Music Review: PJ Harvey & John Parish’s A Woman a Man Walked By

by Rick Rockwell Ever since the early 1990s, PJ Harvey has been making music with impact. Supposedly, her debut Dry (1992) was a favorite of the late Kurt Cobain, and certainly her songwriting and attitude gave the latter stages of grunge a boost. Even before her debut, Harvey was making music with John Parish in his band Automatic Diamini. Harvey and Parish have collaborated numerous times since, including the co-billed Dance Hall at Louse Point (1996). Also, Parish produced Harve

Music Review: Peter Bjorn & John - Living Thing
Facing impossible expectations, Peter Bjorn and John produce a damn good indie pop album that’s only sin is not being a masterpiece Peter Bjorn and John’s Writer’s Block may have inadvertently previewed what was to come for this band; unlike most one hit wonders, the Swedish trio had released three albums with a number of fantastic tracks; “Young Folks” just happened to catch a wave of support that far surpassed anything else they had ever done —…

Music Review: Max Morgan - Interrupting the Silence (Blogcritics.org)
Max Morgan enters the pop scene with his debut album. Max Morgan has been making waves ahead of his new album Interrupting the Silence being released this week. Back in December 2008, one of the songs off the album, “Secret,” was featured on Grey’s Anatomy and “Secret” and “Wait for Me” were already heard by viewers of the NFL Network, Private Practice, ESPN, and…

Music Review: Caitlin & Will - Caitlin & Will (Digital EP)
Caitlin & Will, from complete strangers to having an EP out on Columbia Records in one short year. I’d been mulling around a piece in my head for a while now. There’s a lot of new music coming down the pike and I was of the mind, thinking I’d put them all together in one piece. There’s the upcoming New York Dolls Cause I Sez So produced by Todd Rundgren (who worked on their first album in 1973 ). I’ve been keeping…

Brossa d’Ahir
Pep Laguarda - Cims I Abismes - mp3 What keeps me in this blogging game is the discovery of records such as PEP LAGUARDA & TAPINERIA’s Brossa d’Ahir. This came to me not through a publicist or label, but through Other Music’s weekly newsletter. While only through my first listen, its languid-folk melodies, softly-tasteful instrumentation and hushed-Spanish vocals bring you instant flashes of serenity. Maybe this is one of those records that everyone else knows about already, an

Music Review: Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
There are occasions when being haunted is a good thing. The St. Lawrence River runs from the Atlantic Ocean into Lake Ontario. Over the years it has carried everything from cargo to typhoid in the holds of the ships that have sailed up river to inland destinations. As the great river completes its westward journey to the lake, travelers pass through a stretch known as the 1,000 Islands. While some of…

The Black Maria – Lead Us To Reason (CD)
One of the most even discs of this new year, The Black Maria’s “Lead Us To Reason” is the latest in Victory emo bands revolutionizing the genre. Everything has the gentle sound of the late nineties alternative scene, but the Fear Factory meets Shadows Fall sound of more current days. The overarching synthesizer present in a track like “Organs” works perfectly in playing off of and accentuating the emotive and Peart-like bass lines of Mike. However, however much The Black Maria puts into every tr

Killer music technology
We’ve been head down here at the Echo Nest putting the finishing touches on what I think is a game changer for music discovery. For years, music recommendation companies have been trying to get collaborative filtering technologies to work. These CF systems work pretty well, but sooner or later, you’ll get a bad recommendation. There are just too many ways for a CF recommender to fail. Here at the ‘nest we’ve decided to take a completely different approach. Instead of recommending music bas

Music review: Kristofferson fans Haggard flame (San Francisco Chronicle)
Country music great Merle Haggard doesn’t do acoustic performances - he’s an old-time honky-tonk man - but he couldn’t resist the invitation from Kris Kristofferson to do three special joint acoustic concerts. Still, Haggard looked a little flustered when he…