Everything below this section was written during the lost year, 2020, when Phantogram released Ceremony. At some point in the weeks after moving to Texas, I sat down and wrote about Phantogram’s 4th album. But as went that year, time slipped and before I knew it, 2021 had arrived and passed me by. Enter 2022….
I’m absolutely shocked. Purity Ring has been around since 2010, and their debut LP Shrines since 2012. That was a decade ago! The electronic duo originally out of Edmonton, Alberta consists of vocalist Megan James and multi-instrumentalist and producer Corin Roddick. I missed out on their 2015 LP Another Eternity when it hit, and it…
Michael Nau has recorded and released music under a few different names throughout his career, including his own. He came to my attention early on with the 2005 release of Hello, Dear Wind by Page France. A few years later, he would for Cotton Jones with Whitney McGraw Nau (though the Nau was not her…
I wasn’t sure I would do a best of list, but here I am, compiling it now. These are always a little tricky, as the moment I hit “Publish” something inevitably changes. It drives the perfectionist in me nuts. Alas, what can you do? I present to you my Best of 2021 list. Here are…
I pre-ordered Dope Lemon’s new LP Rose Pink Cadillac on Amazon a few months ago before too much was available about the release. At the time, frontman Angus Stone had given us a track or two, and hype was just starting to form. Well, Rose Pink Cadillac arrived this week, and I was pleasantly surprised…
I spent more time dropping the needle in 2021 than ever before. In fact, I tracked it! I played close to 1,500 records last year, counting records played once or over a dozen times. Rather than doing a year-end “best of” list, which is highly subjective and tends to change the day after hitting Publish,…
Haunts was German Error Message’s first full-length release if you go by Discogs catalog, though a peek onto the German Error Message bandcamp page will show you a world a music dating back to 2008. This album was originally released in 2014 on a limited edition cassette. Paul Kintzing, the solo artist behind German Error…
For the vast majority who have followed Gen X, and likely many within that generation as well, Robbie Basho would have faded into obscurity were it not for a handful of reissues within the past decade. I stumbled upon his name when Visions of the Country was reissued in 2013 by Gnome Life Records. In…
I remember when Wye Oak came on the scene back in 2008 with their album If Children. They followed it almost immediately with The Knot in 2009, then Civilian two years later. Hard to believe the last is now receiving its 10th Anniversary Reissue on Merge Records. Civilian has, for many fans, been the pinnacle…
This week, Damien Jurado gave us the second track from his forthcoming LP The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania. The new track is called “Tom” and like the previously released “Helena” and every other track on the new record, it tells an imagined story of a person crafted by Jurado. And like past music by Damien…
