A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Back of Our Heads LP by Kalen & Aslyn. I confess that Country balladry is not my favorite type of music. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate a slow song; I am absolutely capable of appreciating a love song or a slow song – but those moments when a singer just lilts his or her way along through a melody and does so through puddles of caramelized saccharine compel me...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Jaime Wyatt’s Neon Cross LP. After having watched all the sonic and stylistic directions in which the artists on New West’s roster have gone, it feels more than a little reassuring to see that at least some artists are signed to a country music label because they want to make country music – and not necessarily just make music which happens to have a couple of C&W inflections in hand as that...
Art Bergmann “Christo Fascists” (digital single) (Porterhouse Records) It’s hard to know why “Christo Fascists” has been released as a standalone digital single – separate from a physical 7” or even as a track on a full length album. Something in me wants to contend that a song this good should have the widest distribution possible – as the standout song on a full-length album would be ideal – and while I understand that it’s entirely possible that a digital...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Wildflowers & All The Rest 3LP reissue by Tom Petty. Author Rae Carson once wrote that, “Some people, the best ones, are motivated more by the chance to prove themselves than by a command to serve. It is the work itself that calls them onward, especially if they believe they are the only ones who can do it.” In effect, some people do their best work – any kind of work...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Brace Yourself LP by Seized Up. Ever heard an album which hits the mark brilliantly and causes you to remember why you like or got into one particular type of music or another, reader? Brace Yourself, the new album by Seized Up, hit me like that – about half the time while it played. The other half of the albums runtime just had me hoping it would find a way to...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Floor It! 2LP by the Texas Gentlemen. It’s funny to think about how much the Texas Gentlemen have changed since first appearing with the release of Texas Jelly in 2018. Just two years ago, the Texas Gents arrived sporting the tightest sound but it was coupled with a design which let the album’s shape develop as it played. The end results turned out to be a mercurial work of art which...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Naked Giants’ The Shadow LP. While it’s not terribly uncommon for a band to make great creative changes in their sound and style unexpectedly throughout their career, the knowledge that such events can happen still doesn’t exactly explain the arc that Naked Giants have taken which ultimately brought the band to The Shadow – the group’s second full-length album for New West Records (third for the label). When the band started (in...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Crash Test Kid LP by Sammy Brue. After releasing a debut album which, while obviously ambitious, ultimately yielded results which were “just okay” followed by an EP that revealed a greater-than-average Blind Melon influence, Sammy Brue clearly upped his dose of Fuckitol, just cut loose and bravely elected to just have fun when it came to making Crash Test Kid. Through the eleven cuts on his sophomore LP, Brue lets each...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Rock Bottom Rhapsody LP by Pokey LaFarge. Listening to Pokey LaFarge’s ninth album (first for New West Records, and first I had ever heard) had a very strange effect on me. I knew the sound had me interested right away but, before even the A-side if the album had played through, I had already picked up my laptop and found out everything I could about the band. I looked up all...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into All Them Witches’ Nothing as the Ideal LP. Over the last five years or so, I’ve become acquainted with Nashville’s All Them Witches; reviewed a couple of their albums and gotten to feel like I know the band – or at least know what to expect from them from album to album. I figured I knew, for example, that their psychedelic/classic rock amalgam would end up being a consistent thread through the...