By J. Brown

The year was 1963. The location was Miami. The venue was the Harlem Square Club on a Saturday night. The most important detail of all was the event’s headliner: Sam Cooke.

As Cooke made his way to the stage to perform that night for an eager and excited crowd, the MC announced: “Right now, ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to get ready to introduce the star of our show, the young man you’ve all been waiting for, Mister Soul, so what d’you say let’s all get together and welcome him to the stand with a great big hand, how ‘bout it for Sam Cooke.”  Read more...

By: Myles Crawley

It’s a Thursday night here in Southern California as a drive down the coast to the House of Blues in San Diego. I’m listening to the John Butler Trio’s new album April Uprising, which I’ve had for a couple of months now, but haven’t really gotten into yet. The songs are good. I sense a blending of styles, everything from blues to Celtic to bluegrass to a Hendrix influence that undeniably cuts through. John Butler is most definitely a guitar guy, but he can sing too. The band is tight. All in all it’s a good record, but maybe not one of my faves, yet anyway.  Read more...

By Katrina Nattress

Maps & Atlases’ debut LP Perch Patchwork is an extremely well thought out, and equally executed, collection of music. Identifying itself as math rock, each note played by the Chicagoan quartet is precisely planned out, resulting in a 12-track album that sounds more like one 36 minute long piece. Although the band members themselves consider their recorded and live material as two separate entities, I was a bit wary of how the new material would translate in a live setting. The songs on the record flow almost too well, making it hard for me to visualize the band plucking individual tunes from the mass.  Read more...

By J. Brown

“A UK cross between Bon Iver and Ray LaMontagne.” Those are the words that have been used to perfectly describe Matthew and the Atlas and the voice of English singer Matthew Hegarty, who is the force behind the moniker and the modern folk/alternative music on the new EP To the North, which was released by Communion Records. Hegarty is so effortlessly soulful and his voice has that weathered vibe in the vein of LaMontagne, and the comparison to Bon Iver is as equally apt for the haunting quality of his voice on many songs that leave the listener awestruck by its understated beauty. Hegarty’s remarkable voice and talents are a standout addition to modern folk and the EP showcases an eclectic range of banjo, accordion, strings, horns and rolling rhythms swelling around his powerful lyrics.  Read more...

By Ken Caudill

Here’s some brief footage of someone who looks just like Robert Johnson. The footage was filmed in 1942. Johnson died in 1938.

The film was brought to light by a gentleman known as Tater Red, who had a kickin’ radio show in Memphis for a while. He owns a shop where he sells voodoo stuff to tourists on Beale Street.  Read more...

Well folks, finally as promised, the first installment of extra Josiah Leming songs. As reported a few weeks back, we were asked if Josiah could perform a couple extra songs after his interview at Sunset Sessions. We thought that sounded like a great idea and extended the stage to him. He actually ended up performing 7 songs, all of which we now have edited and will feature right here.  His new CD will release on July 13, 2010. But for right now, here is Josiah Leming singing “To Run”.  Read more...

Following up on their 2007 release, Time On Earth – their first studio recording in fourteen years – New Zealand dream-pop auteurs Crowded House deliver Intriguer, scheduled for release on July 13th, 2010, on Fantasy Records, a division of Concord Music Group. The internationally acclaimed group begins a nationwide tour of the U.S. and Canada in support of the new album on Monday, July 12th. Also available that day will be the 2-disc Intriguer Deluxe Edition, featuring a special bonus live DVD.  Read more...

By: Myles Crawley

Recently I became aware of a band called The Willowz. I heard them for the first time about two months ago and my ears pricked up right away. Immediately I could tell there was something extremely different about them. So I requested a copy of their newest album Everyone. Lo and behold, the whole album was excellent, and it soon became a favorite in our house, as it still is.  Read more...

By: Ryan Mulligan

Multi-instrumentalist Erik Hall, who is currently involved in a number of musical projects, including playing electric guitar and drums/percussion in Afro-beat band NOMO and fuzz-bass for experimental rockers His Name Is Alive, has returned with a new solo venture, a one man-band entitled In Tall Buildings.  Read more...

Iceland via Scotland artist Benni Hemm Hemm aka Benedikt Hermannsson recently debuted a brand new, hand-drawn video for his song, “Retaliate.” Watch it below.  Directed by Edinburgh illustrators/comic book artists Michael Kirkham and Vivien McDermid, “Retaliate” is the title track off his third EP, (the first to be sung completely in English) and sixth overall release, and is available now on Kimi Records.  Read more...

By J. Brown

Sharp-tongued, angsty, independent, unabashedly loud, full of spunk and a pop-punk style that’s as much about being in your face as it is about confronting the insecurities that come with love, relationships, and just figuring out life—all of this describes Kate Nash’s music, as well as her second album My Best Friend is You. The honesty and frenetic quality of her songs often makes her lyrics sound like a stream of consciousness in that Nash doesn’t shy away from offering an uninhibited look into her anxieties and doubts. Her music is honest, fun, never too serious, and gives listeners a jumbled haze of directions that perhaps represent the seemingly endless options that a 22-year-old like Nash has on the horizon.  Read more...