critically evaluate an album that goes completely in one direction or the other ('good' or 'bad') is always preferable because there's an economy in it; if...