Album Review: Mavis Staples – We Get By (Anti-)
With her 80th birthday just two months away, Mavis Staples continues to make soulful, funky music with a very contemporary message.
Concert Review: Chrissie Hart – Back Beat May 11, 2019
She’s sung other people’s songs on cruise ships in the Caribbean and 5-star hotels in China, now Chrissie Hart sings her own songs at Auckland’s Back Beat Bar.
Album Review: Bad Religion – Age Of Unreason (Epitaph)
After a six year hiatus, Bad Religion is back with a new set of blistering, politically-charged songs.
Album Review: The Hip Priests – Stand for Nothing (Speedowax)
The Hip Priests have been making a racket for a little over a decade with their full-tilt, Scandi-driven rock n roll excess, but the last couple of years have seen them shift their focus away from all-drinking, all-drugging, all-shagging beasts into a singularly more political band, and it works for them.
Album Review: Delaney Davidson & Barry Saunders – Word Gets Around (Rough Diamond)
Delaney Davidson teams up with The Warratahs’ Barry Saunders for an album full of rollicking blues-based tunes.
Album Review: Field Medic – Fade Into The Dawn (Run For Cover)
Field Medic is the nom de plume of LA folkie Kevin Patrick, a new voice on the scene that deserves to be heard.
Album Review: The Rolling Stones – Honk (Polydor/Rolling Stones)
If you don’t have them already, now’s your chance…the best of The Rolling Stones from 1971 onward.
Album Review: Aldous Harding – Designer (Flying Nun)
Its album number three from Aldous Harding. What has she got in store for us this time?
Album Review: Glen Hansard – This Wild Willing (Anti-)
The man behind The Frames and The Swell Season delivers, what turns out to be, a “difficult” fourth solo album.
Album Review: John Paul White – The Hurting Kind (Single Lock)
You probably know John Paul White as one half of late, lamented The Civil Wars. But, with the release of his third solo album, you should reacquaint yourself with this fine singer-songwriter.
Album Review: Norah Jones – Begin Again (Blue Note)
Seventeen years after her breakthrough debut album, Come Away With Me, Norah Jones still seems intent on distancing herself from the sound that made her a household name.
Album Review: Seafog – Animal Lovers (Zelle)
Port Chalmers noisemakers Seafog’s third album is epic in both sound and size.
Album Review: Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising (Sub Pop)
The fourth album by Natalie Mering finds the indie songstress revelling in the lush sounds of the early 1970s.
Album Review: Stephen Malkmus – Groove Denied (Matador)
Malkmus fans came close to being denied Groove Denied, but finally his record label relented and has allowed the little beast to wander out on its own.
Album Review: Strand Of Oaks – Eraserland (Dead Oceans)
Strand Of Oaks’ Timothy Showalter teams up with the members of My Morning Jacket and the result is a stunning journey from the depths of despair to a new-found emotional high.
Album Review: Son Volt – Union (Transmit Sound/Thirty Tigers)
Jay Farrar channels the ghost of Woody Guthrie on this collection of politically-charged songs.
Album Review: Jenny Lewis – On The Line (Warner Bros)
With an all-star band and a controversial producer, Jenny Lewis makes the best album of her career.
Reissue Review: Flamin’ Groovies – Gonna Rock Tonite! (The Complete Recordings 1969-71) (Grapefruit/Cherry Red)
With the possible exception of Big Star, San Francisco’s Flamin’ Groovies have got to be the ultimate cult band.
Album Review: Over The Rhine – Love And Revelation (Great Speckled Dog)
One thing we all could use right now is a little Love And Revelation. Americana couple Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, aka Over The Rhine, show up with some just in time.