The trouble with talking about a discrete movement in pop music is that there’s only so much one can say; and more often than not, what one can say is probably a woeful generalization. Take, for example, Andy Cabic of Vetiver. Willfully nebulous though it may be, there’s probably no current movement more discrete than the quote-unquote “freak folk” Cabic and his more famous friend, Devendra Banhart, have been slowly and steadily bringing to the indie limelight since 2002 or so. It can be …

Further proof that the hip-hop world moves too goddamned fast for us rockists: just when we’d gotten the whole “is DJing a legitimate art form” debate through our thick-as-Led skulls, along came Kanye, Danger Mouse, and the Neptunes, and they went and turned it into a producer’s medium.
Now, aspiring Timbalands can even create reputable music on their own home computer – aren’t those the things Jack White hates? – with just a vast MP3 collection, a decent sampling program and a good feel for …

The title of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s latest album doesn’t lie: amongst the traditional folk giants with whom he once ran, Elliott really does stand alone. Woody Guthrie, his mentor and friend, is, of course, long dead; as is their old mutual traveling buddy Cisco Houston. Pete Seeger, who frequently shared the stage with Elliott and counted him as an influence, performs only rarely because of age. And then there’s the man whose early persona was so indebted to Ramblin’ Jack that his …

The histories of country and soul music have always run parallel. Both emerged from the lower-class environs of the Deep South in the early 20th century, blending varying amounts of blues, jazz, gospel, and Appalachian folk music to achieve two discrete concoctions whose surface distinctions — mainly bound to race — only served to mask identical hearts. Over the years, more musicians than can be named here have recognized these crucial similarities; from the “Cosmic American Music” of Gram Parsons and the Flying …

If you’ve read between the lines of my reviews for long enough, you’ll find it no surprise that I have a healthy love for classic metal. Oh, sure, I loathe the modern stuff as much as the next pale, weedy, non-tattooed critic type; but give me some vintage Sabbath, Zeppelin, or Motorhead, and I’ll be head-banging until my skull hurts. That’s why I can’t help but like the debut album by Montreal heavy rock upstarts Priestess: like the Datsuns before them, these guys …

When news of Bruce Springsteen’s decision to record an album of Pete Seeger-inspired folk covers leaked on to the Internet this February, the earth didn’t exactly shake. Reactions among the Boss’s notoriously rabid fanbase were decidedly mixed, ranging from mere disappointment (“I thought he already did the folk thing with Devils & Dust last year”) to something altogether more ghoulish (“he should reunite the E Street Band before Clarence Clemons gets too ill to tour”). But the common denominator, from the casual fan to …

We all know the drill about rarities compilations: they’re esoteric, obscure, often tough listening, little more than grab bags for serious listeners who fancy themselves as musical archivists. “For fans only,” right? And most of the time, frankly, it’s the truth.
But what critics like us rarely acknowledge is that there’s something thrilling about a good odds ‘n’ sods disc, too, even if it’s from a band whose logo we wouldn’t feel comfortable getting tattooed on our asses; it’s the feeling of discovery, of adventure, …

What is this, a time warp? Here I am in June of 2006, and the face that stares back at me from the promo CD on my desk might as well have stepped right out of 1981. That curled lip. That spiky fringe of jet-black hair. Those thick clouds of eyeliner around the toughest set of sloe eyes in rock’n’roll. It’s Joan Fucking Jett: trailblazing female rocker, inspiration for Guitar Wolf’s “Jett Rock’n’Roll,” and probably the hottest alleged lesbian ever to pour herself …

T Bone Burnett wants you to know who he is. He wants you to know that he isn’t just an esteemed producer and collaborator for artists like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Ry Cooder, and Ralph Stanley; and he certainly isn’t the beard-stroking archivist type a lot of us probably began to envision him as in the fourteen years since his last record, during which he became better known than ever for his production and soundtrack work (think O Brother, Where Art Thou? …

When I was just a lad, I used to spend hours listening to classic rock radio. Growing up in mid-Michigan, it’s just what you did (and still do – how many bands less than 25 years old have you seen playing Common Ground?). I’d comb the dial, flipping frantically between the Lansing area’s three oldies and three classic rock stations to find scraps of Hendrix, Zeppelin or Neil Young amidst the seemingly endless Boston, Journey and Foreigner tracks. After a while, I just gave …