JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound Beat of Our Own Drum www.myspace.com/theuptownsound JC Brooks comes from Chicago, but recently played at the Yacht Club, and from all reports, burned the joint down. I wasn’t able to make it out to that show, but this CD gives me a strong idea of the sort of fireworks […]
Local album reviews
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Soul on Display | Bonne Finken
Bonne Finken Soul on Display www.bonnefinken.com It takes some gut for a white girl from Knoxville, Iowa, to use “Soul” in her debut CD’s title. But Finken can, as they say in the parlance, bring it. She has a voice and delivery with the buttery depth of Annie Lennox, the effortless blues edge of Bonnie […]
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CD Review: She Swings She Sways – Wasted Love Songs
She Swings She Sways Wasted Love Songs www.sheswingsshesways.com A common sophomoric “insight” into music is that we only have 12 notes, and that this imposes some upper limit on the possibility of musical expression. It’s not like it’s hard to demolish this idea with combinatorial mathematics, but both the argument and refutation are beside the […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Unknown Component – In Direct Communication CD Review
Unknown Component In Direct Communication Self Released [audio:unknown_component_its_a_fine_line.mp3] Unknown Component – Its a Fine Line (mp3) Keith Lynch is a local singer-songwriter that has never done things the usual way, starting with his chosen stage name Unknown Component, which suggests an electronica act, or a band at least, but it’s just Keith, his guitars, and […]
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Mint Wad Willy – A History of Guns and Liars CD Review
Mint Wad Willy A History of Guns and Liars Self Released [audio:mint_wad_willy_god_bless_america.mp3] Mint Wad Willy – God Bless America (mp3) Mint Wad Willy’s debut album “A History of Guns and Liars” definitely has a Southern Rock vibe to it. The dominant instrumental sound is artfully sloppy, distorted slide guitar. When I first listened to it, […]
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Escape the Floodwater Jug Band – Wrong Doings and Done Wrongs CD Review
Escape the Floodwater Jug Band Wrong Doings and Done Wrongs Whiskey for Breakfast Records [audio:Escape the Floodwater – Rag Mama.mp3] Escape the Floodwater – Rag Mama (mp3) It’s perhaps apt that Escape the Floodwater Jug Band’s new album comes out just in time for the great flood of 2008. The band photo on the back […]
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The Horde – From Empire to Ashes CD Review
The Horde From Empire To Ashes Scenester Credentials [audio:The Horde – Battle Cry.mp3] The Horde – Battle Cry (mp3) Heavy Metal long ago descended irrevocably into self-parody. It’s a genre that for me has always been hard to love, and yet impossible not to love a little. Especially if the band is in on the […]
