RECENT ARTICLES

When listening to Peter Donovan’s new debut solo single, “Good To Be Alive,” it’s impossible not to hear a little tragedy in the melody. Donovan, who also fronts the Seattle-based Americana band, All The Real Girls, wrote and recorded the song before the Coronavirus pandemic for the Emerald City’s Bushwick Book Club, which hosts regular shows featuring music based on popular books. Inspired by the children’s series, Frog and Toad, the chorus for the song is, “It’s good to be alive, with a friend by your side. It’s good to be alive these days.” And while music exists, in some way, on its own, outside of context, in another way, this particular song, when heard within the context of COVID-19 is eerie.

“It’s really weird,” Donovan says. “I did write and record it right before the lockdown happened. I kind of wrote it as this, ‘Hey, look on the bright side of life, life’s not that bad!’ But now it almost has this very literal overtone, too.”

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Lilting songwriter, William Fitzsimmons, remembers following his mother around the house and mimicking her voice. She sang soprano and Fitzsimmons picked up on the high register affectation. Around their house, his mother and father would also play folk musicians on the stereo, artists like Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Simon & Garfunkel and John Denver. So, when Fitzsimmons began to sing his own songs later as an adult, the vocal sounds didn’t come from his chest voice. Rather, a softer, more delicate tone emerged. It’s a mood for which he’s become well known and it’s one prevalent on his glinting forthcoming record, Ready The Astronaut, set for release this summer.

“I think I thought that’s just how you’re supposed to sing,” Fitzsimmons says. “I thought you were supposed to sing high. Like when John Denver sings ‘Annie’s Song,’ you don’t really want to belt it out. It’s supposed to be this very pretty, smooth delivery.”

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Mitch Galbraith, guitarist for the Northern Beaches, Sydney, Australia-based rock ‘n’ roll band, Ocean Alley, remembers the group’s early days. High school best friends, the six-piece would get together in its formative years in backyard toolsheds or family garages to play and write music after school before dinnertime. Galbraith remembers “a lot of sand” in the makeshift rehearsal spaces, which were a mere five-minute walk from the nearby beaches. He also remembers, in one garage, having to move the car out before setting up the gear and doing that again in reverse after practice. Those stories now, though, seem quaint when considering the success Ocean Alley has achieved, which will again be punctuated by the release of the band’s forthcoming LP, Lonely Diamond, out June 19th (pre-order).

“As you can imagine,” Galbraith says, “the garages and sheds out back were not very acoustically sound. It was interesting learning in such a dingy environment.”

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When singer-songwriter, Olivia Rox, was 9-years-old, she played the lead role in Annie at Boulder, Colorado’s Dinner Theater. Rox, who’d already toured the country with her professional musician father, saxophonist Warren Hill, was ready for the assignment. At just two-and-a-half years old, Rox had sung to hundreds, performing, “Someday My Prince Will Come,” at one of her father’s gigs. For Annie, Rox performed 75 nights. At such a young age, she learned the rigors of getting ready and the reward of reading and performing to the room. In other words, she’d quickly become a pro. Now, just over a decade later, Rox has released her own solo record, POPROX, and she’s ready for a great deal more.

“For one,” Rox says, “I’m a perfectionist. Everything I do, I try to do the best I can. Whenever I’m writing a song, I try to make it great. I find myself constantly inspired by the world around me, no matter where I am or whether I’m on tour or sitting at home with my dogs on my lap.”

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For many during the pandemic, writing new music has been difficult. Social distancing and the shut down of businesses have caused a type of isolation that has hurt the creative process for some (including Ben Gibbard). But for Shana Cleveland, founder and principle songwriter for the Los Angeles-based harmony-centered rock ‘n’ roll band, La Luz, quarantine hasn’t derailed her songwriting efforts. In fact, Cleveland is working on two albums at this time – a new La Luz record and a new solo album. Writing, for the artist, is just about all there is to do professionally now that recording and touring have been halted. So, that’s what she’s doing on her 9-acre stretch of land in Northern California.

