Born To Die – Lana Del Rey

  I’m sure you’ve heard Lana Del Rey’s name floating about the music scene for a while now – but it is only recently that her songs have drifted into my ears in a chilling way. This is especially weird as she has actually been on the music scene since 2008, but not under “Lana Del Rey”. You may have heard of her as “Lizzy Grant” – her real name. With this name she released…

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Album Review: “Queen of the Wave,” Pepe Deluxé

Let me tell you – this album is bizarre.  REALLY bizarre.  it’s a pop-opera based on a crazy novel about Atlantis from the late 1800s, with a style that mixes up hundreds of musical sub-genres in each song.  Each individual element seems too far-fetched to enjoy, but when combined something wonderful and twisted is created.  Speaking of the combined pieces, Pepe Deluxé describe themselves as “an inter-continental orchestra,” but the two “conductors” of this orchestra are…

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Hot Streaming: “Love Interruption,” Jack White’s Newest Single

Jack White Shaving

Jack White, former frontman of the garage-rock duo The White Stripes and current member of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, has just unveiled the first single off his debut solo album Blunderbuss.  The single, “Love Interruption,” is currently streaming at Third Man Records’ website, and will be released as a 7″ single February 7th. This leading single is a bluesy acoustic track, with a soft jazz organ and clarinet playing in the background.  Jack…

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Matthew Beer’s Stunning Tribute

Since her sudden death of July 23rd 2011, Amy Winehouse has been the focus of more tributes than can be counted. From Bruno Mars at the VMAs to Green Day at their secret show, quite a few high profile artists have thrown their musical hats into the ring of Amy tributes. Not to say all of these aren’t sincere, but the truth of the matter is that most of these artists had most likely never been…

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Album Review: Tom Waits, “Bad As Me”

Tom Waits’ newest album, Bad As Me, feels like a nice change from boring ol’ Rock & Roll.  In fact, it’s everything but!  As one goes from track to track, there’s soul, jazz, folk, some Spanish-sounding ballads, and more.  Tom Waits has always been a versatile artist, and he sure shows it on his newest offering. Take the opening track, “Chicago.”  It feels like the studio engineer hit “record” just a few seconds after the band…

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Godsmack’s Sully Erna presents “Avalon”

Sully Erna - Avalon

Sully Erna, front man for the band Godsmack has released his new album “Avalon” into the world. This is a collection of music put perfectly together after many years in the making.  Track by track each song more powerful then the next, stretching his musical talent to new places.  Different from the Godsmack style and sound, this album has a Pink Floyd trippy vibe, with a mix…

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On the Road with Ben Kitterman

Ben Kitterman

Ben Kitterman was enjoying a much needed break from the tour in Indiana when I had a chance to catch up with him. Just a few nights before he was 1,500 miles away playing in Biloxi, MS.; a place that holds fond memories for him. Biloxi is the city where he first coupled with the front man of Staind, Aaron Lewis by joining his current tour. Ben is…

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Deborah Crooks: “It’s All Up To You”

Album name: It’s All Up To You Artist name: Deborah Crooks Genre: Folk Rock Released: 11 March 2010 Label: Deborah Crooks ZME Rating: 6/10 Website: deborahcrooks.com/ It’s probably my own fault for not having a wide enough frame of reference for this kind of thing, but still: the first comparison that came to mind when listening to Deborah Crooks’ It’s All Up To You EP was the relatively obscure 1992 solo album Izzy Stradlin made…

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Amber Rubarth: 12 Bar Club, London, 3/6/10

A matter of weeks ago, I took a short trip to London, during which I was serendipitous enough to catch an Amber Rubarth gig. Although that may be less down to serendipity, and more to the fact that I flew over specifically for it. She was also gracious enough to allow me to pester her with questions and bad jokes for half an hour or so. Now, following some internal complications and day-job-related lethargy and…

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Scoring Joan Rivers

Bleurgh. Apologies for that. But! There is good news to share. And here it is: perennial ZME favourite, talented indie songstress and rather lovely person to boot, Amber Rubarth had a hand in scoring the new Joan Rivers biopic, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, which opens in US theatres on Friday. Of course, in some ways, this isn’t good news. One way it’s bad is because I’ll never see this film, a result of…

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