album reviews
Kevin Morby (Woods, the Babies) Talks Mark McGuire’s Along the Way
There is a landscape in my mind that is passing me by. I am usually looking at it from the inside of a moving car, although sometimes I'm in the...
Nathan Michel (Hospitality) Talks Eric Church’s The Outsiders
I know very little about Eric Church, or country music, for that matter. I decided to write about Church's new record because I thought my....
Aaron Beam (Red Fang) Talks Neil Finn’s Dizzy Heights
Most people will be familiar with Neil Finn through his work in the '80s with Crowded House. A few years after their release, I began to appreciate...
Kathy Valentine (the Bluebonnets, the Go-Go’s) Talks Guided by Voices’ Motivational Jumpsuit
Taking into account the nearly 30 Guided by Voices records and his equally extensive solo work, one can safely assume that Robert Pollard has...
Zachary Lipez (Freshkills, Publicist UK) Talks PYPY’s Pagan Days
I had to stop thinking about garage-rock for a spell; the sunglasses and shorts were bringing me down. As someone who has been reviewed poorly and...
David Harrington (Kronos Quartet) Talks Tinariwen’s Emmaar
It was Jim Thirlwell who first introduced me to the fact that deserts sing. Each dune has its own sound. Shifting sands create distinctive...
Alex Skolnick (Testament) Talks Dianne Reeves Beautiful Life
Dianne Reeves is the type of artist I wasn’t supposed to be a fan of: a modern-day chanteuse who encapsulated the dignity, virtuosity and....
David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) Talks Sun Kil Moon’s Benji
This record moves me deeply. So does the previous Sun Kil Moon record, 2012's Among the Leaves, and the two records under Mark Kozelek's..
Geoff Rickly (Thursday, UN, Ink & Dagger) Talks Nils Frahm’s Spaces
There are moments in life when the traffic clears and the streets quiet and the ten thousand things fall away from us. Life comes briefly into focus.
Ethan Iverson (the Bad Plus) Talks Marc-André Hamelin’s Busoni: Late Piano Music
Some composers are more about other music than others. Perhaps no one was about other music more than Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), the virtuosic...
Anthony Anzaldo (Ceremony) Talks VNV Nation’s Transnational
While I would love to say that I became aware of the pioneering industrial group VNV Nation through following the Wax Trax! discography from the...
David Hartley (the War on Drugs) Talks Xiu Xiu’s Angel Guts: Red Classroom
I'm not your typical Xiu Xiu listener — my musical tastes skew towards artists that can temporarily quell my simmering anxiety rather than dredge...











