This is POP music, and it's hard, shiny, bittersweet and bitchen. Think Cheap Trick, Jason Falkner, ELO, Redd Kross, Sweet (The and Matthew), Beatles and Bread, and you're starting to get the idea. Buy it right now.
Using primarily violin, accordion and guitar, these guys make music that's hard to describe without making it sound like ethno-NPR upchuck, which it ain't. Jazzy, chamber-like stuff with healthy doses of tango and bluegrass, all done with passion, precision and soul.
They usually call him a blues player, which is close, but not enough. He uses acoustic slide guitar and a soulful, smoky voice to create a uniquely ethereal groove that's just plain boss. This is his first album, and in our opinion, his best.
Jazzy, sparse, British folk on the melancholy tip. Cello, viola, string bass, bitchen guitars and breathy vocals. You might have heard a song of his in a recent VW commercial, but don't blame him, 'cause he's dead.
You're probably already hip to the three masterpieces that followed this ("Talking Book," "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness") but don't overlook this great record. Though not as polished as the others, it is a thrilling document of a genius coming into his own.
The sparse arrangements surrounding her exquisite voice create a tension that's amazing. Every song on this album is filled with the sound of longing and the stark beauty of a sepia-toned photograph from rural America, circa 1920. It's like bluegrass on heroin.
Full-on pop, slightly ragged and very rockin'. Kind of like The Replacements, if you can picture them getting pleasantly buzzed instead of completely plowed. A feel-good summer blockbuster of a CD.
Good evening. Do not attempt to adjust your radio. There is nothing wrong. We have taken control as to bring you this special show. We will return it to you as soon as you are groovy. Put a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip and come on to the mothership.
She's like a musical savant on stage, and her live shows are excruciatingly compelling. Imagine watching a child — a child that is beautiful, and delicate, and having a nervous breakdown. Too intense for some people, but she's got one of the greatest voices on the planet. Available on vinyl, too.
You've read about it on the mailbag page, now listen to it in your car. The '70s funk collection compiled by our own Commissioner Love, and it comes in five volumes! Collect 'em all, but don't bother with the cassettes, 'cause they're missing the best tracks.
Chesnutt is from Athens, GA, where after a crippling car-wreck, he seemed intent on drinking himself to death. One of the R.E.M. guys pulled him out of the gutter and told him his music was too good to give up on. He was right. Quirky and essential.
What a great band. What a great record. Actually, they've got a few great records ("Skylarking," "English Settlement," etc.) but this one features "Books Are Burning," as blissful and eloquent an anthem to free speech as you'll find. The other songs are good, too.
He didn't last as long as George or JB, but when this guy was happening, he was Happening. As important as anyone in the evolution of funk and soul. This great collection hits all the high points reached during the five or six years that Sly was changing the world.
Who could imagine that a bunch of guitar-based jazz instrumentals played with Nashville musicians would be this good? Country and jazz!? No way!
Way. Absolutely sublime. Best heard after smoking a fatty, but even without drugs, this CD is a ten.
You might know of him through his major label releases ("This Perfect World" is great), but this is the album that preceded them. A bit more varied, a lot more rocking, and perhaps slightly less accessible, but, as is often the case, there's more substance to access once you do.
Stevie Ray Vaughan is nothing more than a stain on a mountainside, and this guy's the mountain. They call it the blues, and that's true enough, but the sound The Wolf lays down is also more rock 'n' roll than 50 junkies in leather pants could muster in 50 years. Get hip.
If you've not yet been introduced, start with this great collection, and get to know what is arguably America's best-ever band. Their rootsy pop-rock can make you cry AND howl, and these 2 CDs span the period before Big Al left and took the group's heart and soul with him.
This ambitious collection of sensitive ballads and urban dance classics isn't even out yet, and already the buzz is deafening. The project's been held up yet again by the storm of legal activity the cover art has caused, but these boys simply refuse to give an inch on their vision.
Once every few billion years, the universe is confronted by an artist with the undeniable power to alter reality as it's known by every other being. Wing is that artist. The cover image at left is linked to an audio sample, and the title above takes you to her site. Click and be altered.
We don't often recommend books (the fiction novel is SO last millennium), but when we do, it's bound to be good (bound, get it?). This new work is what's often referred to in literary circles as "a real page-turner." And there's more than 400 pages in this taught, courtroom drama, so you're really getting your money's worth.
Our other literary selection is a book that came recommended by former Chalk Outlines Commissioner Jennifer Lugar, and destroyed all of us. This is the funniest writer we've ever read, bar none, and this book is the place to start. Godhead.
If you've never seen this 1970 Mel Brooks film, you might be thinking, "How could these bozos recommend ANYTHING by the guy who did 'Space Balls'?" A valid question, but three or four of his movies are great, and this is the best one. It just never gets old.
We thought this was going to be boring, with a bunch of talking heads, a subject that's really old news and another over-the-top Pacino performance. We were wrong. Pacino's under control and Russell Crowe is flat-out great. Can you say "Three Thumbs Up?"
DO NOT see the remake of this film. Ever. At least not until you've seen the brilliant original. It's from 1967, when Peter Cook was still alive, and Dudley Moore was still funny. If you've only seen him in "Arthur," you might not believe how good the little drunk used to be.