Rock stars whose dad jammed with Django Reinhardt when said rock star was an infant, and dated Nico not long after after high school deserve my eternal respect and admiration, but as far as I know, only Jackson Browne falls into that category. It was only years later when heRead More

The hottest band in the land just might be the Drive-By Truckers by S. Victor Aaron Funny how it seems I have plenty of time to listen to new music and precious little to write about. There’s about 9GBs of albums in my iPod rotation and I’m familiar with aRead More

by Nick DeRiso You hear Beatles songs remade by jazz musicians with notable frequency, some more successful (Jaco Pastorius‘ glorious reading of the oft-covered “Blackbird” from “Word of Mouth”; a just-right “All My Loving” on “Basie’s Beatles Bag”; Ramsey Lewis‘ underrated “Hard Day’s Night” from “Finest Hour”) than others (almostRead More

photo: Urve Kuusik by Pico The other day I revisited that beautiful mess by Sly Stone called There’s A Riot Goin’ On (1971), where in the midst of some herion-induced haze were some of the most forward-looking funk and r&b music ever. Even the one radio hit from it “FamilyRead More

Since we’re on the topic of Austin-based acts, why not shift our focus to one of the most acclaimed and yet most elusive since the death of Stevie Ray Vaughan? I’m talking of course about the Arcangels. It would be impossible to discuss the Arcangels without a discussing their sometimes-volatileRead More

by Matt Reynolds In the mid-to-late 90s, when bands with names like Oasis, Blur, Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam were inescapable on the American airwaves, there was an up-and-coming band out of San Francisco that arguably held more musicianship and all-out rock and roll firepower than all the previous mentionedRead More

by Pico It’s the middle of January, which can only mean we’re about a month late on those year-end lists. Oooops. This past year, I’ve listened to perhaps a little less of the rock, pop and r&b records than in 2008, but the selections for my favorites were easier toRead More

by Pico Before diving deeper into the stacks o’ jazz cd’s, I’d like to turn our attention toward a few records of the rock, pop & blues sides that I managed to sample over the last few months. With one exception, these are all by long-established stalwarts, falling right inRead More

by Pico It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled… -Led Zeppelin What can I say, I’ve let a lot of release dates on the mainstream side go by without any mention. And so, it’s catch-up time. Three major acts, plus an act with a major cause. NoRead More

It’s a classically American record by an American who was an expatriate for half of her young life. Being the daughter of a globe trotting missionary didn’t give Diana Birch a first hand indoctrination to American culture the way most Americans get it, but she was always a quick studyRead More