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Roots of Confusion Seeds of Joy is here, and just in time for everyone! As one of the practitioners of an increasingly rare form of musical alchemy, Major Stars have proven to be an antidote to all sorts of real-world trauma. Put on an album of theirs, and you're bound to be catapulted into a world of rock-based abstraction, diffraction, and finally, sweet distraction.

Playing material arranged for a sextet fronted by a trio of guitars, Major Stars have developed a habit of rehearsing... (read more)

There's breakup records. There's apocalypse records. Then there's the Purple Mountains  record! This new musical expression from David Berman is his most to-the-bone yet, very frankly confessing to a near-total collapse from the word go, before delving into the sorry subtext with twin lasers of personal laceration and the saving grace of a professional songwriter's natural remove. Our unofficial Gen X poet laureate has written a collection of songs that cries to be understood in the misbegotten country that made everything great about... (read more)

It's no wonder Soho Theater booked a long string of gigs for Neil Hamburger this month - laughter is always the best medicine, and given the will-they-won't-they state of things in Great Britain, London-types must be in need of a salve! But let's get serious - all jokes have some semblance of truth to them, and in case you missed it in the previous sentence, the important thing to notice is that Neil Hamburger is playing two back-to-back residencies at Soho Theater in London this... (read more)

"What Comes After Certainty" - that's what the whole Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest album is about. But what comes after "What Comes After Certainty"? On this album, that would be Side 3 - the traditional side in pop-rock lore in which an album may attempt to reach its farthest-out point,  a dizzying apex of music and meanings where the thinness of penultimate air produces a sense of abstraction in the ear of the traveler.  
 
That said, we know that Bill... (read more)

Crack open those whip-its and give 'em a deep pull, Dead Rider are hot on the trail once again! Chicago's weirdest, wildest and whacked out band are bringing it all back home again baby with freshly announced tour dates dotted across the US of A. Wafting through the room is the gloss and shine of shattered rhythm and blues, whether it's the swelling of bareback drones, surreal organ chords or the deft tailing of guitar lines designed to shock the body into attention or, even... (read more)

"Our salivating makes it all taste worse," croons Ty Segall in "Taste", the lead single from his forthcoming album, First Taste, due August 2nd. He's talking about us: how we're the masters of our own destiny, tellers of our own prophecy, makers of our own sickened choices. It's a warning, but this time, the finger is pointing back at him too. He's one with us. First Taste is an introspective set for Segall after the extroversions of 2018's Freedom's Goblin. Lines of... (read more)

As on Side 1, the mics open up into the moment preceding the music, letting our ears wander into the room seconds before the song starts. The light that was dappling on "Morning Is My Godmother" is seen from higher up at the top of the flip, as Bill gives us an airplane song in the grand tradition of Lightfoot and Denver, Chuck Berry and Steve Miller. "747" slips easily into cruising altitude, a staunch full band collaboration, while Bill wanders absently... (read more)

Does Wand ever take a break? Releasing four full length albums and one extended play in just four short years while touring North America and Europe during any downtime, they're tireless in laying the groundwork for a vital rock n roll future. Wand are proof you don't have to be an industry toy to sell records - that, with devotion and time, the seeds you plant with intention and care will grow back into the world. Fresh off announcing their addition to select Stereolab dates... (read more)

Circuit des Yeux recently dropped a special, out-of-the-indigo live LP n' DVD, Reaching For Indigo: Gaia Infinitus, and if you haven't grabbed your copy yet, you're flirting with disaster! What's more, prime Circuit Haley Fohr just wrapped up a scorching three day stint in the UK, performing solo in London to an ecstatic audience before unleashing her live score to the film Salomé upon expectant audiences in Brighton and Norwich. If you missed out on that particular heat, too, rest assured the gas... (read more)

Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl, a.k.a Faun Fables - are hitting the road again. It's family-style of course, with Edda, Ura and Gudrin along for the ride, taking in the world with the childlike wonder that is their way (because they are children) - and a nanny/driver/merch person rounding out the crew, no doubt! Faun Fables do everything in the name of home and family, including leave home for the Pacific Northwest, as they have already done even as we speak! It all begins... (read more)