by Mark Saleski Firstly, credit must be tossed in the direction of my former guitar teacher. Jerry Adams turned me on to piles of great jazz (and loaned me actual LPs). Jerry’s favorite guitarist was Jim Hall. I’m not sure I’d use the word “obsessive,” though Jerry did relate aRead More

by Mark Saleski Good gawd, the man is a veritable Fort Knox of ideas. From barroom stompers to pensive ballads to clattering percussion to spoken word oddities. Waits reciting Bukowski? Yes, please! Waits is the weird uncle you’re fascinated by and scared of at the same time. You still loveRead More

I probably say this too often, but here goes … this record is just too much fun! Saxophonist Troy Roberts knows how to lay down the funk and on Nu-Jive, the funk is relentless. From the David S. Ware-meets-Steely Dan opening salvo of “Chiver-town,” to the slippery “Shavon” (where electricRead More

Cheap Trick seems to act as if the dark days of the mid-to-late 80s never occurred.

by Mark Saleski Yes, we know that the old methods of music delivery (read: the radio) are broken. This keeps some amazing music away from people’s ear. A happy accident (no Buffalo Tom CDs) at a similarly broken bookstore made me buy this record. It has been played to deathRead More

With a name for the record books (said to be the average height of American males), a hometown that couldn’t have hurt and a finely honed screamer-guitarist, Athen, Georgia’s Five-Eight planted itself in the center of all that was groovy in what was then called Alternative Rock. Mike Mantione, theRead More

by Mark Saleski On Nicholas Urie’s MySpace page, we’re informed that “This isn’t your grandma’s big band!” No kidding. With lyrics taken from actual online dating service recordings, the thematic content would make grandma raise those eyebrows. I was hooked upon hearing “Bad Girl?,” which starts off with a kindRead More

Tenor man Ernie Krivda pays tribute to a fellow Cleveland resident, the late writer (American Splendor) and jazz critic Harvey Pekar in this lickety-split throwback bebop recording, out today on CD and DVD formats through Capri Records. Krivda only stops to take a breath during the lastingly beautiful “Darn thatRead More

by Tom Johnson This is one of the few instances where a song by a very odd band got huge, was virtually everywhere, and still I loved every second of it. “Float On” couldn’t be ignored, and I don’t know why you’d want to ignore it anyway. (And so whatRead More

by Mark Saleski Easily my favorite release of 2009. The Low Anthem surprised me at a show that spring. I’d never heard of them before and they came out and managed to make me forget my name, my identity, and what my favorite color was. It was a stunning experience.Read More