New Music From Fruit Bats
The midwest, particularly the part of the midwest from which Eric D. Johnson hails, is a largely flat expanse. Zipping through it on the highway, you’ll see cities and towns rise up in the distance, but blink and you’ll miss other man-made rejoinders to horizontal living dotting the landscape, hill after hill, built from the […]
LA Times Features Inara George, Who’ll Take The Songs of Douglass And Littell On Tour Soon
Inara George, writes the Los Angeles Times, has “an exquisite new album, Songs of Douglass & Littell, on which she sets aside her own songwriting to interpret nine tunes by [two] under-the-radar veterans of West Coast musical theater: searching, funny, vividly emotional songs… Think of the record as George’s take on one of Ella Fitzgerald’s classic Song Book LPs from […]
Rose’s Pawn Shop Starts Tour
Rose’s Pawn Shop is at radio now with American Seams, their fifth studio album. Country Music News International says the band is “a definitive voice in American roots music.” Americana Highways says their “music explores endurance, reinvention, & determination to chase dreams & reach higher. Their songs are open-road odes to escape, possibilities, & breaking free.” Twangville says the album is […]
Louder Than War Celebrates Heavenly’s Originality And Depth
According to Louder Than War, “It could be said that bands like The Cardigans and Belle and Sebastian took elements of and inspiration from Heavenly and their ilk and made it a commercial success – but, decent as they are, they never matched them in terms of originality, depth, zeal and idealism.” Now Heavenly is back with new album Highway To Heavenly, which […]
Americana Highways Reviews Rose’s Pawn Shop
According to Americana Highways, Rose’s Pawn Shop “drives its music through a filter of roots instrumentation stitched with cinematic folk-rock threads. The music explores endurance, reinvention, & determination to chase dreams & reach higher. Their songs are open-road odes to escape, possibilities, & breaking free.” The site has a review of American Seams, the newest release from Paul Givant and […]
Lollipop Can’t Deny Charm School
Lollipop Magazine writes, “There is an up-front, in-your-faceness about Charm School you can’t deny.” One song,”Disgrace,” gave the reviewer “a sense of industrial forward-march-or-die in a demented fun house,” while on “Scene Queen,” “singer/guitarist Andrew Sellers sounds like boredom turned up loud; he has the impassioned disassociation blues.” The full review of the EP, which is at […]
New Music From Black Nile
For Black Nile, jazz isn’t a musical genre as much as it is a language. A Black American form of communication that bridges music, visual art, and performance. An improvisational mindset that fits into nearly any genre derived from the Black experience. Brothers Aaron and Lawrence Shaw see a very different Los Angeles. Hollywood has stolen the beautiful […]
KCRW Gets Behind Inara George
KCRW featured Inara George‘s “Tiny Girl” as Today’s Top Tune last month upon its release, highlighting the story behind the song and how it represents a creative conversation that has taken place over decades. “Built on a melody written by Eliot Douglass at eighteen and lyrics later added by Philip Littell specifically for George, the song is quietly biographical — reflecting her life […]
Add To Wantlist Says You Should Add Heavenly To Yours
According to Add To Wantlist, “Heavenly’s blueprint is all over our site when we write about contemporary jangle and indie pop bands. That makes it even better to have new music by the originals, and have it come across with zero rust, a whole lot of their original appeal intact, and some new tricks picked up […]
American Pancake Likes Charm School’s Caustic Amalgamations
American Pancake thinks Charm School is abrasive… and that’s a good thing! “Like a caustic amalgam of Butthole Surfers, The Jim Carroll Band, One Day as a Lion, Tomahawk, [and] Tropical F*ck Storm, it is quite apparent that Charm School (great name given their sound) is willing to be off putting to some to get their artistic / political approach across […]
New Music From Inara George
Best known for her work in folk-pop and indie pop, Inara George is a musical shape-shifter whose voice has been celebrated for its clarity, nuance, and emotional precision. As a solo artist, she’s released acclaimed albums such as All Rise and Dearest Everybody; she is one half of The Bird and the Bee with Grammy-winning producer Greg Kurstin; and she’s a member of The Living […]
AllMusic Says Highway To Heavenly Might Be The Band’s Best Yet
AllMusic asks, “How often does a beloved group re-form after decades apart and the results are pleasantly nostalgic at best, calling up memories of good songs without actually delivering any of them? Fear not, devoted fans of indie pop legends Heavenly, their return after a long break has resulted in not only an album that captures all […]
Metal Injection Shares The New Collaborative Track By Melvins and Napalm Death
Metal Injection is on board with the new collaboration between Melvins and Napalm Death, “Rip The God.” The site says it “highlights the experimental edge of the collaboration. Speaking about the song, Shane Embury, bassist and vocalist for Napalm Death, explained: ‘The opening [Buzz Osborne] riff begins with that classic timing – a hiccup right at the end of the […]
No Depression Likes American Seams
“Even from the opening fiddle bars,” writes No Depression, “American Seams, the fifth studio album from Rose’s Pawn Shop, speaks directly to the moment. The band proves their prowess at drawing from all aspects of American music to create something timeless and enduring. After twenty years of pounding the boards, it’s not surprising that Rose’s Pawn Shop […]
New Music From Souled American
Founded in Chicago in late 1986, Souled American played alternative country before that term existed, slowcore before that term existed, and ambient Americana (a term that never existed). Between 1988 and 1995, the band released six records. Their style evolved from alt-country precursor to an ambient Americana that one critic termed “trance roots.” Though they received little attention at the […]
The Big Takeover Hails Highway To Heavenly For Being “Quietly Revolutionary”
The Big Takeover contends that “With Highway To Heavenly, Heavenly do something quietly radical: they return not as a legacy act smoothing out its edges, but as a band whose politics, emotions, and melodies feel as urgent as they did in the 1990s; if not more so. Nearly three decades after Operation Heavenly, the group reaffirm their role as […]
Jeffrey Runnings’ Piqued Is “Timeless,” Says Musoscribe
Musoscribe has some words on Piqued, the posthumous album from For Against frontman Jeffrey Runnings. “Though the label is bandied about with reckless abandon, Lo-fi is an actual aesthetic. For Against’s Jeffrey Runnings trafficked in the style/idiom for his solo work. Though Runnings had been working for years, Piqued is the product of his final sessions, completed shortly before his 2024 death from […]
Norman Records Loves Woo’s New Reissue
Norman Records highlighted Woo‘s Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong, at radio now from Independent Project Records, as its Reissue of the Week for January 12. They write, “It’s been said before that one of the reasons Woo’s music is so hushed and intimate was because they recorded through the night in a small flat mindful […]
MusicOMH Says Heavenly Is More Vital Than Ever
MusicOMH says that “there’s an argument to be had that Heavenly are one of the most influential bands of our time,” as the band helped pioneer the entire twee ethos decades before their song “P.U.N.K. Girl” went viral on TikTok. Now the band is back with Highway To Heavenly, and the site writes that it’s “a triumphant return […]
Rose’s Pawn Shop’s Paul Givant Talks To Chip Midnight
The Big Takeover‘s Chip Midnight recently spoke with Paul Givant, the leader of Rose’s Pawn Shop, about Fishbone and all of the metal bands he was into in highschool. There’s also a lot of talk about the band’s new album, American Seams, which is at radio now. Of the album’s title track, Givant says, “Of the collection, I thought it […]
