As you may well know, an interesting band name will get me every time. Hiss Golden Messenger avoided my attention for a long time because I have difficulty reading, but it’s now in the running for my album of 2014 with their stellar album, The …
Joe Pug – Downbound Train –
The next time one of your friends tries to tell you “they just don’t make music like they used to” you shut them up with this song right here. Joe Pug is a songwriter and brilliant performer. This song is dripping with emotion. …
Brennan Stoelb–Great Lakes and Great Deserts
I am a firm believer that location can have an incredible influence on an artist’s music. The places you go, the places you have been impact you, inspire you. Knowing a diverse range of lands and lifestyles changes things. Brennan Stoelb has lived …
Hiss Golden Messenger – Drum
Looking forward to talking more about this album next week, but here’s a little sample of what’s to come with Hiss Golden Messenger and the last track on the album The Lateness of Dancers. It’s a phenomenal singer-songwriter album and one poised to make …
The Tins–a brotherhood of sound
The things which come out of Buffalo, New York tend to either be really great (i.e.buffalo wings) or really awful (i.e. crime, segregation, weather). The Tins are of the former variety. When I was a punk teenager deep in the upstate NY metal …
Five (more) singer songwriters you need to hear in 2014
We get submissions from every possible genre from every nearly every continent on the planet. So in order to bring you (beloved reader) the best of the best we have to have discerning ears. These singer songwriters are some of the best we’ve …
We Were Astronauts – Artificial Light – Thoughtful mix of rock and pop
At some point in just about everyone’s childhood, there was a deep longing to be a professional astronaut. How many telescopes were sold under this youthful fantasy? Then one day, reality reared its all too responsible head and with its presence, killed your …
Five Folk Music Bands Rising in 2014
Folk is pretty much what we do around here. Sure we love a good singer songwriter as much as the next craft-beer-swilling millenial, but give us some jangly folk and an ironic novel you’ve probably never heard of – and – well, we’re …
Elephant Stone – The Three Poisons – Experimental and disciplined international rock music
There are more than a few things about Elephant Stone that are unexpected. First, the band is an American sounding psychedelic rock band with heavy pop leanings. When I first listened to them I was instantly transported to the beaches of California with …
Artist Interview: Alex Hwang of Run River North
One of the more beautiful things about northeast Ohio –especially in the Fall- is how many great bands come through. On any given night you can experience live music in a number of great venues often leading to intimate shows where the audience …
