J. Roddy Walston is no stranger to superlatives. Called everything from a “genius” to “a baby of the gospel and blues”, the Maryland-by-way-of-Chattanooga rocker and his band The Business has transformed themselves from Southern rockers to one of the biggest fixtures on the Maryland scene. After several years performing on the road and selling CDs out of their own van (a rock n’ roll trope is there ever is one), they had the good fortune of signing on to Vagrant Records earlier this year. Their self-titled album is available online …
For many Los Angeles residents, Los Angeles International Airport is a towering monument of steel and concrete. A white, modernist structure rising out of the ground, its four lengthy runways and iconic landmarks are visible even in the hazy, orange streetlights that pierce the metropolis’s darkness every night. Those lucky to be grabbing a quick lunch or dinner at the nearby In-and-Out fast food joint in Westchester- one of the few local spots directly underneath the airport’s flight path- may have the distinct pleasure of catching sight of one of …
Just Kids
Patti Smith
HarperCollins Publishers
9/10
New York City, summer, 1969. A hot, sweltering mess full of sweat and musk and bodies colliding against each other, a heady metropolis with a milieu to match. Yet even as the millions of artists and businessmen and intellectuals went on with their lives, history was already unfolding in front of them. In St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, not far from Carnegie Hall, jazz legend John Coltrane was being eulogized. A little further up the street, Andy Warhol had just been shot by model and protégé Valerie Solanas, …
Somerville, Massachusetts is a quaint little town. Known more for Sanborn maps and Fluff marshmallows, the blue collar city doesn’t exactly scream hip. There are more taverns per square mile than coffeehouses- and everyone has their favorite. Redbones, the Independent, Highland Kitchen.
So it’s no surprise that gossip- morning or otherwise- is more likely to transpire over a cold one than a piping hot cappuccino. But there is another side to Somerville than Little League games, body shops, and Bud Light. Enter Papercuts.
Although it’s the most recent resident to call …
Sara Jackson Holman
When You Dream
Expunged Records
8/10
As all things musical go, Sara Jackson Holman is an infant. No, not literally. But considering that the poet-musician’s career literally sprung out of nowhere thanks to luck and the good folks at Expunged Records (to say little of MySpace!), it’s an serendipitous one. Despite Holman’s stroke of luck, her music is anything but a flash in the pan. With a mixture of classical piano, playful lyrics, and a soulful voice reminiscent of KT Tunstall or early Norah Jones, Holman has managed to craft a …
Blind Pilot
Self-titled (EP)
Expunged Records
9/10
The boys from Portland are back at it again. Fresh off a nationwide tour, the duo of Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski have cut a five single EP, titled naturally enough, Blind Pilot and…it is awesome. Not slang-word awesome, or generically awesome, but truly powerful. Featuring the usual blend of staccato drums and soulful lyrics; at first glance it’s par for the course for the band. But par for the course for these guys is very different from your everyday, mellow Pacific Northwest troubadours, and it shows …
Well, it’s that time of the year again. A moment when everybody crowds around at the local bar, sloshes themselves with their favorite dark pint, and watches their favorite dribblers slam dunk their way into sports history. But the Big Dance isn’t the only game in town this March. The next 31 odd days will see people crawling, clubbing and various other things. So if you’re tired of seeing Duke and Carolina square off with each other on national television for the millionth time, here are …
Ryan States
Strange Town
Drooling Class Records
7/10
From Roman ruins to decrepit garages, artists of various stripes have found inspiration in some of the unlikeliest of places. But a train? That’s where the muse came to Ryan States. During a years-long tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus Band, States has logged many hours performing for hundreds. But you won’t find a trace of polka on Strange Town. The mixture of earnest piano, jazzy guitar and insightful lyrics is as far from the circus as one can get. The result is an album that …
Hotpress for Leopold
Self Titled
Grove Addicts
8/10
Think classical and rock don’t mix? How about classical, rock, orchestras, and xylophones? Got your attention? Good. Because Hotpress for Leopold has all that…and more. Formed by a composer named Omar after a happy accident left him with a huge budget and lots of time on his hands, the band is essentially a misfit orchestra of brass, string, and that ever present xylophone lurking in the background. The result is debut album that isn’t so serious so much as it …
Lela Lee is an internet success story. Actually, make that success story, period. In the space of sixteen years, the cartoonist, actress (She’s appeared on Scrubs numerous times), and Los Angeles native has gone from relative unknown to one of the most recognized individuals in California’s Asian-American community. Her strip Angry Little Asian Girls has become an internet sensation in itself, and made characters such as the angry Kim, soul-sistah Wanda, and depressive Xyla recognizable figures in their own right.
Not bad for a child of immigrants from Korea. …
Old Canes
Feral Harmonic
Second Nature Recordings
7/10
The first thing when one things of Kansas is…well, Kansas. But there’s more to the Sunflower State than prog rock and wheat fields. Witness the quartet of Christopher Crisci, Nathan Richardson, Jordan Geiger and Aaron Croker, better known as the Old Canes. Though they’ve been playing on and off for years, the acoustic folk band has been making inroads since 2004’s Early Morning Hymns. Since then, several Old Cane singles have shown up on YouTube and Pandora, making them just the latest …
Movits!
Appelknyckarjazz
The Syndicate
8/10
Think Sweden, and you may think meatballs, or lutefisk. Not hip-hop. Well, unless you count the Movits!. The trio of the brothers Rensfeldt and friend Joakim Nilson have been burning out the charts in their native Scandinavia for quite a while now—two years, to be exact. Despite the language barrier—they sing mostly in Swedish—their unique mix of big band and hip-hop scored big US, thanks in no small part to a little talk show host by the name of Stephen Colbert.
Since their debut appearance on …
Rich Smedley is a riddle wrapped in a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. The notoriously inaccessible artist has no website of his own, nor does he have a presence on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Yet despite his relative anonymity, he has become a fixture among the online community of gun girl fetishists. His Flickr page has been profiled by Girls with Guns as well as Alex In Wonderland.com (profiled here). His fan base numbers in the hundreds, perhaps thousands, and his artwork has spawned numerous imitators. …
It is the final frontier. 93 billion light years of stars, asteroids and planets spread across a limitless expanse- a beautiful and dangerous world fraught with collisions and violence and spectacle that is almost infinite. Ever since Aristotle gazed into the heavens and proposed his heliocentric theory of the universe, philosophers, scientists, artists and filmmakers have attempted to describe the twinkling objects and orbs they’ve seen in the night sky. Writers as diverse as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells have explored the mysteries of the night sky and dared to …
They walk among us- accountants, nurses, lawyers, teachers- mild mannered individuals by all accounts, with spouses, children, families, and friends. Few recognize them in the crush of anonymous folks in the crowd. They are our neighbors, our sisters, our brothers, our fathers. Everyman John and Jane Does, just doing the best they can.
By day they are just another nameless face. Come night, though, they take off their coats and jackets and blouses and skirts, and put on their capes and cowls, and become something else. Some call them misfits. Others …
Okay, so you’ve stocked the fridge with your favorite egg-nog/Kalua/wine/beer/depressant of choice, and bought presents for your parents, ex-girlfriend, and family dog, and made extra sure to make Paypal donation to Network for Good. What else is there for you to do to make up for all the naughty, naughty things you did the other 11 months of the year? Answer: A lot. And if you’re not careful your bid to get your karma fixed could end quicker than My Name is Earl. But don’t worry, …
