News

Does anyone remember the local bar scene? Sure, it was a lifetime ago (the longest lifetime: a year and counting...), but we still recall those unsung heroes of every local scene; musicians who put their blood, sweat and tears into trying to capture the blood, sweat and tears of somebody else's music. Sure, almost everybody starts off performing covers before eventually finding their own original voice, leaving behind the quiet triumph 'n tragedy of those who continue to try and draw custom via a spirited... (read more)

Upon first blush, Keys, the debut album from Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles, is a collection of guitar and banjo duets — but from the get-go, it also clear that their agreed-upon duo is also a living organism, growing ambitiously within itself as it plays. Diversity of song is matched by instrumentation: Bill’s guitar and Nathan’s banjo are joined over time by voice, piano, percussion, pump organ, electric organ and requinto, sketching, as they go, the richness and rusticity, traditionalism and open space of which... (read more)

In Glen Echo there are multitudes — all the moments in a life: the good time grooves, shifts in community, moments of loss and generosity that you know you will carry forever, the dark recesses late at night that echo with wonder. You name it, AZITA’s got some hot and sour theme music for it!

AZITA is equal parts droll and dire; her dispassionate view of fates and outcomes for all of us here together on the planet is textured with unique, cinematic details and... (read more)

Waiting placidly for end of days, a rictus grin flashing winningly as he summons strength for the already-in-progress epic clash, Cory Hanson delivers a new music video for Pale Horse Rider.
 

The third single/title track from the forthcoming album ascends to climactic heights (both within itself and in the context of the larger record coming into view) via majestic country gospel-inflections and ambient steel guitar, swelling to a repeated chorus radiating with cries of catharsis from our Cory... (read more)

Where once was Superwolf, now roam Superwolves, the new album and demon spawn of Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, out digitally April 30th on Drag City and available physically on June 18th. Today marks the arrival of their new single “Hall of Death,” which follows “Make Worry For Me.” Sweeney and Will Oldham (aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) wrote “Hall Of Death” with visionary Tuareg guitarist and producer Ahmoudou Madassane. The song features Oldham and Sweeney in their traditional respective... (read more)

I Stand Corrected is the debut of a new talent AND a new label, Country Thyme. When a label's formed to release a record, you'll usually hear something crucial upon dropping the needle: in this instance, the sounds of an honest-to-god, old-school song cycle in best riches-to-rags style. Classically uneasy, this claustrophobic journey rises and falls on the songs of E.R. Jurken and his spectral tenor, haunted via multiple overdubs, making heart stopping orchestral pop with the orchestra mostly muted.

I Stand Corrected took some... (read more)

Keys, the debut album from Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles is, from the get-go, music that grows as it goes, a living organism, determined to be more than a simple collection of guitar and banjo duets.

Bill and Nathan met a few years ago, but after the first night they hung out, it felt as if they’d known each other for awhile already. A year later, they were booked to play as a duo at Cropped Out. They'd sent provisional ideas, thoughts and music... (read more)

Broken nation time! Dark skies over our days, an increased reliance on black-market products. Wanna buy some 5-year old sunshine? With 2020 hindsight, it’s looking pretty good. Now you can treasure yours forever, with a special 10" release!

Smash-cut to 2015. Ty Segall and Cory Hanson with guitars on their chests, stretching songwriting muscles and finding, to their delight, new possibilities at every run up the neck – a new normal every second. This means trading vocal parts mid-song, then trading back again, modulating madly through... (read more)

An electrical tension enters the room – a guitar, left to its own devices, surfing the breeze. Breaking in the air, smiling from ear to ear. And so! The Peacers are back with their third album.

Three years since they went about their sophomore affect, Introducing the Crimsmen – and the time has been kind. You know how it is in these important years, everything changing. Lots goes down, lots to go back through later. The second The Peacers record was made by the second The Peacers... (read more)

2021, and the voices that nobody thought to ask for — New Bums, that's who — are echoing once again from another rented return deep in their nocturnal urban jungle, where all the folly and failure in the world is like an elegant fever dream you want to have every night, and do. Why now? Why them? Why not? Besides, New Bums — Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny and Skygreen Leopards' Donovan Quinn — have a new album coming, and "Tuned to Graffiti" is... (read more)