Fans of guitar tone have a lot to learn about Bill Johnson. His fourth album, Cold Outside should be the one that has this Vancouver Island native flying high above the radar, finally. Ripe with an abundance of select tracks, Johnson proves...
Derek Miller
The Dirty Looks
Arbor
I try to balance the good and bad in my reviews, even if I'm not into the style. I don't like saying it, but the sophomore album from Ontario's Derek Miller thoroughly sucks. It sounds like a bar band...
Best of 2016: The Garage received a lot of blues CDs this year and all of them were above standard, but ultimately had to be judged for other reasons of personality, believability, skill and versatility, etc. Take a bow Michael Kaeshammer a...
Sadly, this is One Drop’s final album. There’s worse news, too. One Drop has kicked the can for the last time. Yeah, the band has disbanded after a six year experience. Hopefully they’ll get back together sooner or later, as this five...
Bill Johnson contributes eight originals to his Still Blue, each one a fine example of a contemporary blues song, not merely a retread of a familiar 12 bar theme, and each sung in his evocative voice. The variety of approaches, from the sne...
The Beatdown
Walkin' Proud
CD - LP
Stomp Records - STMP099
The Beatdown have become masters of their craft! Their 2010 debut album saw the group carry on the work put down with One Night Band and carried into into garage rock terri...
Unfamiliar Records.
The scene has been hit by the sharp sounds of a new five piece: The Clips. The debut album Matterhorn is made of raw, electric energy mingling among melodies. Lyrically, the album is freeform, created strictly from wh...
The Japandroids are a two piece guitar wailing, drum pounding, singing machine, (do droids get angry when you call them machines?) and ‘Lullaby Death Jams’ is their recipe for a good time. It’s made up of five interestingly good track...
Corbin Murdoch and the Nautical Miles
Wartime Love Song
Steeped in sweet melancholy and lyrical charm, Wartime Love Song, the second album by Corbin Murdoch and the Nautical Miles, enchants its listeners with an extended-concept love so...
New single by The Glorious Sons a catchy summer hummer.
Montreal’s own Eternal Husbands have released their third album French Exit.
Within, the band has once again merged the ambiguous genres of pop, noise and shoegaze, resulting in their best work to date.
French Exit features soothing...
BLACK MOUNTAIN
In The Future
Jagjaguwar
When I hear Stephen McBean’s slowly-picked A-minor guitar intro for “Stormy High,” I’m almost tricked into thinking it’s a cover of “Hell’s Bells,” but then the swing-time Black...
Angela Verbrugge: The Night We Couldn’t Say Goodnight (Gut String) A review of the debut album from the Canadian vocalist