Reader, are you crushing it? If you gave a half-hearted “woot” from your chair, I’m guessing you’re not crushing it right now. I’ll offer my case as an example. For the past week some virus has left me feverish like a baby, aching like an old man, and dripping snot like a leaky hose. Apologies […]
The Screaming Eagle of Soul has landed — Charles Bradley is back! This man sings with such total commitment, and his backing group the Menahan Street Band executes with such creativity and finesse, that the decades since the template for this style of soul music was first laid down seem to wash away when these […]
Friends, I’m bewitched by the enchanting new single from Your Friend, the recording project of Taryn Miller. Atop a primitive rhythmic chug, “Come Back From It” weaves a buoyant, ethereal soundscape out of gentle electric guitar and textural electronics: bedroom laptronica executed with skill and purpose. I haven’t figured out what Miller is singing about […]
We heard rumors, saw Instagram photos of recording sessions, and now it has been confirmed: after four years of nuthin’, Black Mountain is back! “Mothers of the Sun,” the fearsome, epic new single from their forthcoming album IV, suggests the wait was worth it. It’s also accompanied by one hell of a video — flat-out […]
From Lexington, Kentucky, pianist James Friley dishes up some curious, engaging songwriting this week under the alias Idiot Glee. Case in point is “Evergreen Psycho,” a tune that echoes the heartfelt balladry of soft-rock songwriters from the early 70s but is discernably a little off. Maybe it’s Friley’s voice, a plummy baritone that’s more earnest […]
Exciting grooves for discerning wallflowers arrive this week courtesy of Pillar Point, the electronic project of Seattle-based musician Scott Reitherman. “Dove” shows his savvy crossing the borders of of dance and rock, transforming a smart, pithy composition with the sublime throb and delectable melancholy of deep house. Reitherman’s bona fides as songwriter and bandleader come […]
Enough with the 2015 hangover — the new year means new music! And January brings a doozy with a tremendous album by Tindersticks, a British group revered for over two decades. It’s telling they would sneak out their new record in the new year, the easier to be overlooked come end-of-year list season, since Tindersticks’ […]
Here’s Leonard’s favorites from the year! You can check out all our Best of 2015 lists here. 1. Shilpa Ray – Last Year’s Savage Enough already, world – bow down to the power and greatness of Shilpa Ray! Her style is rooted in a bygone born-to-lose era of rock (see “Johnny Thunders Fantasy Space Camp”), but […]
Hey look, another Joy Division re-make! We here at Sound It Out are of the age that we’re probably generationally predisposed to Joy Division covers (for instance, reviewing Sailor & I’s cover of “Disorder” last May), but this one by the band Sannhet strikes our interest more for what it signals in contemporary metal. On […]
No point in denying it: fall is in full swing in the northeast. Leaves are dropping at a quick pace, those perennial jokes about Mr. Autumn Man and decorative gourd season are growing stale again, and the draft sneaking through unsuspecting windows brings notice of the chill to come. Of course, some people enjoy this […]