“My partner, Will, and I are both touring musicians,” Cleveland says. “We spend a lot of time in cities as it is. So, we thought, we don’t have to live in a city. I’ve always gone out into nature and isolation to write, that’s always felt like the place where I could let my mind wander the easiest. So, living in this place is where I can be most creative.”

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When listening to the Seattle-based instrumental soul group, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, you might hear the chorus of your favorite song played eloquently on a nimble organ. The thing is, however, that chorus might be wrapped in the body of another song or even a song within a third. That’s the nature of DLO3. The band’s music often resembles a Russian Doll where the hook from a hit like “Move On Up” is tucked into a cover of another like “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Organist and front man, Delvon Lamarr, is a sonic encyclopedia. Fans can enjoy his vast acumen via the group’s latest single (a cover of “Inner City Blues”) or forthcoming live streams on the group’s Facebook page June 1st and 3rd.

“I’m my own Spotify,” jokes Lamarr. “Everything I hear stays in my head.”

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Each year, Pete Bernhard, front man for the Santa Cruz-born Americana group, The Devil Makes Three, likes to celebrate the unofficial national cannabis holiday – April 20th– with his band. Often, the trio likes to release limited edition merchandise to commemorate the occasion. But this year, Bernhard went above and beyond the annual call of duty. Since much of his music life has been put on hold due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Bernhard decided to devote his resources to releasing a new solo record on the holiday, Harmony Ascension Division, an album that sits very much in the tradition of timeless American blues and folks LPs.

“It’s been one of the only real positive things about the forced time of unemployment,” Bernhard says. “The record was a project that I’d had on the back burner for a while, not because it didn’t feel important but because I wasn’t able to find the time to put it out.”

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Elizabeth McCullough, also known as the New York City-based rock and roll artist, Alpha Cat, knew the moment she had to give up drinking. She was at a diner and had ordered a greasy cheddar cheese omelet. But as she waited there on the counter, she shook. Her body wanted a drink so badly that she could hardly sit in her chair. That’s it, McCullough thought, enough. And she hasn’t had a drink since. McCullough’s personal history is full of episodes like this: difficulties she’s had to navigate to find herself in safer waters. As such, the concept of freedom is central to the music of Alpha Cat, which is most evident in the latest music video for the single, “Thatched Roof Glass House,” from the 2019 album of the same name.

“I decided way back when I was in graduate school,” says McCullough, “that basically everything that occurs in life that you witness is a metaphor for what’s going on inside of your head. And with this song, that’s definitely the case.”

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When examining the life and career of the notorious musician, Saul Hudson, better known, of course, as the Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist, Slash, one uncovers a great many gems. For example, the UK-born musician was high school classmates with the handsome rocker, Lenny Kravitz. Slash’s parents were also well-respected celebrity artists. His mother, Ola, was a costume designer for artists like David Bowie and Janis Joplin and his father, Anthony, created album covers for musicians like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. In fact, says Slash, seeing Mitchell strumming the guitar in the studio at an early age is one of his fondest memories.

“I always liked Joni Mitchell when I was a kid,” Slash says. “I was around her a lot. I remember going to a couple Joni sessions at A&M Studios in L.A. and I was very intrigued by that whole environment. It was her and her acoustic guitar. She was just sitting in the studio by herself, singing and playing. It was really beautiful. Just to watch somebody basically produce those sounds so perfectly in the studio by themselves is impressive. I didn’t know that much about the technicality of it all but to watch that raw, human talent was very impressive.”

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Right before the turn of the 21st century, the melodic Boston-born band, Guster, stood at a crossroads. The group had just put out its third LP, Lost and Gone Forever, and one of the co-founding members needed a change. Comprised of three musicians who met and hit it off immediately at Tufts University in the mid-90s, Guster stood out, in part, because of their unusual lineup: two guitars and a percussionist. No drum kit, no bass player. But in 1999, percussion player, Brian Rosen Worcel, said he no longer wanted to play bongos. He needed more. That moment, when everything for the band could have crashed down, instead sparked the necessary jolt that’s kept Guster breaking new sonic ground ever since.

“After that record,” says vocalist, Ryan Miller, “Brian was like, ‘I don’t want to play percussion. I want to groove like the Talking Heads. I want a high-hat, kick drum, snare. Adam [Gardner] and I were scared at that moment.”

