Spill Gives Four And A Half Splats To Leif Vollebekk
Spill Magazine praises the “honest, soul-baring” LP New Ways from Montréal’s Leif Vollebekk, who plays tomorrow night at The Bowery Ballroom in New York. “The simple yet moving stories in each track,” the review states, “are rich with relatable musings. The easy–flowing melodies are layered with smooth vocals that are raw with the sincerity of proclamation and […]
No Depression Tells The Good Ones’ Story
No Depression describes Rwanda, You Should Be Loved – the third album from The Good Ones – as “a stirring collection of authentic, original folk songs that is somehow emotive, educational, and entertaining.” The venerable, roots-focused magazine praises the record for the “rawness” of its sound, captured live in Rwanda by producer Ian Brennan. The album features collaborations with […]
Northern Transmissions Applauds Lost Wisdom, pt. 2
Lost Wisdom pt. 2, the new collaborative LP from Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron, is “lovely and sparse.” This is according to Northern Transmissions, which notes the grief that inspired the album and writes that “it is never easy to listen to anyone pour their heart out so openly transparent but Elverum does so in […]
Glide Compares Vetiver To The Dead
“After the poppy sounds of 2015’s Complete Strangers,” Glide Magazine writes about the new Vetiver LP, “the folky, airy sounds of Up On High feels like a return to form.” The album is “one of the best albums of Vetiver’s career,” the site contends, as it “finds Vetiver doing what they do best: folk-rock. Most […]
Come Here Floyd Shares Natalie Walker’s “Last Day”
Natalie Walker‘s “Last Day,” writes Come Here Floyd, is a “sultry walk down a boardwalk of memories, strewn with piano chords and a new-wave vision for what love could have felt.” About Walker, whose Evenfall EP is currently at radio, Come Here Floyd says, she “keeps her music simple. And the way Natalie presents her […]
For Folk’s Sake Premieres Gregory Ackerman Video
Gregory Ackerman told For Folk’s Sake that his song “‘Dawg’ is a more sarcastic interpretation where I end up literally telling someone not to call me ‘dear’. It’s a lot like the line from Space Jam where Lola Bunny tells Bugs not to call her ‘doll’ while blowing her ears out of her face. Same […]
Brooklyn Vegan Debuts Leif Vollebekk’s “Blood Brother” Video
Brooklyn Vegan has debuted a new music video for Canadian artist Leif Vollebekk’s New Ways track “Blood Brother.” According to the site, it’s “one of the poppiest, most upbeat tracks on the album…that takes clear inspiration from Thin Lizzy and also The Strokes.” Director Joe Connor (Coldplay, Sam Smith, Paul Weller, Mumford & Sons, Kylie Minogue) explains, “Leif […]
WNYC Hosts The Good Ones
The Good Ones have been making an impact on the NACC charts, and their album Rwanda, You Should Be Loved debuted at #18 this month on the Transglobal Music Chart. The Rwandan group, made up of genocide survivors who sing in Kinyarwanda and perform often on hand-crafted instruments, also recently made a trip to perform in […]
Paste Is Positive About Mount Eerie’s New LP With Julie Doiron
Paste is positive about the new Mount Eerie record, proclaiming that Lost Wisdom pt. 2 is perhaps “the easiest point of entry to the Mount Eerie discography in a decade.” The LP, which is a collaboration between Phil Elverum and Julie Doiron of Eric’s Trip, follows an album the two made together in 2007. “Though […]
Spill Gives Vetiver Four And a Half Splats
Spill has given Vetiver‘s new LP a glowing review. Up On High is “a groovy, chilled-out acoustic-driven collection of songs that feature poetic, imagistic lyrics and a hopeful tone from song-to-song that reflects a certain kind of weathered contentedness with life that is refreshing and… relatable.” The reviewer compares the band to “the early Brushfire Records […]
Sax & Violins Posts Samantha Sidley’s “Drive Like I Never Been Hurt”
