Audio 296
Mark Barrott – Sketches from an Island
Mark Barrott is a very smart man. However, being smart doesn’t always mean you’ll make great music. In my opinion, sometimes the intellect gets in the way of the feeling. Not so with Mark. On his criminally unheralded album “Sketches from an Island” takes a much maligned style, the music of Ibiza, and reinvigorates it […]
Happy 100th Birthday, Les!
Today, Les Paul (born Lester William Polsfuss in 1915) would have turned 100 years old — but that’s certainly not to say that he didn’t leave a momentous legacy behind after his 94 years. Guitarists (and many non-guitarists) surely are familiar with his namesake guitar, first produced by Gibson in 1952. From those early “Goldtop” […]
City of Ships – Ultraluminal
Ultraluminal is the new LP from Austin, TX / Brooklyn, NY based post-rock outfit City of Ships. I was lucky enough to jump on a portion of their 2012 summer tour and I thought they were on-point back then, but they’ve done nothing but grow in the past three years. In the album’s first single, “Alarm,” […]
Roots Music: The Berlin School of Electronic Music – Part 1
Roots Music is an ongoing series where we attempt to trace the influence of certain music genres and instruments. In this two-part opener, we’ll first trace how the Berlin School of Electronic Music began, and eventually (in the second part) how its innovations have left their mark on current electronic dance music. What exactly is the Berlin School […]
Lower Dens – Escape From Evil
On the surface, Lower Dens’ newest album, Escape From Evil, is the most pop album the group has put out to date. It rides the growing wave of modern bands adding subtle synth hooks over nostalgic, drawn-out lyrics of unrequited love, which makes sense when you consider the lead singer Jana Hunter wrote half the album […]
Episode 26 – Jack McCoy
Chris talks to longtime surf filmmaker, Jack McCoy, about all things surfing, stoke and aloha!
YOB – “Clearing The Path to Ascend”
Oregon doom champions YOB’s most recent effort, “Clearing The Path to Ascend,” breathes a breath of fresh air into the sometimes-stale genre of doom metal. Too often, doom bands rely on heaviness and heaviness alone as their only tool to wield, paying little attention to song dynamics or character. While YOB does a great job […]
Celine Neon – Getcha Good
After listening to this track for the first time, I was making weird mouth noises for the rest of the day. I also began moving in a way that could only be described as “spazmatic bobble head doll”. “Getcha Good” is the kind of song that lodges itself in your brain because of its energetic […]
My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
Over the course of a decade-and-a-half, My Morning Jacket has developed its signature blend of alt-country, soul, electronica, and roots rock — a seemingly self-contradictory concoction that has earned them their status as outdoor-festival gods. Their latest album, The Waterfall, runneth over with that classic sound, yet ventures into new sonic territory as well. Nature imagery and soundscapes abound, and the album has […]
