NEW ALBUM! Tommy Keene

 
Although far from a household name, Tommy Keene has been around for a long time and has a strong following in power-pop circles. He’s never had a hit record per se, but those who are knowledgeable about the indie and melodic rock scene are very familiar with the singer-singwriter’s catalogue; he’s been a critical favorite [...]

NEW ALBUM! Glen Tilbrook and the Fluffers

It’s been almost five years since the release of Glen Tilbrook released Transatlantic Ping Pong, which is about four more years than I like to wait for Tilbrook to drop an album. His new effort with The Fluffers is good but not great…but the parts I like are getting better with repeated listens.
Read my review [...]

Tributes

I got a couple of emails from readers of yesterday’s post who were loving the Beatles cover comp and asking about tributes, since I’m on record as an obsessive fan of such efforts. On more than one occasion I’ve made my mixtape entry a covers collection (even pilfering a Replacements track title - I’LL BE YOU [...]

COMPliments

I just got through another round of mixtape exchanges recently; this one (SOTT a/k/a Son Of Tape Tree) started out as a quarterly cassette swap years ago, but has recently been more of a semi-annual affair. Might have been fifteen or twenty people the first time around, this latest run was thirty-five…I think there are only [...]

Under The Radar: Thee Fine Lines

 
Led by the bespectacled Kearbey brothers, Thee Fine Lines‘ sophomore effort is…well…sophomoric in the best sense of the word. Drawing from the well of both The Kinks (the hooks on the poppier songs) and The Kingsmen (the overall sound), the fourteen tracks are in and out quicker than a high school lover. Ten of them [...]

NEW ALBUM! The Coolest Songs In The World, Volume 8

Little Steven’s Underground Garage is in full swing, and along with the well-selected bands he has chosen to sign to his label, I always look forward to the “coolest songs” collections that are frequently issued. How great is it to get a quarterly mixtape from one of the most knowledgeable music fans on the planet? [...]

Blast From The Past: Roger C. Reale

Everybody has an album that sits atop their list of “records that need to be on CD”. Mine is Radioactive by Roger C. Reale and Rue Morgue. One of the great perks of working in a record store was the ability to crack open an interesting looking record and see what it was all about. [...]

TV or not TV? That’s always the question…

I don’t really have that much time to watch television, nor have there been many recent shows that have me glued to the screen. And that’s probably a good thing. People (especially here in America) spend far too much time sitting in a chair mesmerized by the Idiot Box. The networks have increasingly offered to [...]

Stand Up Wit… Matt Davis

 
This debut CD from Matt Davis is a little different than what most people expect from a comedy album. Rather than competently sailing through a highly polished routine, Davis quickly realizes that a good portion of the Myrtle Beach audience must have started drinking heavily at happy hour, if not way earlier. (Loud cackling woman, you know [...]

NEW ALBUM! Smithereens: Tommy

I must preface the comments about the latest Smithereens homage by telling you that no, they haven’t abandoned the concept of original music. Matter of fact, there’s a new studio album due out later this year and reportedly the band is rehearsing the twelve tracks as I type this. (Really – call them and ask!).
But [...]