Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros- Up From Below

This band s my current favorite... I was blown away this morning listening to their album! It was like the first time I ever heard Bowie, Tom Waits, or the Velvet Underground. Its artsy, its wild, its fun, and dare I say its different... I'm looking forward to seeing them live next month. Check this record out, cause you definitely won't regret it!

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Pascal Briggs- The Mercenary

My good friend Pascal Briggs from Germany just sent me a copy of his first solo record and seeing as how its not available for release here in the U.S. he said i could share it with all of you... Its such an incredible record! He's like Frank Turner but with "balls", and more importantly he's the real deal!


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Steven Wright- I Still Have A Pony

One of the funniest comedians of all time!! It doesn't get any better then Steven Wright!

After almost 25 years in the making, the most rumored comedy album is finally hitting the streets. As the elder statesman of bizarre one liners, Wright has had a decades long career creating the smartest, surrealist, oddball comedy out there, delivered in his characteristic deadpan. His first album, "I Have A Pony", was Grammy nominated when it was released in 1985 and has sold nearly a million copies. "I Still Have A Pony" contains the best of 20+ years of new material and has already been critically acclaimed.

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Justin Townes Earle- The Good Life

Like his musical pedigree, the debut release by Justin Townes Earle is a mixed blessing. In Texas songwriting circles, having Steve Earle as a father--who gave him his middle name in commemoration of his creative hero Townes Van Zandt--is the sort of burden that a basketball-playing son of Michael Jordan might carry. Half of these cuts that sound like Lone Star roadhouse ready-mades, dimly remembered from some 1960s jukebox (though all Earle originals.) During this stretch of The Good Life, neither his voice nor his songwriting is strong enough to raise the results above the generic. Yet the folkier intimacy he displays on "Who Am I to Say" and "Turn Out the Lights" shows a singer-songwriter who can really get under the listener's skin when he isn't trying to sing over a band. Saving the best for last, he sounds a little like his dad on "Far Away In Another Town," but he also sounds like an artist coming into his own.


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The Grit- Straight Out The Alley

Straight Out The Alley is the second album by British band The Grit. They have upgraded to a quintet since their debut Shall We Dine from 2007, and the second guitar really works wonders. Rarely a CD conveys pleasure of music as well as here.
The musicians have an extremely uncomplicated approach and combine gaudily different styles like punk, rockabilly, country, folk, rock’n’roll and ska into something that begs to be danced to. Just imagine Misfits, Social Distortion and The Clash jamming together, with Mick Jones taking over the microphone. The CD is a musical journey straight through the rock garden where tex mex, ska, reggae, vintage rock and punk follow each other in a seemingly arbitrary way, and sometimes even happen simultaneously. The band doesn’t shy away from genre atypical instruments, like the horn section on 12th Floor, but uses also harmonica, mandolin and ukulele. Only the nine minute long Here We Go Again, consisting actually of two acoustic pieces, is somewhat tedious, but as the last track on the CD, it doesn’t interrupt the flow.
Globally speaking, The Grit are a rock’n’roll band. The word “boredom” is not in their dictionary, giving Straight Out The Alley every chance of becoming a milestone that can be placed next to the classics of modern rock’n’roll from Social Distortion, Volbeat, Ramones, Turbonegro,… This album should mean the breakthrough for The Grit.

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