The 11 tracks traverse complex and emotionally rich terrain — Robert Earl Keen would approve — and so vividly that you can almost smell, as the first song coins it, “cheap perfume and gin and smoke and lies.” A definite honky-tonk sensibility is at work here, from Kyle Nix’s raggedly effective fiddle work to Evan […]
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The Black Jack Gypsys — 3:1
This is honest-to-God rock music for which revivalists home and afar have been clamoring — the type of music you imagine spilling out the door of some small, sweaty club on the Sunset Strip in the late ’60s. This is the Mad Max of debut EPs: hot, dangerous and tons of fun. The act opens […]
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K.C. and the sunshine grand
Credit: Kriea Arie It’s not at all uncommon to hear musicians comparing their new albums to their children. Months are spent laboring over every detail. An intimate bond exists with something in which they’ve invested their entire soul. There’s an optimistic apprehension to the idea of letting this creation move into the world on its […]
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Parker Millsap and Michael Rose — Palisade
Like velvet laid over gravel, Millsap’s voice plays gruff, jagged and unexpectedly smooth at the same time. He captures the essence of Tom Waits’ vocals better than a 19-year-old singer ever should; fans of Closing Time-era Waits will find lots to like here, albeit more countrified. The opening title track saunters with a saucy strut […]
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Chug along
From The Byrds to The Band, country-inspired folk rock played a huge part in the path Last Train Home has taken since forming in 1997. So did Slayer and Megadeth. For seven years, bandleader Eric Brace was a Washington Post music columnist before quitting to focus on his burgeoning roots-rock outfit. The time he spent […]
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Rather chilling
Vacationer’s work isn’t so much songs as aural postcards from Mumbai or St. Croix. The relaxing electro is certainly a far cry from the frenetic pop-punk that made mastermind Kenny Vasoli famous with The Starting Line. “I always just want to make the music that makes me excited,” he said. “I’d been getting deeper and […]
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Hud home
Hudson Moore is something of a young gun on the country circuit. At just 22, he’d seem more at place at college than opening for the likes of Alan Jackson. In truth, he’d be right in the thick of finals if not dropping out to pursue music full-time. “I had these songs that I had […]
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Admirals — Admirals
Seconds into “Sirens,” one can tell that Radiohead and Muse register high on the band’s radar, yet more bound by convention than either. If that reads as a dig, it’s not necessarily meant to be; as much as Admirals obviously lust after that huge, space-rock sound, it also strives to be catchy and accessible. It’s […]
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Anger management
Mike Ness has been guilty of many things — more than he’d like to remember, or even can remember — but holding back on his emotions isn’t one of them. As the singer, guitarist and all-around force behind the three-decades-strong punk band Social Distortion, the man has summoned plenty of personal demons in hard-charging, college-radio […]
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B real
The trio, which began as a quartet in 2003, is composed of Tré McCoy of Omaha, Neb.; Dele Olasiji of Norman; and Eric Hollowell of Davenport, Iowa. They met at a party in 2001, while attending college. “Four different states and we all happened to end up at the same party,” McCoy said. “The name […]