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Dave Johnston, co-founder of the Nederland, Colorado-based bluegrass group, Yonder Mountain String Band, has been helming a set of musicians throughout a long, steady and prolific career. The jam band, which was founded in 1998, has played to countless fans, released five studio albums (and many more live recordings) and toured with famed artists like Bela Fleck and the Dave Matthews Band. During those two-plus-decades, Johnston has learned at least one very important lesson about how to treat his relationship to music. And that is to treat it like a relationship to a person he loves.

“I was talking to one of my wife’s friends the other day,” Johnston says. “She’s a photographer and we were talking about loving what you do. And she said, ‘Well, if you love what you do, treat it how you would treat a person you love.’ Meaning, you can’t be overbearing and you can’t demand stuff that just isn’t there.”

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For many, the latest music video from Bay Area-based band, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down (for the song, “Phenom”), has been the highlight of quarantine. Released April 3rd, the work was one of the first prominent pieces to utilize the now-ubiquitous Zoom meeting technology. It also demonstrates a number of creative achievements, perhaps chief among them is the artful physical rage displayed by the performers in the Brady Bunch-esque video panels. The release offered in the work, which was itself released in support of the band’s next LP, Temple (out May 15th, pre-order), is bolstered by the track’s at times-feral feel. It’s a tone front woman, Thao Nguyen, has mastered and mixed in with her prolific melodies, one that she shows off with renewed confidence.

“There’s a latent part of me that only comes out in music,” says Nguyen. “And I would be bereft without it. When I’m on stage, people have said that I’m a ‘rabid animal’ and I take that as a compliment. To have the opportunity to channel the kind of disdain and frustration and disgust with the abuse of power and all this bullshit, it’s really – I’m very grateful.”

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Ben Morrison, co-founder of the San Francisco-based Americana band, The Brothers Comatose, grew up surrounded by song. When he was young, his mother played in a folk quartet that rehearsed at home. Later, in high school, his parents hosted regular music parties on Sundays. Morrison – and his brother and band co-founder, Adam – first played the instruments that their parents and friends would leave around the house. Morrison played guitar, Adam played banjo. But betwixt all this music, Morrison first learned to love song at a very precise moment: the day he could first play one on a six-string.

“I was sitting in a circle in the community center playing ‘Proud Mary’ for the first time,” Morrison says. “That was when I could barely play three chords on the guitar; I was about 11- or 12-years-old. Being able to play that and get it to sound something like the original tune was the first time I went, ‘Oh, this is powerful. This is a special thing.’”

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Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius) opens his latest album, Set My Heart On Fire, Immediately, with a jarring statement: “Half of my whole life is gone.” The lyric, sung in typical heartbreaking Perfume Genius fashion — as if a feather is floating between falling and bursting into flames — sets the melodic-sullen tone of the artist’s new record.

But it also sets an intriguing point of demarcation for the artist. What now, one wonders, will Perfume Genius do with the rest of his life at this raw halfway point? The answer has something to do with forgiveness.

“I had a choice after I wrote that line,” Hadreas says. “I just started singing and that line came out and it’s like, OK, where do you go after that?”

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Seattle-based, groove-focused eight-piece band, Polyrhythmics, have a trick. And they learned it from the famed Nigerian musician and activist, Fela Kuti. The musical mysticism begins with the bass line. It’s deep, hefty and continuous. Like the pocket watch on the end of a chain, it sways. Soothing synths, nimble guitars and pulsing percussion enter the picture. When you’re mesmerized, that’s when the horns drop. The spell has been cast. The music leads you like a cartoon finger around the corner. For Polyrhythmics, it’s all about the trance. And these techniques are on full display on the band’s new record, Man from the Future, out today.

Polyrhythmics, which will also celebrate the release of the new 8-song record tonight via a live stream at 7 PM on their social channels, is a captivating group on stage. The full band fills the room with an impending mood. Something is always just about to happen. And this vibe is supremely evident on the group’s new LP. Like the methods the band gleaned from Fela Kuti, hypnosis and surprise make up the sonic foundation for Polyrhythmics’ songs.

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