Staff Picks for March 2013
March 31, 2013
Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers on Warner Bros The Everly Brothers And for a dose of the Everly Brothers originals, turn to this 1993 double-disc which has the hits from the early '60s but also underappreciated rockers like "I'm Not Angry" and "Burma Shave," along with their psychedelic country-rock of the late '60s
March 30, 2013
This two disc compilation, from the UK label Jasmine, features drummer Sandy “Teen Beat” Nelson's earliest seven singles and his first three LPs in their entirety. Having been unavailable for years, fans of the era's instrumental tracks will definitely want to pick this up.
March 29, 2013
Recorded on vintage equipment in a barn in Maine, the Raging Teens debut hops along on frontman Kevin Patey's wide-eyed yawp and guitarist Amy Griffin's frenetic and twangy tube-driven lines. Fun and raucous, it's still one of the best neo-rockabilly albums of the '90s.
March 28, 2013
Various Artists
Chicano Power: Latin Rock in the USA 1968-1976 Various Artists Santana had nothing on the slate of artists included in this Soul Jazz comp from 15 years ago; the double shot of "Too Late" by Black Sugar and "Mira Pa' Ca" by Chango has never been equaled in Latin rock circles.
March 27, 2013
After the departure of Ruins’ fourth bassist, drummer Tatsuya Yoshida forged on as a solo act, releasing the album Alone in 2011. Utterly unhinged, manic, and crazed, he didn't need a duo partner to create one of the wildest -- and most diverse -- albums ever to carry the Ruins name.
March 26, 2013
Angular, shape-shifting post-rock, elitist proto-punk, and retro-Britpop with an industrial chrome finish, this is what happens when the Nuggets box is devoured by twitchy, shop class overachievers with a secret gift for calculus.
March 25, 2013
If March is Metal Month, I nominate Austrian Death Machine. Here, As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis imagines a band fronted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, or at least, fronted by his film characters, since "Get to the Choppa" and other famous quotes fuel the highlights. This is so not a tumor.
![Peter Gabriel [3]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0003124931/front/400/zY0mnKNWFicUCj_UiOW2kipQg_7iAU1wjqLgK_xGXts=.jpg)
March 24, 2013
Peter Gabriel’s third self-titled album would be notable for having just one of its finest songs – “Games Without Frontiers,” “I Don’t Remember” and “Family Snapshot” among them – but it has so many that it remains a classic.
March 23, 2013
A comprehensive discography from this remarkably obscure late 80's/early 90's New Zealand band reveals a stunning combination of noisy violin freakouts to best John Cage and soft twee sentiments up there with the best of the Flying Nun catalog.
March 22, 2013
These Olympia slackers sound so relaxed...they're not building anything resembling a roof. Sweet, soul-influenced indie pop? Yes. Structures? No. As a bonus, the album includes the full band version of "Christmas Island", the song that's played over the end credits on Adventure Time. Totally math!
March 21, 2013
The Johnny Cash of Australian country would have to be Roger Knox, known in Australia and New Zealand as the Black Elvis and the Koori King of Country. This set pairs Knox with Chicago's Pine Valley Cosmonauts, and finds Knox honoring the many fine Aboriginal country songwriters of his homeland.
March 20, 2013
The last recording by "the Silver Fox" reveals the sheer breadth of his gifts as a pianist, composer, arranger and songwriter. Encompassing jazz, blues, country, pop and gospel, this set offers a compelling portrait of one of the most formidable yet accessible musical personas of the 20th century.
March 19, 2013
DJ Jazzy Jeff has been making mix tapes since well before the Fresh Prince was in Bel-Air. This one from 2004 is a pretty standard party-starter that features golden age East Coast cuts.
March 18, 2013
Along with Detroit Escalator Co. and Aril Brikha, Beltran made some of the most stimulating ambient techno of the late '90s. "Collage of Dreams," the album's prettiest track, was used in rather contrasting scenes of Human Traffic and Six Feet Under.
March 17, 2013
Never the biggest fan of Will Oldham, I'm nevertheless knocked out by What The Brothers Sang, the Everly Brothers tribute he's recorded with Dawn McCarthy. It's a fittingly hazy psychedelic progressive country album, a salute to the adventurous spirit of the Everlys in the 60.
