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Maria BC – Adelaide : Listen
Brooklyn-based artist Maria BC releases their first single from upcoming EP Devil’s Rain today. Made in the midst of quarantining, Maria BC had to record quietly so as not to disturb housemates and neighbors, resulting in a collection of songs with an intimate, sparse, lullaby-like quality. Maria explains Adelaide as a song inspired by a friend but addressed to their self, “A friend of mine used to work as a…
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Albums We Loved This Year
Another banner year for music. I have grown to dislike ranking albums, as if art was mere sports. Ugh! I’ll get right the point. Please buy these albums and support the artists! It’s more essential than ever to pay the folks who are likely sustaining you culturally this year. I won’t tell you which I liked most but I will tell you which new releases I listened to most, in…
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Songs of the year – 2020
Here’s a list of 60 of our favorite songs from this year, some of them from our favorite albums, some not, all fantastic. We wrote about fifteen of them, too, because we usually look at albums holistically and don’t get to spend a lot of time normally examining a song at a time. It was fun! Talking about music is fun. Music is great, you should buy it! On a…
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Neal Casal Music Foundation Livestream Benefit
On Saturday, December 5th, TOF Productions will host a livestream benefit for the Neal Casal Music Foundation. Eric Krasno, Jaime Wyatt, Brent Rademaker, Kenny Roby, Ross James, and Aaron Lee Tasjan will all perform. In addition, Dave Schools will give a status update on the Highway Butterfly tribute record, Joe Russo and George Sluppick will chat about drums, and Jay Blakesberg will talk photography. Neal played a Swope guitar during…
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Toadvine – She : Listen
Toadvine “blends weirdo garage rock energy with alt country-tinged sweetness.” They recorded and mixed their debut self-titled EP themselves, featuring four originals and this tribute to one of their many influences. It’s rare that I hear a Gram Parsons cover that I approve of. I heard this song before I read the blurb and was pretty enchanted with this Chicago band’s sweet rendition. Toadvine · She From the band themselves…
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Dan Horne
You know Dan! He’s everywhere, especially this year. He’s produced, played on, or written on so many favorite albums – to name just a few from 2020 – Circles Around the Sun’s self-titled, Mapache’s From Liberty Street, Trummors’ Dropout City, Pacific Range’s High Upon the Mountain, some badass tracks from Mojohand, and now, his debut solo EP, The Motorcycle Song EP, is officially streaming everywhere. Tell me a little bit…
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Tim Bluhm – Hag Heaven
Tim Bluhm releases his eighth solo record, an 11-track tribute to Merle Haggard, on November 20th. A portion of all revenue from album sales will go to the Blue Rose Foundation, which provides pre-school scholarships to financially disadvantaged children. I tapped my good friend and fellow critic Jon Siembieda to help listen to this album. Jon is way into the Tim Bluhm/Norther California scene, so he was able to provide…
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Trevor Beld Jimenez – I Like It Here
A lot of folks are going to hear Trevor’s power pop, AM radio gold, sunshine-y Californiana record I Like It Here, out today on Curation Records, and draw some immediate parallels, due to his sun-drenched vocals, his lyrical references, and his history. I’m going to try to avoid leaning on that too heavily in favor of focusing on Trevor’s songwriting, the really amazing instrumentation instated by an impressive line-up of…
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Bandcamp Friday Shopping List : Brain Soothers Edition
I don’t know about you but this has been a hell of a week, my every muscle is so tense you could poke me and I’d snap in two. I’ve really needed some quieter, mellow sounds of beauty to put on to quiet my racing thoughts and I’m sure you do too. Here’s what’s been helping. The Howard Hughes Suite – Stereochrome The elusive lonesome folk known as tHHs is…
