I do not approach music as a musician, or a music historian or critic. I am a listener. I am a fan. With that on the record, when I was offered an advance listen to Seasons Of Your Day by Mazzy Star recently, I couldn’t resist the chance to say a few words about the experience. This is my summary of the highlights I heard in the album, track-by-track. “In the Kingdom” – Beautiful organs and that beautiful voice of...

Say what you want about Matt Good's personal politics and attitude, no singer is more capable of making the small and even inconsequential events in life seem like the most fantastic (and sometimes even life-affirming) observations like he is. When he gets it right, Good is the unheralded patron saint of catharsis and can win the undying adulation of fans who will then wait years and through the innumerable “passably okay” albums which are released in between the great ones;...

Some readers will remember that moment in the 1970s when disco was on its way out (around 1977) but still hadn't given up the ghost quite yet. Pop was in a transition period (again) where rock was reasserting its dominance (hard rock and punk rock were both on the way to mainstream exposure), but it still had to battle down the last remains of disco's glitz and glamor and so the foot soldiers sent in on the first wave were…...

Whatever lit the fire under John Garcia, Nick Oliveri and Brant Bjork and caused them to make Peace is anyone's guess (Josh Homme issuing a cease and desist order preventing the group from using the Kyuss Lives moniker might have had something to do with it), but there's no way to argue with the results: Peace is the best album by any of the three musicians involved in years. It is stoned, lean desert rock at its best and absolutely...

Listening to Krewella's debut full-length album, one has to marvel at how diverse the sonic palette for dance song composition has become. At one time, the average dance song was so simple; there were a finite number of digital sounds to employ, and technology was limited. Now though, new sounds, new technology and new ideas are appearing daily, and composers/producers are also finding ways to re-purpose “old” stuff too. To get an idea of just how far dance music has...

Every now and then, it's possible to encounter a band which has not only created a unique sound, but carved out an unmistakable identity. A band which provides an experience unlike any other you will find. Jail Weddings is such a band. Gabriel Hart, formerly of The Starvations, formed the band in 2006 in order to take his music into very personal, unexplored territory. Jail Weddings have just released Meltdown: A Declaration of Unpopular Emotion, their second full length album,...

Hey Junky,Haya doin' outt'ere, ya no accounts? I'm feelin' great – I had a good week… LIBERATING… a buncha new tune fer youse ta taste test. I gotcha some punk an' some rootsy stuff, an' even a little tasty poison thitcha jus' can't qualify. I's all good though! Like checkitout junky, I scoredja a tune from that band Mixtapes. I know ol' fi'dollar Billy's probably overdosin' onnat band still (when he gets hooked, he don' mess aroun') but dis tune's...

I must confess that I've never been much of an Arctic Monkeys fan. The band came along at the height of a period when hipsters were chasing every garage rock band they saw and calling them the next saviors of rock n' roll (this happened to Arctic Monkeys, Gomez, Wolfmother, Raconteurs, Butch Walker and many more – ALL IN 2006 ALONE), and I wasn't interested in believing the hype. The push behind the band continued to just be so crass...

Rock stars seem to love singing about big issues whenever possible, especially death, but rarely do they do it with any true appreciation of their subject. The usual tendency is to romanticize it – from "Last Kiss" (you are no doubt familiar with Pearl Jam version, but it was originally recorded in 1962 by Wayne Cochran) to "Don't Fear the Reaper" to "Enter Sandman" and so on – but every now and then an album comes along which expresses, deeply...

Some people will probably say otherwise but, really, there's nothing more intoxicating than the dark soul of a woman who has been sorely tried – especially when it's placed on top of a 1-4-5 blues progression. Voices like that are rare; anyone can sing pretty and enjoy a minute in the pop spotlight but, when the story in a woman's heart is one of hard luck and the soul in her throat is still able to overcome it, she'll already...