The Spiritualaires of Hurtsboro, Alabama, Singing Songs Of Praise
The lines between gospel and blues just got a heck of a lot blurrier.The lines between gospel and blues have always been blurry as heck (well, musically at least). And they just got a bit blurrier...
View ArticleElder Charles Beck & Other Artists, Elder Charles Beck (1946-1947)
The right church is more raucous than even the heaviest of rockers.It's 1956. Dwight Eisenhower is president, the Cold War is raging and Elvis Presley has revolutionized popular culture with "Blue...
View ArticleValet, Blood is Clean
A world of echo that is as weird as it is pretty.Honey Owens (aka Valet) waited some time to make her first solo album — a decade at the heart of Portland, OR's vibrant avant-rock community in the...
View ArticlehollAnd, Love Fluxus
Looking for an alternative to the Postal Service? We may have found just the thing.TeenBeat acts tend to make either chaotic eclectic-rock or restrained aesthete-pop. Firmly in the second batch are...
View ArticleLow, Christmas
Christmas music goes indie.Many artists — particularly those of the country, soul and pop persuasions — record at least one Christmas album in the course of their career. They're a sure-fire seller,...
View ArticleVarious Artists – Document Records, Preachers And Congregation Vol. 1...
This Rev. Sunday is not messing around one bit.This recorded sermon begins innocuously enough, with a bit of song. We hear the tail end of "Down by the Riverside," a piano-led small chorus sing a line...
View ArticleJohn Lee Hooker, Burnin’
Next time you throw a shindig, you could do a lot worse than these eleven songs.When John Lee Hooker made the transition from regional indies to the larger independent label Vee-Jay in the mid '50s, he...
View ArticleThe Staple Singers, Swing Low Sweet Chariot
The Staples' sepulchral yet bluesy sound was so original that their songs are instantly recognizable as theirs, and theirs alone.The Staple Singers 'second album consists of songs recorded in 1959 and...
View ArticleVarious Artists – Table Of The Elements, The Need for a Crossing: A New New...
The weird, wonderful world of New Zealand experimental music.The island nation New Zealand, located halfway 'round the world from the U.S., is renowned for its multitude of sheep, its strange and...
View ArticleThe Highway Q. C.’s, Jesus Is Waiting
Responsible for the careers of Johnnie Taylor, Sam Cooke and others, this quartet is one of the greatest gospel groups of all time.It's tough to wrap ones 'brain around the idea that "Somewhere to Lay...
View ArticleMoondog, Sax Pax For A Sax
A delightful addition to the visionary composer's catalog.Sax Pax is a delightful addition to the visionary composer's catalog. As you might expect, Moondog insistently bangs away on bass drum and...
View ArticleBlind Boys Of Alabama, Retrospective
Spirited late-era work from a legendary gospel group.The Blind Boys of Alabama were never the very best Golden Age-era a cappella gospel act. But they have always been master showmen — and to the...
View ArticleExtra Golden, Hera Ma Nono
Follow-up indie/Afropop collaboration turns melancholy.It's surprisingly tough to find musical collaborations between Western and African musicians that aren't stiff-sounding, no matter how...
View ArticleGinny Owens, If You Want Me To: The Best Of Ginny Owens
The best of this soulful CCM singer's oeuvre. So far.This collection of the sight-impaired singer-songwriter's greatest hits is a delightful introduction to her varied charms. I only hope that fans of...
View ArticleUnpublished Album with ID #11494591
A driven, baroque and nerdily innocent stunner from start to finishELO's second-best album, A New World Record, is a stunner from start to finish. It's no surprise that this was their first big hit:...
View ArticlePurling Hiss, Lounge Lizards
If you’re a devotee of New Choogle (contemporary blues-rock a la Endless Boogie), you might have first heard Philadelphia-based Mike Polizze in Birds of Maya. His own Purling Hiss began as a...
View ArticleThe Men, Leave Home
In the spirit of disorder, Brooklyn’s The Men (not the Le Tigre offshoot band MEN) titled their third album Leave Home, just like the Ramones record. It’s somewhat appropriate: their amped-up-n-loud...
View ArticleEternal Tapestry, Beyond the 4th Door
This Portland, Oregon, rock trio has been soundtracking imaginary Jodorowsky movies for years. Their debut for Thrill Jockey mines several decades of out-sound and manages to find new, groovy crevices...
View ArticleMikal Cronin, Mikal Cronin
A killer genre stylist's garage-pop-rock debutBy the time you get to the dueling flute solo during the hardcore coda in the lazy, harmony-saturated three-and-a-half minute “Is It Alright,” you’ll not...
View Article2011: Garage Rock Grows Up
Four years ago, I flew from Portland to New York to see my favorite band, New Zealand’s garage-pop trio the Clean, play three shows at a glorious pit called Cake Shop. The openers were Crystal Stilts,...
View ArticleInterview: The Relatives
The Relatives are a Dallas, Texas-based gospel funk act formed by brothers Gean and Tommie West in 1970, after Tommie had begun to write topical material in a gospel vein. Then in his mid 30s, Gean had...
View ArticleSufjan Stevens, Songs For Christmas
A holiday record that would win over the GrinchRecorded in annual batches since 2001 (although for some reason skipping 2004), Songs for Christmas stands as a monumental effort. Sufjan recorded much of...
View ArticleMavis Staples, We’ll Never Turn Back
A re-affirmation of the spirit of the civil rights movement by one of its major voices.Holy moley, We'll Never Turn Back is fabulous. A re-affirmation of the spirit of the civil rights movement of the...
View ArticleWavves, Wavves
A bedroom one-man band intent on updating noise-popWavves is the moniker of one Nathan Daniel Williams, a San Diego-based bedroom one-man-band intent on updating noise pop. He makes highly distorted...
View Article
