Video Premiere: Deep Dark Woods, Rodney Crowell - Live from the Americana Music Convention
Each year, the Americana Music Association arrives in Nashville, Tenn. to celebrate the genre and congratulate the accomplishments of its artists. Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records had several of their artists sit for a series of intimate performances at Minutia Studios between t. Catch two clips from their series exclusively in the players below. The first is with Deep Dark Woods, a Canadian band that charmed Paste back at Newport Folk Festival with their alt-country sound. The second comes from Rodney Crowell, the Grammy Award-winning musician who has produced and written tracks on several hit records for other artists... read more
Found in: Featured VideosIsobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan: Hawk
Unlikely duo loses its spark Isobel Campbell (she of angelic voice and formerly Belle & Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (he of rusty growl and formerly Screaming Trees) have made three albums of beautiful country-folk together, their voices co-existing like wine and whiskey. But while their first two collaborative efforts were largely slow, quiet affairs, their new album Hawk is more dynamic, featuring both whispered ballads and dusty, boot-stomping rockers, and not always for the best.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsBlue Giant: Blue Giant
Perfectly ragged Blue Giant’s debut LP begins with a song about starting over, and that’s just what these Pacific Northwesterners have done. Comprised of members from a smattering of Portland bands and anchored by Viva Voce’s Kevin and Anita Robinson, the new outfit’s hungry, impulsive olio of folk, rock and alt-country tangles up the sounds of its members’ pasts in a tumbleweed of strings, drawls and hollers. On the album’s more provincial moments, like the wistful “Target Heart,” soft whispers adorn raggedy acoustics like flecks of sunlight on a dusty barn floor; elsewhere, “Blue Sunshine” stomps and bucks its way... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsGreg Laswell: Take a Bow
Generic SoCal rock doesn’t Ask yourself a simple question: When you hear a stirring mid-tempo ballad on Grey’s Anatomy, do you rush off to the iTunes Store? If the answer is yes, then Greg Laswell’s Take a Bow is absolutely for you. The L.A. smoothie’s fourth album so expertly splits time between intimate ballads, atmospheric soft rock and starchy hard rock that it feels focus-grouped. “My Fight (For You)” is a dimly smoldering piano ballad and “Lie to Me” wearily climbs tier upon tier of chiming guitars; meanwhile, the hard rock aspects are unconvincing—the crashing chorus of “Come Clean,” for... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsThe Watson Twins: Talking to You, Talking to Me
Mediocre mewling Soft pop—good soft pop—has a place in the world. Not every song must electrify. But The Watson Twins make Norah Jones sound like Sharon Jones. They make She & Him sound like Ike & Tina. Their spectacularly boring new album has so little dynamic variance that it literally pains the ear.... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsLevon Helm: Electric Dirt
The throaty warble that characterizes the vocals of... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsMindy Smith Offers Stupid Love in August
We've been following songstress Mindy Smith for many years now, so we're happy to announce that she'll be dropping her first album in two years, Stupid Love, on Aug. 11 through Vanguard Records.... read more
Found in: Music, News
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
