Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Trent Depue For his fourth record, KMAG YOYO (And Other American Stories), it’s business as usual for Texas native Hayes Carll. Highly regarded for his blend of country, rock and blues, Carll continues to impress and build on his reputation as a top tier singer/songwriter.
Posted in Country + Western, Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford Buck 65′s voice is both his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. It’s an awesome voice, for sure – deep and distinct, gravelly and melodic at the same time – but listening to an entire album of it can be wearying.
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rap + Hip-Hop
Rating: 5 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy Recently Sam Beam told SPIN magazine that Kiss Each Other Clean “is more of a focused pop record. It sounds like music people heard in their parent’s car growing up…that early-to-mid ‘70s FM, radio-friendly music” and he’s right. And it’s very surprising and very very very good.
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy Described in their press as “the unusual musical marriage between Yukon songwriter Kim Barlow and Mathias Kom, nouveau Newfoundlander and leader of The Burning Hell. They like to live as far as possible from each other, and then get together and write pretty little ukulele and banjo songs [...]
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Greg Hutton Each component of The Olympic Symphonium’s latest effort, The City Won’t Have Time To Fight, is allowed ample room to breathe, which is the greatest strength of the album.
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Trent Depue Twilight Hotel is the partnership of Winnipeg’s Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury, and their first effort since relocating to the musical hot bed of Austin, Texas. And for their third effort together under that moniker, they put forth what is at times an atmospheric and isolated record.
Posted in Country + Western, Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford The title track of # Zero With A Bullet is about a singer-songwriter struggling with failure, then struggling equally with the prospect of success.
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
Rating: 5 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy As summer approaches music blogs explode with promises of “hot summer” releases, hype machines overheat and explode. Suddenly it’s very easy for a whole slew of excellent albums to get lost in the shuffle of big bass-y noise and Lady Gaga’s new video.
Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop
