With her trademark purr and growl, rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson shows no signs of slowing down. With the most excellent Lustre Kings serving as the queen’s backup band, Jackson leans in to belt out classics like “Funnel of Love,” “Fujiyama Mama,” and “Let’s Have a Party” like it was 1959. She recently recorded a sexy-in-the-extreme […]
Frank De Blase
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ALBUM REVIEW: “Every One of You”
Joe Smith & The Going Concern “Every One of You” Murray Black Records Joesmithandthegoingconcern.bandcamp.com The energy is there. The guitar is there with its relentless strum attack. The attitude is there, and so is the band’s list of influences: Ramones, Replacements, Bad Religion. Joe Smith & The Going Concern is my kind of band. Straight outta […]
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ROCK | Nik Turner’s Hawkwind
During his tenure in Hawkwind, Lemmy Kilmister penned the tune “Motorhead” before getting booted out of the band to form Motorhead. Riding the fringes of experimental music when the band began in 1969, Hawkwind referred to its music — a heady, jammed-out, psychedelic mix of heavy rock and synthetic passages — as space rock. Saxophonist Nik […]
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ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | The Hi-Risers
What can I say about the Hi-Risers that I haven’t already? I’m gonna have to dig deep into my bag-o-vocab to further describe these three cats. How about Grade-A, number one, super-supreme, king-size, deluxe rock ‘n’ roll? These guys are Rochester’s Fab Three. And if that ain’t enough, Mckinley James, the pride of Hi-Riser drummer […]
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KOPPS musicians share their music-making magic
Music that possesses an electronic component can still be organic; it’s just rooted on the receiving end as opposed to the launch site. Let’s simplify: Though it has some synthetic root, electronic music still gets human (organic) asses in motion. KOPPS is one of those groups that create within this hard to classify hybrid. Call […]
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ROCK | Silverstein
At the forefront of melodic punk for the past 15 years stands Burlington, Ontario’s Silverstein. This band rocks hard. It’s not too melodic, however, because then you’d be talking pop punk here, and you’d be doing it without me. It’s more an aggressive atonal meandering between the notes and overall drive that makes Silverstein unique […]
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FOLK | Jonathan Byrd
North Carolina folk cat Jonathan Byrd plays countrified folk with a sexy slow drag and drawl. But beyond his music’s bump ‘n’ grind is a masterful melody maker of captivating insight — just dig his tune “You Can’t Outrun the Radio.” He’s observant to a fault as laid out melodiously in the man’s own flexible […]
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ALBUM REVIEW: “Living Dead”
Amanda Ashley Trio “Living Dead” Self-released amandaashleymusic.com I found this album a little misleading at first. With its campy B-movie cover art and spooky intro, it came off as something for The Cramps fan in us all. But the Amanda Ashley Trio’s “Living Dead” runs a bit deeper than that. At the center of the […]
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ALBUM REVIEW: “Snowbound”
Susanna Rose “Snowbound” Self-released facebook.com/susannarosemusic Have you ever heard something so pretty, it hurt? Well, just try Susanna Rise’s new release, “Snowbound.” This haunting collection of tunes was penned during last year’s epic winter of suck, where instead of raging at the weather or going stir crazy, Rose found inspiration and motivation while staying warm […]
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Mastodon rumbles into Rochester
Short answer: Mastodon is a metal band. Long answer: Mastodon is a Grammy-nominated, heavy, progressive quartet weaned on a unique and complex mix of stoner rock, prog-rock, grunge, hard rock, and heavy metal. The Hotlanta quartet shuns the textbook metal clichés of disingenuous evil and excess, and instead goes for an epic, foreboding, dynamic and […]
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ALBUM REVIEW:
Anonymous Willpower “One More Medicine Show” Self-released anonymouswillpower.net Anonymous Willpower knows how to put on a show. And that’s just what the band did in the studio recording this, its shiny new disc, “One More Medicine Show.” The band brought the horny heat and simply pressed “record.” That’s not to take away from Don Anonymous’ expert production […]
