Great news, guys! The Carolina Chocolate Drops are bringing their “Genuine Negro Jig” to Oklahoma as part of OK Mozart! Wait, what? “It’s more important than ever to remain culturally relevant and financially stable. We’re expanding to other genres and art forms,” said Shane Jewell, executive director of the annual OK Mozart International Music Festival. […]
Music Features
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Business opportunity
That J Roddy Walston wanted to be a musician shouldn’t have come as a surprise, being born in a family more musical than most. Maybe it was being told at a young age that it was a sin to play music for any reason other than God or family that relegated him to privacy. “It […]
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Paleo — Fruit of the Spirit
“Pharoah” is a morose wanderer that would be right at home on Sufjan Stevens’ “Michigan,” while the upbeat “Over the Hill and Back Again” sounds like something that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah could churn out. The fact that these tunes are back-to-back on his album is telling — to call it “eclectic” would be […]
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Two Suns — Two Suns EP
That structural approach to songwriting puts the emphasis on the vocals. The unusual male vocals are sheathed in gentle reverb (not garage rock’s canyon-esque echoes), and fall just above “coo” on the intensity level. The voice is not immediately arresting, but when paired with the pulsing, shifting tunes, it becomes the final piece to pull […]
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Queen — Queen / Queen II / Sheer Heart Attack / A Night at the Opera / A Day at the Races
That’s not the case with most of the latest offerings from the Queen back catalog to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary. The first of three waves presents the band’s first five albums — “Queen,” “Queen II,” “Sheer Heart Attack,” “A Night at the Opera” and “A Day at the Races” — spanning their 1971 formation […]
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Carrie Rodriguez and Ben Kyle — We Still Love Our Country
There are only eight tunes on the record, but they are all wonderful. Townes Van Zandt’s “If I Needed You” gets a spare, forlorn treatment only trumped by the astoundingly gorgeous John Prine/Robert Braddock number “Unwed Fathers.” The former is the sort of song that stays on your mixtapes for months, if not years. Fans […]
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Manchester Orchestra — Simple Math
It’s June, and the early front-runners for 2011 album of the year are Tyler the Creator’s lewd/homophobic/sexist/angsty “Goblin” and Adele’s “21.” I’m terrible at predicting what blogs will like (read: chillwave, Sleigh Bells), but if the music world were a just place, the members of Manchester Orchestra would be waving trophies above their heads for […]
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Dr. Pants — The Trip Side 1: Illusion & Truth
The Oklahoma City-based quartet plays straightforward pop songs here, relying on vocals and lyrics to carry the release instead of the ear-crushing, distorted guitars of Weezer, to which the group is often compared. This is made clear from the onset, as “Move So Slow” is played primarily on an acoustic guitar and hangs on a […]
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Bar association
Stalling just long enough for a handful of fans to arrive, he donned his cocky, Elvis-styled persona, stepped onstage with his trusty Rock ’n’ Roll Trio, and set out to spread the gospel of rockabilly to regulars still grumbling about the $5 cover charge. “When you play in a bar, people see you who might […]
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Fantasmagorical
Grupo Fantasma’s experience with Prince may not have been chummy, but it was certainly memorable. “He made it clear from the get-go that he wasn’t trying to make new friends and wasn’t interested in hanging with us. He liked our music and wanted to experience that music, to not only take something from it, but […]