Neil Young, Harvest (1972) Choosing this album was harder than I thought it’d be, since I’m truly in love with almost everything Neil’s put out. Even to this day, he’s able to experiment with his style. This album needs to be regularly spinning for any songwriter — the lyrics are heavy and inspirational. The Beach […]
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Kill the Reflection — Together … Apart …
Unlike Depth & Current’s last-sane-man-on-Earth narrators, however, the characters residing in Kill the Reflection’s second full-length, “Together … Apart … ,” are just as fractured and disjointed as their environments. With “No Love at All,” we have such a song that opens with a bit of dour note-picking straight out of the Nirvana textbook. Singer […]
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Soundcheck: Woody Awards nominations
Back after a long year of rocking and rolling, hipping and hopping, twanging and clapping, Oklahoma Gazette’s Woody Awards are once again calling for nominations. You may nominate up to three bands in as many of the categories as you wish by commenting on this article with your picks (see the example below). Please be […]
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Two Suns — Dream Familiar
While it might be tempting to write this enterprise off as another of many Radiohead tributes, the album’s far too nuanced and interesting to squarely categorize. After “Not the End”’s shoegazey, textured drumming and “Nostalgia”’s chiming Americana, “Dirty Industry” slurps and sizzles with guttural, low-end bass and synths that approach learned dubstep. Davidson’s songwriting isn’t […]
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Day One — Art by Death
On one lyric of the song “Dream Circus,” Chris Wallace raps about “Robert Frost poems read from the mouth of a deer”; the next, he’s name-checking former Thunder point guard and comically small dunker Nate Robinson. It’s weird stuff, for sure, but the ACM@UCO student, who comprises art-rap duo Day One with moody musician Logan […]
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Peach — Peachy-P
On its 15-minute debut, Oklahoma City fusion trio Peach seems content playing on words and naming the last song “Short Record.” And setting its genre at “metal” when it pulls up in the listener’s iTunes library. For all this and the casual, greasy-lounge feel of some of these songs, I wonder how serious these guys […]
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Crown Imperial — Crown Imperial
The opener, “I’m Static,” darts out with a quick throttle before giving way to full and charming chorus echoing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Only Colourmusic and Other Lives rival the group in terms of a quality single, but no one even touches its catchiness. The tribal trill of the dangerous “Elevator” follows, […]
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The Damn Quails — Down The Hatch
Showcased front and center amid a backing band circus that includes John Fullbright and Joe Hardy, White and Marshall confidently steer their way through 14 songs set in smoky bars, busted-up relationships, bluegrass towns and even the pokey. Despite their relative youth, the pair boasts many years’ experience, and it really shows in the strong […]
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Soundcheck: Beetyman — Underdog
That said, another quality GRP FLY-sporting rapper’s emerged from the fertile Oklahoma City ground that produced Jabee, Josh Sallee and aDDLib. Beetyman hails from the east side, as he informs us on his aptly named debut LP “Underdog,” a record full of optimistic brass samples that surround a genuine, young talent. Per the album title, […]
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Soundcheck: Junebug Spade — Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Things crackle to life on this short disc, goofily titled “Extra Virgin Olive Oil,” by layering Peter Seay’s great, big, grinning voice over his vintage, red dirt-crunching guitars (reinforced by fellow riffing ace AJ Sadeghi), which lick their way across the opening track, “Aborigine.” “EVOO” makes for a fun, heavily stoned 18 minutes of music, […]