Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Radian’s “Distorted Rooms”
Distorted Rooms is the first Radian record in seven years. That may seem like a long time, even allowing for

Essential New Music: Hello Whirled’s “No Use Crying Over Spilled Blood”
Whenever anyone writes about Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices, it’s a fair bet they mention that he’s prolific. (You

Essential New Music: James Brandon Lewis/Red Lily Quintet’s “For Mahalia, With Love”
For Mahalia, With Love is a record that gets down to fundamentals, but not just in the way that its

Essential New Music: P.G. Six’s “Murmurs & Whispers”
Pat Gubler is the kind of guy who can intuit fellow musicians’ ideals and help them sound like better versions

Essential New Music: Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense”
The movie Stop Making Sense constitutes an undeniable high for Talking Heads. The Jonathan Demme-directed documentary of the band’s 1983

Essential New Music: Naujawanan Baidar’s “Khedmat Be Khalq”
Naujawanan Baidar grew from heavy psych combo Myrrors, but don’t call it a side project. Rather, consider it to be

Essential New Music: L. Eugene Methe’s “Maybe, Tomorrow”
L. Eugene Methe’s work to date has been all over the map. The Nebraska-based musician has recorded one LP of

Essential New Music: The Rempis Percussion Quartet’s “Harvesters”
Dave Rempis has been an essential figure on Chicago’s improvised music scene for more than a quarter century. But while

Essential New Music: Guided By Voices’ “Welshpool Frillies”
After penning a review of 2018’s Space Gun—and compiling a well-received (sarcasm) ranking of Guided By Voices’ 25 LPs up

Essential New Music: Attempt Survivors’ “Negative Nite”
“Extinction is the rule,” Carl Sagan once wrote. “Survival is the exception.” Most of the time, that seems like a

Essential New Music: Mike Cooper’s “Life & Death In Paradise + Milan Acoustic Live 2018”
The moment when it seems like you have nothing to lose can be a good time to strike a deal.

Essential New Music: Jim O’Rourke’s “Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”
Jim O’Rourke’s passion for film has informed his music from the start. Cinematic notions of pacing and structure influence his