1. Ha Ha Tonka – Lessons: like the Tonk would break their own streak of topping my lists the years they release albums. This is a flawless record, comprehensively from start to finish, that packs an intense emotional punch and gorgeous harmonies. Probably my favorite band working right now. (Album review.) 2. Josh Ritter –…
Tag: album reviews
album review: mason jennings — always been
Mason Jennings’ newest album, Always Been, takes its title from track 2, “Patti & Robert”, where the phrase is a repeating chorus; the song itself was inspired after Mason met Patti Smith at a benefit concert in New York City and read Just Kids while flying back to Minnesota. So basically that’s a sentence that…
album review: gross ghost – public housing
Public Housing is a break up album; there’s nothing to hide that from the opening lines of “Seeds”: nothing to do, nothing to say. “Seeds” echoes and weeps with the clarity of the drums under Mike Dillon’s aching vocals in the first chorus. The vocals maintain in that way over the rest of the disc,…
two sentence reviews of reasonably new albums i listened to in september & october
And by “in September” I mean “in the last four days of September because I was behind, epically, on podcasts, all month”, but October was A++ of new listening. Also: full length reviews of Ha Ha Tonka’s Lessons, Two Cow Garage’s The Death of The Self-Preservation Society, and The Julie Ruin’s Run Fast here, and The…
album review: mipso – dark holler pop
Bands from North Carolina with upright basses and banjos and mandolins draw, fairly or unfairly, comparisons to one of two bands, at first: the Avett Brothers, or Chatham County Line. Either the Avetts’ high energy stage show, or Chatham County Line’s cluster around a single microphone and close harmonies. Music writers can’t help themselves when…
preview: j roddy walston & the business @ kings
J. Roddy Walston & the Business rock. Sometimes that’s a cliche, and sometimes it’s the only way to describe what a band does. This band, fronted by the volatile and captivating Walston, rocks, and rocks hard. I had the pleasure of seeing them back in September in Chicago, and they had an incredibly diverse crowd —…
ep review / interview: animal parts – six arms to hold you
Toronto musician Joshua Cockerill — who performs solo and with a band as Animal Parts — came onto my radar about this time last year, when he played a couple of North Carolina shows with Scots Admiral Fallow and recently-visited Erin Rae and John Isaac Davey; he writes deeply intense and personal songs, often just accompanied…
link: the head and the heart – let’s be still review
I wrote about the Head and the Heart’s Let’s Be Still for Speakers in Code: A band like THATH, whose first album exploded in such an organic way, has a lot of weight on their shoulders in producing a second one, and while I don’t think there’s a song on Let’s Be Still that’s as…
album review: ha ha tonka — lessons
i’m close to the age that i only do things that i know how to do i can make coffee and i can make small talk ’cause who wants to try something new? And so starts “Dead To The World” and Lessons, the astonishing 4th LP from Missouri quartet Ha Ha Tonka. I have spent…
album review: two cow garage – the death of the self preservation society
The new Two Cow Garage starts off with a blast of static and feedback, before it gallops into opening track “The Little Prince and Johnny Toxic”, and what may very well be their finest album to date. Over the last few albums, Two Cow has polished their recording sound up, and one of my favorite…
brand new kind of photography 