Alan Jeffries
Coffee ’til Midnight
(Forward Music Group)
3.5/5
Alan Jeffries brings his award-winning bluegrass guitar playing to his debut album, Coffee ’til Midnight. Full of traditional bluegrass tunes and originals penned in the same vein, Jeffries and his band keep the energy levels high throughout.
If you like bluegrass, this album will put a smile on your face. If you don’t want to hear some fun guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin playing, accompanied by some mighty fine harmonies, then don’t listen to this album.
Tunes like “I Ain’t Broke but I’m Badly Bent” and “Cabin among the Trees” highlight the harmonies and show off some damn fine fiddle playing. “Bookworm” doesn’t say a word, but gets every instrument involved, casually showcasing each one.
I’ve always wanted to visit the Maritimes. If I keep listening to this album, I might not have to. I can just close my eyes and imagine myself on the shores of Nova Scotia.
-Dan Darling
Stephen Fearing
Between Hurricanes
(LowdenProud Records)
3.5/5
Drawing inspiration from Gordon Lightfoot, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings founding member Stephen Fearing gives us a touching look into a new beginning on his latest solo effort.
This album starts off quiet and sombre, but evolves into a well-rounded album of folky, and sometimes even rocking, goodness.
The dark, lonely feeling of surviving a helicopter crash in “Cold Dawn,” or the soft reminiscing in “The Half Life of Childhood,” make songs like “Keep Your Mouth Shut” seem that much more alive with their straightforward, ’50s rock ‘n’ roll atmosphere.
This isn’t a folk album. This is for listeners that like songwriting, storytelling, and honesty. Now 20 years into a storied career, Fearing is happy telling his stories any way they feel like coming out. Whether that’s with his band or collaborating with other artists, or even producing work from other musicians, music isn’t just what he does, it’s who he is.
-Dan Darling
The Night Marchers
Allez Allez
(Swami Records)
4.5/5
John Reis a.k.a The Swami a.k.a. Speedo has made a name for himself as a musical dickhead of the highest order. The term “dickhead” is used with pure respect and admiration. See, before this little band called The Night Marchers, Reis brought us such pinnacle San Diego punk/rock bands as Pitchfork, Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and The Sultans.
Combine Reis’ pedigree with his sarcastic-prick sense of humour and his severe allergy to the mainstream music industry and we have an underground rock god. On Allez Allez, The Night Marchers progress from a studio project featuring ¾ of Hot Snakes into a bona fide punk rock/garage/rock force to be reckoned with.
If “Loud, Dumb and Mean” doesn’t rip the front door off your domicile and drag you into the mean streets kicking and screaming, the bizarro tempo changeup in “Fisting the Fan Base” (great title!) will make you weep like a baby.
-Jason Schreurs
My Bloody Valentine
MBV
(Pickpocket Records)
4/5
After the release of 1991’s critically acclaimed Loveless, shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine were going to make another album. There were rumors here and there for more than 20 years about a possible album being released. Frontman Kevin Shields confirmed that they had even completed at least one album that they just dumped. In early February, seemingly out of the blue, the almost self-titled album MBV was released.
After over 20 years it’s assumed that some creative growth would be present on this album, but it seems eerily similar to everything else the band has ever done. The album starts out slow with a bass-y ballad, but, luckily, it quickly gains momentum.
The album is danceable with periods that seem more like spacey soundscapes than songs. “New You” is what people should be playing in clubs, it’s romantic but depressing, dreamy but rhythmic. MBV is a pretty fantastic album.
-Nick Joy
Texas Is the Reason
Do You Know Who You Are?: The
Complete Collection
(Revelation Records)
4.5/5
It kinda feels like a lifetime ago that American indie rockers Texas Is the Reason burst out of the ashes of a handful of heavier hardcore punk bands, stunning the underground with their sensitive-dude whines and straight-up rocking out.
Well, no one was really “stunned.” Lots of hardcore dudes didn’t care, because this was wimpy stuff, and lots of wimps embraced it, because it was nerdy, wimpy, and sensitive, but it also rocked out, in its own feather-y way.
Thing is, they were ahead of the curve, as this retrospective collection proves. Here, the band’s only full-length is paired up with their EP, material from two split 7” releases, and two recently recorded old tunes that never saw the light of day. It all sounds incredibly perfect.
The band is doing some quick reunion shows, then, they’ve promised, it’s over. As it should be. This music was amazing once. Context is a lot. Not blowing it by trying to relive that context is important. TITR is dead. Long live TITR.
-Greg Pratt