New Music

Shadowgraphs exit before tripping into circling narratives and lost trajectories. Another Time is a welcomed surprise; filled with AM radio discoveries, odes to rock’s over-stretching reach, and earnest songwriting capable of stockpiling numerous time capsules of eras past and present.

Craig goes inward time and time again to reach outward. Frequently void of definable rhythms and inevitable structures, Thresholder is a gift of stirring sounds coming full circle without resembling anything in our astral plane.

Seattle has long been known as the hometown of jazz pioneers from the Jackson Street era with Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Ernestine Anderson all getting their start in the district decades ago. The Blues Chanteuse aka Nora Michaels also got her start in the emerald city and has been singing ballads and torch songs in nightclubs for over fifty years.

Instead of being just another album of Beatles covers, Off the White Album takes a unique approach to the Beatles’ catalogue, and comes up with something clever and distinctive.

Written after a crushing breakup, the aptly titled “OUCH” is a wheelbarrow of heartache that soothes more than it scrapes. Light like fractionated coconut oil, Krgovich reaches the dry corners with a viscosity of surprises and intimacy worth scooting in on.

It’s another sad song of loss and disillusion, but the music’s insinuating pull somehow makes that state of mind feel seductive. And that’s what draws you back to Alice in Chain’s music, time and again.

Recorded by Portland legend Jimi Bott at his Roseleaf Studios, the new album is a sweet mix of roots, blues and soul with Rice joined by a few other talented friends and northwest music scene staples like Mitch Kashmar, Paul Brainard, Dave Melyan and Natasia Greycloud.

The result of over a year’s work is a solid mix of tunes akin to fellow acoustic pop singers Ed Sheeran, Phil Phillips and Glen Hansard.

The 10 new tracks are a throwback collection of gritty, high energy R&B-flavored 70’s garage rock and a touch of blues. I’m All Yours finds Hope and his longtime band bassist Erik Nielsen, keyboardist Matt Kelly, and drummer Adrian Mack paying tribute to heroes T. Rex, New York Dolls and David Bowie.

Taylor’s Future Fog is tethered by symmetry of well-established sound architecture, where listening close bares nuance to his shaped periphery. Clamorous and lurid tones, looped caterwauls, and heavyset layering blast the comforting noise, while the ‘pretty’ hums mimic the autumnal swirls, giving Future Fog a masterfully balanced and lived in space joining an already rich discography.

The instantaneous effect of Garbage People is like a 100% organic grape juice box – conveniently packaged, easy to drink, and sweetened without fillers. Like the best social commentaries of our time, The Wimps understand the chord between humor and substance. And they even provide the straw.

No classic album would be complete without a traveling tune, so Michelle and the boys take sentimental trip down south on the country tinged “Highway 65,” complete with sweet high lonesome slide guitar.

The songs themselves have a classic rock feel with most of them clocking in around five and a half minutes, a lost touch with a lot of today’s ADHD riddled short pop songs. The lyrics however add a modern and open-minded flair, bridging together classic rock nuances with timely and progressive thinking.

The American dream still lives in the hearts of some true believers and burns brightest in those who have lived abroad. Singer-songwriter Thys Wallwork was born in South Africa and grew up in Hong Kong with his dad playing him American rock records, now he and his band Skinny Blue have made one of their own.