(Photo found here.)

I first heard The Tailgators back in the early or mid-1990s and became enamored of their easy-going swamp rock.
The band started out in Austin, Texas back in 1985 and have released seven albums. Some of their material reminds me of CCR with Don Leady’s catchy guitar riffs fronting a straightforward roots rock tune. [...]

Introducing Gunnelpumpers from Chicago. I first heard them only yesterday. With multiple basses, percussion, and the odd guitar and what not, it sounds like they do a lot of improvisation. Not sure what song this is but it’s great. On first listen I thought that it sounded like a cross between King Crimson and Santana.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops follow up their Grammy-winning 2010 effort Genuine Negro Jig with Leaving Eden. During the intervening two years founding member Justin Robinson went his own way and was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins. Beatboxer Adam Matta and cellist Leyla McCalla are semi-regular contributors and both toured with the band last year, though [...]

Madison’s Reptile Palace Orchestra released a new album last month, Songs and Dances of Madisonia. It’s their first album in almost nine years. I listened to it over the weekend and it is great.
Here’s a lengthy sample:

Balkan Beat Box have a new album on tap called Give. It will be released tomorrow, in fact. The [...]

Ronnie Montrose passed away on Saturday, likely from cancer. My roommates and I listened to Montrose quite a bit back in college. “Rock Candy” was some great music to accompany our pre-beers before heading out to the tavern.

This is apparently Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers proclaiming his membership in the 99%. 27 years without a royalty check! What kind of contract did they sign? The hit song they licensed is presumably “Time Has Come Today”.
With stories like this one and revelations that the big labels commit copyright infringement themselves, it is [...]

Razor & Tie announced a couple weeks ago that they are going to be re-releasing a chunk of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s back catalogue. A new best-of is out now while later this year we’ll get reissues of their first six albums. These will be “newly expanded” in one way or another with 5.1 stereo [...]

(Photo found here.)

Yamantaka // Sonic Titan are a duo consisting of Alaska B and Ruby Kato Attwood and they hail from Montreal. Ms. B is apparently Chinese-Irish-Canadian while Ms. Attwood is Japanese-Scottish-Canadian. They call their music Noh-Wave in reference to Noh, a traditional form of Japanese musical theatre.
While there are no doubt lots of musical [...]

Another group of alt-country musos is taking on the Woody Guthrie legacy. This time around it is Jay Farrar with Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), Anders Parker (Varnaline, Gob Iron), and Yim Yames (My Morning Jacket, Monsters of Folk). I liked Parker’s work with Farrar in Gob Iron and know of My Morning Jacket [...]

The Carolina Chocolate Drops have a new album due on 28 February called Leaving Eden. They’ll be touring in support of it and will be here in Madison at the Capitol Theatre on 4 May. Tickets go on sale 10 February and are $19.75 adv, $25 DOS. The band are back to being a trio [...]