independent thoughts on alternative music
On your first listen of “Breathe,” the debut single from Nashville’s Vera Bloom, your ears may deceive you into thinking you know this artist. After all, there’s plenty of grunge influences to remind you of Nirvana or Veruca Salt, but tempered by a smoothness suggestive of Skating Polly. There’s also power vocals that kick into … Read more PREMIERE: “BREATHE” BY VERA BLOOM
Thanks to modern-day inventions like Valentine’s Day, the Hallmark channel, and Lifetime movies, we’ve been programmed to think there’s something wrong in our love lives if we’re aren’t always swooning, filled with butterflies, and brimming with lust. We forget that love is a choice and a lot of times, it ain’t pretty. Des Moines-based outfit … Read more VIDEO PREMIERE: “LOVER PLEASE” by THE MAYTAGS
Bass players seem to be the unsung heroes of every band, but there’s one outfit whose renowned bassist is always front and center, delivering his low-end grooves and inspiring crowds of all shapes and sizes, from Coachella to clubs, to let the power of the music wash over them completely. That band is cosmic funk … Read more PREVIEW: LETTUCE at MARATHON MUSIC WORKS on 1/25/19
Haw River Ballroom was recently treated to a double-billed funk invasion featuring Turkuaz and Lettuce—these vastly talented groups bring the promise of hard-hitting basslines, sizzling horns, and jazzy guitar riffs. The mixed crowd spanning a few decades in age came ready to dance in the venue tucked away in small Saxapahaw, North Carolina. Turkuaz opened … Read more LIVE SHOW REVIEW: TURKUAZ & LETTUCE
The moment you become enthralled with someone’s music and relegate yourself to fandom is a moment that is hard to forget—like a jolt of emotional lightning that surges through your being and creates intense joy, inspiring admiration and worship of an artist and his or her music. It’s not always easily explained, but it is … Read more Chris Cornell: July 20, 1964-May 17, 2017
“As a kid, music was hitting me really hard, and it caused me to go to an emotionally invested place. Songs were almost debilitating to me as a kid, I assumed it was the same for everyone else,” recalls alt-rocker Louis Schefano, who will release Opposite Side Of The World, his solo debut, on February … Read more AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with LOUIS SCHEFANO
On March 24th, 2016, Nashville-based rockers Future Thieves live-streamed their show at Blue Rock Studios in Wimberley, Texas; the adrenaline from performing at SXSW only a week earlier added extra fuel to the band’s fiery blend of melodic rock and turbocharged southern rockicana. Viewers were glued to their screens as Elliot Collett (lead vocals) and … Read more ALBUM REVIEW: “LIVE AT BLUE ROCK” by FUTURE THIEVES
Second-generation African from the Basque region of northern Spain Gutxi Bibang is an unlikely candidate to carry the rock n’ roll torch, but with his new single, “System Of A Gun” out via French indie label OSKAR Recordings, Bibang is not only carrying that torch, he’s brandishing it like a double-edged musical sword. His family emigrated to the … Read more “SYSTEM OF A GUN” – NEW MUSIC from GUTXI BIBANG
Louisville-based dreamy indie rock trio Twin Limb has recently hit the road with fellow Louisvillian music-maker Jim James, a tour that will bring them to the Ryman Auditorium to perform for the first time. “We’re opening for Jim, and then we’re playing in his band,” says Twin Limb’s Lacey Guthrie. “I never imagined I’d walk into … Read more PREVIEW: TWIN LIMB at THE RYMAN on 11/23/16
It’s that time of year again; the needles have all fallen off of the Christmas trees, wayward tinsel drifting like tumbleweeds down the path from the front door to the curb. The dreidels have stopped spinning, the itchy scarves have been regifted, and folks are finally in recovery from their food comas. While it’s customary to set … Read more THE EAST OF 8TH TOP 15 OF ’15: “Bros” – Wolf Alice