Sax&Violins has shared Samantha Sidley’s new cover of Ry Cooder’s “Drive Like I Never Been Hurt.” “I felt I needed to sing it,” explains the Los Angeles born-and-bred jazz vocalist in an accompanying feature. “It was something I needed to talk about. This song to me is about saying ‘f**k you’ to all and any oppressive obstacles life […]
Glamglare Features Natalie Walker’s “Starry Eyed Kids”
Glamglare chose Natalie Walker’s “Starry Eyed Kids,” from her new Evenfall EP, as their Song Pick of the Day on November 15. The record comes 13 years after her first release Urban Angel, and according to Glamglare cofounder Oliver Bouchard it, “demonstrates how forward-looking her blend of acoustic and electronic music had already been back then.” “Starry Eyed Kids” […]
Samantha Sidley Goes For Adds
Released earlier this year, Samantha Sidley’s jazz-oriented Interior Person sounds, she says, “exactly like what I needed it to sound – like the old records I grew up on, mixed with now and the future.” Now, she returns with a horn-saturated, marching cover of a Ry Cooder track that demonstrates her power as a vocalist […]
Post Trash Says Lost Wisdom Pt. 2 Is Brilliant In Its Introspection, And Mount Eerie Has Highest Debut At NACC
“Lost Wisdom pt. 2’s brilliance,” writes Post Trash of the new LP from Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron, “lies in its introspection. Phil Elverum’s examination of love is tinged with solipsism, painting a picture of a man struggling with the ineffability of his everyday life. What ultimately bursts from this struggle is a gorgeous work of poetry set […]
PopMatters Highly Rates The “Skillful, Rootsy” Good Ones
According to PopMatters, The Good Ones keep “rural styles of Rwanda alive and subtly vibrant on Rwanda, You Should Be Loved. Skillful, rootsy, and laying bare the group’s strong interpretations of environs and emotions, this is an album that lends itself well to sensitive audiences of all sorts and is well worth listening to, feeling, and loving.” The site […]
Sunny War Plays NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Sunny War recently performed songs from her latest album Shell of a Girl on NPR‘s Tiny Desk. Host Bob Boilen praises the “heavy-hearted singer,” saying she “has been homeless, busked on city streets and Venice Beach, left home feeling she was a burden to her distraught mother, had her life complicated by drugs, and yet still found a way to […]
Leif Vollebekk Tells When The Horn Blows About New Ways and Rihanna
“Leif Vollebekk’s latest album New Ways is the true sound of desire as it unfolds,” writes When The Horn Blows, “hitting the spot when it comes to tenderness, violence, sex and rebirth.” The site has an interview with the Montréal-based singer-songwriter, who talked about a handful of the album’s tracks and how they came about. It’s especially interesting […]
Americana UK Says Up On High Is “A Big Step For Vetiver”
Americana UK has an approving review of the new Vetiver LP, Up On High, which has been released in the UK by the Loose Music imprint (in the US, it’s out via Mama Bird). Writes the site, “Whereas previous albums have been in comparison uneven, ‘Up On High’ delivers consistency. And, happily, it is a consistency of very high quality […]
KUTX Posts Devendra Banhart Performance
We told you recently about Devendra Banhart‘s live performance on Austin’s KUTX. Now the station has uploaded video from the whole set to their website. The archived version is longer and more involved than the broadcast one, so be sure to check it out even if you heard it on the air. Enjoy the performance, […]
Picking Up Rocks Compares Alex Bloom To Alice In Chains and Local H
Picking Up Rocks has a stream of Alex Bloom‘s “Cigarette,” which the site describes as “an absolutely insidious earworm that had it existed in 1995 would have played in a non-stop loop on MTV. It sounds like the wayward child of Alice in Chains’ ‘Heaven Beside You’ and Local H’s ‘Bound For The Floor’ and […]
