Blogcritics Section: Music

Music Review: Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing At Baxter's

David Bowling — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:46:06 EST

Jefferson Airplane: Chapter 3.
The Jefferson Airplane’s second release, Surrealistic Pillow was a huge commercial success and catapulted the group to superstar status. So what do you do for an encore? The answer is you take a creative chance and move in a different direction. The folk/rock leanings were left behind, as the group put the guitars out front and embraced a...

Music Review: Avishai Cohen - Flood

Pico — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:39:23 EST

The second of Cohen's "The Big Rain" trilogy is an austere beauty of acoustic global fusion.
For the second time in a year, we're here looking at an Avishai Cohen album, but from two different musicians. Because, while both are jazz artists who hail from Israel, the one we examined earlier specializes in acoustic bass. The one we are looking at here is a trumpet player.Avishai Cohen --the trumpeter -- plays jazz like that bass guy, but his...

Concert Review: George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic, 01/01/08 at Nokia Theater L.A. Live Center, Los Angeles, CA

Laron Cue — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:25:50 EST

George Clinton/P-Funk rock Downtown LA, Sly Stone drops bye to say "Thank You"!
Just when I thought my holiday's were an official bust, I got a highly confidential phone call, that would change my maddeningly dull New Year weekend. Instead of joining the SoCal ranks and hitting up one of the many New Year's Eve celebrations, I was the victim of a nasty headache. No, I am not usually prone to migraines. I guess I had...

Music Review: Mark Olson & Gary Louris - Ready for the Flood

Bill Sherman — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 21:34:11 EST

Two former Jayhawks reunite for a new disc of largely acoustic alt-country.
Fourteen years after Mark Olson departed the Jayhawks to strum alongside Ms. Williams' Guitar, the singer/songwriter has reunited with his fellow Minnesotan Gary Louris for a new set of largely acoustic alt-country. Ready for the Flood (New West Records) contains the twosome's appealing blend of raggedy Louvin Bros.-style harmonies and...

Interview: Rob Halford, Metal God And Judas Priest Vocalist

Charlie Doherty — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 20:13:01 EST

An exclusive, eye-opening interview with the greatest living metal singer, Judas Priest�s Rob Halford.
Legendary British rock icons Judas Priest are still hard at work, four decades on into its storied career. After releasing an ambitious, underrated double album, Nostradamus and touring behind it in 25 countries, the band’s gifted and self-proclaimed “Metal God,” singer Rob Halford found over 37 minutes of his time to talk to me...

Music Review: Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

David Bowling — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:53:23 EST

Jefferson Airplane: Chapter 2.
Vocalist Signe Anderson left the Jefferson Airplane in October of 1966. She was quickly replaced by Grace Slick of the Great Society who had been an opening act for the Airplane, and would solidify the group’s line-up. Slick also possessed one of the great female voices in the history of sixties and seventies rock ‘n’ roll....

Best of 2008: Counting Crows, Oasis, Black Keys, Dave Carter, B.B. King, The Bittersweets, Mudcrutch, R.E.M., Coldplay, Gutter Twins, Glen Phillips

Josh Hathaway — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:39:57 EST

2008 was a great year for music.
It's become an annual rite of passage in the music business. Every year, the trade papers are filled with stories about how this year was worse than last year. If the music execs were hoping we'd get so tired of reading that story that we'd start to ignore it -- you know, 'the boy who cried wolf' routine -- it hasn't...

Bands to Watch in 2009

A.L. Harper — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 13:47:35 EST

Scouring our Band of the Week database, to re-introduce you to bands that are likely to achieve huge mainstream success in 2009.
Independent music is a very hot topic right now on the music scene. It used to be that indie bands were really only popular within a region and with local fans, but with the internet becoming a dominant force for indie music there are now thousands of bands to choose from. Wading through all those would be a huge chore. But BC is here to help! ...

Music Review: Fiftywatthead - Fogcutter

Jordan Richardson — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 11:55:32 EST

A monstrous obsession with the Art of Loud.
Out of the working-class chill of Windsor, Ontario, the last thing one might expect would be an extreme music outfit the likes of Fiftywatthead. Yet this unspeakably vicious metal quartet has emerged from the Canadian city, slugged on the peninsula near Detroit, to deliver a total assault on the eardrums.Heavy as shit, deafening as hell, and lethal...

Music Review: O'Death - Broken Hymns, Limbs, And Skin

Tan The Man — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:11:50 EST

Dedicated to Eliza Sudol, the late fianc� of Rogers-Berry, O'Death's Broken Hymns, Limbs And Skin excitedly captures the blending of multiple musical genres.
After self-releasing their first two albums Carl Nemelka Family Photographs (2004) and Head Home (2006), Brooklyn-based quintet O'Death finally release their independent label (Kemado Records) debut for the band's third full-length LP Broken Hymns, Limbs And Skin.O'Death is unique in the sense that it features all of its original...