I posted a best songs list for the first half of 2011 back in July (here). Rather than replicate that list for my full year review, consider this the addendum — the best songs from the second half of the year. When My Time Comes, Barnstar! (from the self-released C’Mon!) I somehow missed this song […]
Mason Jennings – Minnesota
Mason Jennings’ latest effort, Minnesota, is a lyrical romp with Jennings’ characteristic musical hooks that teeter on the edge of sappy but that work for him. Every song on Minnesota is worth the listen. The multi-instrumental Jennings opens with the subdued piano-based ballad “Bitter Heart” followed immediately with “Raindrops on the Kitchen Floor,” a retro […]
Q & A – Maps & Atlases
Chicago-based four-piece Maps & Atlases aren’t a math-rock band. O.K., good, we’ve got that out of the way now. Sure, there are some rather math-y elements to the band’s indie-folk informed sound, but not to the extent where those intricacies define their overall sonic contributions in the way that many would have one believe. While […]
Nick 13
By now, surely it’s no secret that country and punk go together about as good as peanut butter and chocolate. And typically, when these two classic American forms of music are welded together, the result seems to resemble a harder, thrashing product. Of course, the overall ethos attached to artists that practice either style in […]
Readers’ Pick: My Morning Jacket, “Circuitalâ€
READERS PICK: MAY 2011 Twangville readers picked My Morning Jacket‘s Circuital as their favorite album of May 2011. If there’s anyone out there redefining classic rock it’s Jim James and My Morning Jacket. Circuital the band’s sixth LP takes me back to 70’s era Pink Floyd where sound was used to paint vivid pictures of […]
Suzanna Choffel – Steady Eye Shaky Bow
As the old Monty Python line goes, “and now for something completely different.” Â A few weeks ago I happened to catch Suzanna Choffel at Old Settlers Music Festival. Â She was playing to an Austin crowd that knew her and my notes say something to the effect of “country meets jazz”. Â Fast forward to last week […]
Sarah Jarosz – Follow Me Down
Covering the likes of Radiohead and Edgar Allen Poe in addition to her own superb songwriting, the single word to describe the latest effort from Sarah Jarosz would have to be “diversity”. Â With a supporting cast of Americana and pop stars seemingly unavailable to any other musician under 70 years of age (Sarah was 19 […]
MilkDrive – Road From Home
Being able to pigeonhole a band’s sound is useful to a music reviewer. Â It lets you describe them quickly before a blog reader clic…. Â But for those of you still with me, MilkDrive, and their latest album, Road From Home, spans not just 3-4 genres of music, but 3-4 eras of music. The first cut, […]
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues
Let’s get this much out of the way: Everyone’s right about the new Fleet Foxes album, Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop). It’s astonishing. Sorry. It’s a safe bet that many out there were hoping the gentle, bearded, harmonizing folkies form the Northwest would fall flat on their nature loving faces. But, alas, they stand triumphantly, even […]
Bobby Long – A Winter Tale
English Folkster Bobby Long, the man with a name that (to me, at least) recalls more baseball and apple pie than London Bridge and Boddington’s, is back with an album that, at first blush, seems like a relatively stright-forward folk record, A Winter Tale. Sure, the album’s title has a certain Stratford-on-Avon feel to it, […]