2011
Eddie Clendening featuring the Modern Sounds
"is...Knockin' At Your Heart" (Ventrella)
A lean and hungry cat -- trim sports jacket, trucker sideburns, talent in wicked abundance -- snaps open like a hipster's jacknife. Slicing off echoey slabs of flair is Chicago's uber versatile roots spellcasters
Modern Sounds. If not royalty reborn, Mr. Eddie heads the hip -swaying shadow line.
Modern Sounds. If not royalty reborn, Mr. Eddie heads the hip -swaying shadow line.
Recommended "Long Tall Lou (from Louisville)," "Respectfully, Miss Brooks"
Hillbilly Casino
Tennessee Stomp (Hobolight)
HC's blooming anti-Industry bootstrapism -- entailing self-recording / booking/everything -- grows organically from the band's above-all calling: taking rock'n'roll (in all of its sundry aspects, including honky tonk and punk) to barrooms full of hoarse-throated, mug-waving true believers. And now, the group is even better than before. Take that, Handlebar.
Recommended "Tennessee Stomp," "The Ballad of Psycho Steve"
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch)
Clap hands, bend knees, and know that it's good to breathe. Raise dust 'round the porch to these upturned hearts anthemizing a jump-down, turn-around people -- and that's all of us, this being a chunk of America's heart. Yesterday/today seamlessness locates actualization via banjos, fiddles, leg percussion, and "computer hard drive 'triangle.'" Humanity steps it down.
Recommended "Your Baby Ain't Sweet Like Mine," "Cornbread and Butterbeans"
The Chop Tops
"Deadly Love" (Swillbilly)
No surprise that these three cruel cats drew impressive fan numbers at Viva. As grit-stocked punk pools tilted outlook with country/ska/blues / verboten Sun psalmizings, pomaded thugs furiously kick-dance on a switchblade's razor: fists curled, 'fuck-you' eyes aflame.
Recommended "Hard Luck," "Nothing For Something"
Truly Lover Trio
"Bullseye" (Twinkletone)
Suavity, enthrallingly gentle melodicism, implicit ebbulliance -- these
rank prominently among TTT's identifiers.Affectionate, winsome nods to the Wink Troubador elevate Bullesye tall o'er less graceful and
clambering roarers. Refinement, it seems, offers a strength not
accessible to unthinkingly cacophonous cut outs.
rank prominently among TTT's identifiers.Affectionate, winsome nods to the Wink Troubador elevate Bullesye tall o'er less graceful and
clambering roarers. Refinement, it seems, offers a strength not
accessible to unthinkingly cacophonous cut outs.
Recommended "Twice Sorry," "You"
Kings of Nuthin'
"Old Habits die hard" (Sailor's Grave)
Having crossed the rubicon dividing college kicks and bill-paying proposition, the Kings articulate matters that require living. Amid raucous -as-ever, punk-splayed and hyper-sudsy r'n'r (still the group's finest weapon) are a mature-perspectived can't-go-home essay, an aware, seasoned blast at the corporate music industry that routinely crushes musicians, and a markedly pensive piano/violin/cello moment in which strained-angst throat pipes nod toward Tom Waits.
Recommended "The List," "Congratulations"
Howitzer
"Police State" (Hazard Hill)
Laced up, splenetic and politically aware trio agitpunk, cut in 2006.
"They took our freedom with the Patriot Act...One world run by corporate
greed" is, sadly, no less relevant in the Obama years as the Bush ones.
Boots on!
"They took our freedom with the Patriot Act...One world run by corporate
greed" is, sadly, no less relevant in the Obama years as the Bush ones.
Boots on!
Recommended "Inciting a Riot," "Some Gave All"
Hot Rod Hillbillies
"You Wanna Race" (HRHB)
Galloping down into town from the highest ridge is fatal thunder: The
Xavier Ortiz Gang rides again. At the Lone Star string-strangler's
elbow, their Colt's spitting flames, are Tony Slash, David Cisneros, Al
Martinez, Dave Irish. As always, it's a crashing bar-chord hoedown. There'll be one helluva pit down at the old corral tonight...
Xavier Ortiz Gang rides again. At the Lone Star string-strangler's
elbow, their Colt's spitting flames, are Tony Slash, David Cisneros, Al
Martinez, Dave Irish. As always, it's a crashing bar-chord hoedown. There'll be one helluva pit down at the old corral tonight...
Recommended "Good, Bad, Ugly," "Probation"
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