The 13th Track

Sky Furrows – s/t (Tape Drift / Skell Records / Philthy Rex Records)

The advent of streaming music has, for better or worse, made it a lot easier for musicians to access and wrap their collective heads around influences, styles and band discographies than prior generations who found their way by digging through dusty bins, scouring for printed materials, and taking the advice of sage record store employees. One outcropping of this phenomenon has been a seemingly…

Local Band Feel: Great Wave – Sorry Darling 7”

The Scranton, PA based group Great Wave serve up two sides of mesmerizing dream pop on their debut seven-inch that has just enough shaggy freak folkiness and psychedelic impulses bubbling underneath the surface to make the whole affair pretty damn irresistible. The artifact itself is a beautiful clear polycarbonate record cut on a 90 year old lathe which lends the music just the right amount of…

Bill Fay – Countless Branches (Dead Oceans)

My first introduction to the music of Bill Fay was sometime around 2004.  Reissues of his first two albums (1970’s Bill Fay and 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution) were making the rounds.  A circular hype sticker adorned the front of both of the reissues featuring a choice quote from Uncut that read “The missing link between Nick Drake, Ray Davies, and Bob Dylan.” I was sold, and once I got the…

Russ Waterhouse – 1 Minute 2 Midnight (Drag City)

It starts with cold digital silence and ends with a field recording of what sounds like people milling about a train station. Sandwiched in between these two extremes lie Russ Waterhouse’s (formerly of Blues Control) latest album. I remember Waterhouse first popping on my radar around the turn of the century. I seem to remember spray painted cassettes arriving in the mail. A few years later, I…

Lou Rogai – Cathedral (Veriditas Recordings)

I first met Lou Rogai sometime around the turn of the century at a basement show in Scranton, PA.  I don’t quite remember why I was there.  It was probably just because I saw a flier hanging up somewhere, and I was desperate to find some like-minded musical souls in such a small town.  It’s important to keep in mind that this was a time before social media bound us all up in its tendrils, and…

The Schramms – Omnidirectional (Bar/None Records)

This record came out back in the summer, and definitely crossed my desk then. But it wasn’t really brought to my attention until it was mentioned on the 3 Songs Podcast. For those not familiar, it features former Pavement percussionist and hype man, Bob Nastanovich along with pal Mike Hogan passing the turntable back and forth sharing tunes with each other.  Bob recalled fondly his time living…

The Gerbils – Are You Sleepy? (Elephant 6 Recording Co.)

After hibernating for a decade or so, the Elephant Six Recording Company is relaunching with a promised series of reissues, new releases, and previously unheard gems from the imprint’s deep archives.  The label has decided to kick things off with a reissue of The Gerbils’ 1998 debut album Are You Sleepy? While the E6 collective is best known for the likes of their flagship acts — The Apples in…

Big Star – In Space (Omnivore Recordings)

Since it’s release in 2005, Big Star’s reunion album In Space has been ignored by some fans, and derided by others. Now some 14 years on, Omnivore Recordings has decided to bring this album back into the spotlight for a much needed reappraisal.

In order to really get a handle on this album, I think it’s important to understand the context. After the group’s implosion in 1974 following the…

The Mountain Goats – Welcome To Passaic 7” (Merge Records)

I feel a little intimidated writing this review. As John Darnielle, is a bit of a hero of mine when it comes to both being a writer, and a human. With The Mountain Goats’ latest single, JD tries on the mantle of one of his own heroes, Ozzy Osbourne.  “Passaic 1975” details a day in the life of the Ozzman in his mid-70’s prime envisioned through the author’s lens. The lyrics painstakingly detail…

Purple Mountains – s/t (Drag City)

I wrote David Berman a letter over twenty years ago. At the time, I was inquiring to see if he would be interested in recording a Jandek cover for my then fledgling label who was organizing a tribute album to the mysterious Texan. I never heard anything. Years went by, and the record I was working on eventually came out. Then one day out of the blue, a printed postcard popped in my label’s PO…

Robyn Hitchcock – Sunday Never Comes 7” (Tiny Ghost Records)

Much like his hero Bob Dylan, psychedelic folk-rocker, Robyn Hitchcock seems to have embarked on a never-ending tour of his own. His latest single, Sunday Never Comes, seems tailor made for the merch table on said tour. Following 2017’s particularly strong self-titled effortrecorded in collaboration with producer Brendan Benson, this new self-released 45 was recorded in his new adopted hometown…

Alex Chilton – It Isn’t Always That Easy 7” (Be With Records)l

By 1969 Alex Chilton has most likely sensed the looming demise of his group The Box Tops, and was looking for a way out. He was only 16 years old in 1967 when he scored the biggest hit of his entire career with “The Letter,” thanks in no small part to his growling gravel voiced singing. But after two years of almost non-stop touring and recording sessions, the wheels were definitely starting to…

Honey Radar – Ruby Puff Of Dust (What’s Your Rupture?)

Listening to Honey Radar’s latest album Ruby Puff of Dust reminds me of that scene in High Fidelity where Jack Black’s record store snob character in the film creates an instant demand for The Beta Band’s The Three E.P.’s by playing it in the record shop owned by John Cusack’s character in the film. If I’m being honest, I’m not that crazy about Jack Black or The Beta Band (there goes the former…

Smug Brothers – Attic Harvest (Gas Daddy Go! Records)

For fans of Midwestern lo-fi indie rock there’s something instantly familiar about The Smug Brothers latest effort Attic Harvest. Maybe it’s the sonics created by the Tascam MKIII 4-track cassette recorder that captured the songs presented here, or maybe it’s the fact that drummer Don Thrasher was in on the ground floor of the mid-90’s lo-fi boom playing drums on such early Guided By Voices…

Various Artists – Sad About The Times (Anthology Recordings)

Listening to Anthology Recordings’ collection of obscure 70s FM wannabe superstars Sad About The Timesis a bit like tuning into a classic rock station beamed in from an alternate universe. Instead of Uncle Lou taking us for a “Walk On The Wild Side,” Randy and The Goats introduce us to the “N.Y. Survivor” or instead of the harmonies of CSNY, imagine Kevin Vicalvi’s “Lover Now Alone,” in steady…