Listen Up
The Burden Brothers
Listen UpNo reason to describe this one in faux-poetic terms or edu-ma-cational journalism. The Burden Brothers’ new album Mercy rocks your backside about 75 percent of the time. As for that remaining 25 percent, you’ll be wondering...
The Damnwells
Listen UpThe Damnwells have come a long way since recording their debut c.d., the stripped-down Bastards of the Beat, in a mini-storage unit in Manhattan. They produced their new album, Air Stereo, in a real studio, and it’s so clutte...
Doug Sahm
Listen UpMaybe Doug Sahm never became a household name because he wasn’t an easy-to-categorize, one-note musician.
Sunday Drive
Listen UpSunday Drive’s Needle/Eye has a solid, guitar-based indie rock vibe, but the Dallas band’s third studio album does generic indie one better by being inventive on the skins. The disc chugs along quickly, with lots of snare d...
Nina Simone
Listen UpThe very concept is a bit jarring: Take one of the most socially conscious, independent, folk-jazz, whatever-style-she-wanted-to-sing artists from the 1960s. Ask some of today’s top DJ’s, producers, and new voices to remix ...
Bonnie “Prince” Billy
Listen UpMultitalented artist Will Oldham has kept busy over the past couple of years.
Michelle Malone
Listen UpSugarfoot is one of those c.d.’s that can be inserted in the space between the blues and rock without really adding anything new to the pile.
Yo La Tengo
Listen UpAfter dropping a slew of compilations and covers albums (one by caller-request for a radio station pledge drive), and being met with varying reviews, Yo La Tengo is back to form on a seamlessly style-shifting album.
Airpushers
Listen UpOn the surface, the reserved euphoria that permeates Themes for the Ordinarily Strange by the Los Angeles duo Airpushers suggests any number of rock-influenced rap bands (or rap-influenced rock bands). But listen a little deepe...
Big Bill Broonzy
Listen UpBig Bill Broonzy claims, “All songs in the world that you sing are folk songs, because horses don’t sing.” On the straightforward solo acoustic Amsterdam Live Concerts 1953, he offers originals and interpretations, many o...