by S. Victor Aaron They look and sound like they’ve been around forever, but the Subdudes have “only” existed for 20 years (counting the roughly eight-year hiatus from 1996-2004), mainly flying under the radar. They come out of that musically rich town of New Orleans, but have rarely been mentionedRead More

By Pico The fertile music grounds of Austin, Texas has brought the world such uniquely talented guitar big shots like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson. But the list doesn’t stop there; among many other specialists of the six string from that locale is a dude who stands out aRead More

Full Circle isn’t not so much about a CD than it is a story of a certain musician’s redemptive long journey back from personal tragedies. And his new band is a musical group led by a man who sought to provide a willing public the soulful, energetic free wheeling styleRead More

NICK DERISO: As pleasant as this compilation of songs from an October 2000 concert by Elton John may be, yeah, there are problems. The truth is, early 1970s records like “Tumbleweed Connection” (a studio release with no – no! – hit singles) and the rollicking “11-17-70” (a live trio albumRead More

Tony Soprano tucked into a booth at a New Jersey diner, one of those old-time places with a selection of jukebox tunes right at the table. He considered, briefly, something by Tony Bennett, then went with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’” and the final, controversial, moments of HBO’s “The Sopranos” —Read More

A few months ago we bemoaned the dearth of talent promoted by record labels while there’s an abundance of it out there unsigned, and put forth Vancouver’s own Heidi McCurdy as an example of overlooked artistry. About three hundred miles south in Portland, Oregon is yet another diamond in theRead More

by Pico In the last three or four years, Georgia native Lizz Wright has created a stir in the same folk-jazz circles that Cassandra Wilson, Nina Simone and Oleta Adams have made their names in, but with her 2005 release Dreaming Wide Awake, she moved further into Sarah McLachlan territory.Read More

*** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** NICK DERISO: I was a huge Steely Dan fan, so I once bought even the individual releases, pining for those lost moments of the 1970s. Meaning: I was ready to love Fagen’s second solo album. Bought it out of the box, hoping for “Aja”Read More

I’ve never been much of a movie watcher, and less of a fan of movie soundtracks. But back in 2000 I rented the then-new release Finding Forrester, a movie that featured Sean Connery. And while the movie itself was good, I couldn’t help but to notice what an outstanding andRead More

One of the greatest unheralded rock bands to come out of the UK in the sixties was a group of musical misfits called The Soft Machine. This combo was among the earliest and most influential bands from Britain’s Canterbury Scene in the middle of the decade; a loose fraternity thatRead More