The town of Marfa was established in Southwest Texas, in the late eighteen-hundreds, because steam-engine locomotives needed a place to stop in their journey and replenish their water supply. A century and half later, the community endures. With a population … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Marfa Tapes
The new album from the Danish band Iceage finds them on a sonic journey that used to be fairly commonplace. Among the titans of college rock who ruled the left end of the dial through the nineteen-eighties, there are a … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Seek Shelter
Like a Stone, the new album from the Philadelphia band Remember Sports, gave me a beloved sensation that is all too rare for me now. It took me back to my college radio days — both iterations — when a band … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Like a Stone
I want to write about Julien Baker’s new album, Little Oblivions, without bringing up the singer-songwriter’s bandmates in boygenius. It’s so hard, though. Just like her cohorts, Baker spun away from that indie dream group with a readiness to expand … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Little Oblivions
The world shutting down brought out the productivity in Cloud Nothings. The Cleveland band have never been especially slack when it comes to recording new music. In the twelve years they’ve been banging out tuneful noise, they’ve only let more … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — The Shadow I Remember
Ignorance, the fifth and latest album from the Weather Station, is luxuriant and enveloping. Chiefly the handiwork of Tamara Lindeman, the album melds together tried-and-true folk rock with oblique pop trappings and splinters of jazz to create songs that sound … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Ignorance
The members of Big Thief have apparently forged a secret pact a couple years ago, agreeing that not too much time would ever pass without at least one of them putting new music out into the universe. They notably delivered … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Two Saviors
When I write about music, I rely on comparisons. After learning the mnemonic device that asserted that all well-behaved youths of the male persuasion merited a reward of a chocolatey dessert, every other bit of musical instruction that brave souls … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Live Forever
Blue Hearts, the new album from Bob Mould, opens with something of a fake out. “Heart on My Sleeve” is Mould with little more than his acoustic guitar, strumming a muscular but lean melody as he sings out a weary … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Blue Hearts
According to Lianne La Havas, she started writing songs for her latest album shortly after a breakup. That makes sense, because soul music is practically made for heartache. Or seduction, but the heartache brings out a sharper tang. The resulting … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Lianne La Havas
Coffee for Two 