March 16, 2013
As part of the Concord Jazz Very Best of series, pianist and composer Thelonious Monk is spotlighted on ten previously released cuts taken from his stint with Prestige and Riverside recorded in the ‘50s. This makes a fine companion to The Essential Thelonious Monk 1947-1952 on Blue Note.
March 15, 2013
Before signing to Columbia, young lion jazz quintet Black/Note recorded this fiery debut for Billy Higgins' World Stage Label. Featuring trumpeter Richard Grant, altoist James Mahone, drummer Willie Jones III, pianist Ark Sano and bassist Mark Shelby, the album is a forgotten highlight of the neo-bop era.
March 14, 2013
Montreal trombonist Claude St-Jean has led this hyper-energetic, dance-inducing brass band since 1993, and after a four-year hiatus introduced a substantially changed lineup with 2011’s L’Âge du Cuivre. Try to remain stationary as St-Jean reveals that his modus operandi remains fully intact.
March 13, 2013
Various Artists
The brainchild of Australian music director Chris Harriot, this collection of disparate, Aussie renditions of the iconic Guitar Center epic range from the Shatner-esque (Leonard Teale) to a straight up, bloated Lizard King-era Doors tribute (Australian Doors Show).
March 12, 2013
Fusing traditional Mexican music with contemporary electronics, Nortec Collective are a small stable of producers including Bostich, Fussible, and Panoptica. Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3 is a like modern "border radio" effort, filled with trumpets and bass drops, along with grooves that are rock-solid no matter what the territory.
March 11, 2013
More than a decade on, Low Kick and Hard Bop’s witty collage pop sounds more vivid and visionary than ever, with its mix of strangeness and catchiness blazing a trail for kindred spirits like St. Vincent and Micachu years later.
March 10, 2013
Though dubstep grew into something far more grating afterwards, the 2007 debut from a then-anonymous dubstep producer going under the name Burial did everything right. The tones of darkness, loneliness, mistrust and sad beauty are crystallized on Untrue for the listener to inspect from a distance.
March 8, 2013
Want proof of how good the Curtis Brothers were? Here's another example: "Southern Cross," the big hit from Crosby, Stills & Nash's 1982 album Daylight Again, a song Stephen Stills reworked so it concerned his recent divorce. It's one of his better lyrics, but what really sticks is the song: how the verse melody surges into the transformational chorus, resulting in a song that's arguably CSN's finest pure pop moment. And, despite the UFOs that grace the cover, the rest of the album isn't so bad, either.
March 7, 2013
Longtime Brooklyn trombonist Hasselbring leads a septet project inspired by actual radio broadcasts that some allege contain instructions to international spies. This adventurous avant jazz may be shrouded in mystery and espionage, but it requires no decoding to enjoy.
March 5, 2013
And you thought the M B V cover art was bad? This one fell off the worst acid wash jean jacket that was ever airbrushed. Still, the music is a chilled alternative to new jack swing with "Why You Treat Me So Bad" being straight up classic.
March 4, 2013
Various Artists
Cologne's Kompakt, one of the planet's premier techno organizations, is on the brink of celebrating 20 years. Back in 2000, they turned a major corner with their second annual label compilation, led by Michael Mayer, Closer Musik, and Dettinger.
March 3, 2013
Half pioneering, synth-driven new wave act and half performance art group, The Units challenged as many preconceptions as they could, and this collection showcases the often thrilling results. Songs like "High Pressure Days" and "Warm Moving Bodies" prove they rock as hard as any of their guitar-wielding peers.
March 2, 2013
While I generally feel that most albums are too long, Flood is one of the few records with a sprawling track list that's just rock solid from start to finish. Definitely an album I can listen to without even considering skipping to the next track.
March 1, 2013
Following 2002's homemade masterwork Light Green Leaves, nomadic songwriter and sometimes Microphones/Devendra Bandhart collaborator Kyle Fields took the mood down a notch on 2004's Magic Wand. Rainy day folk songs drift by under the loving watch of Fields' Will Oldham-esque mumble, revealing subtle truths and tender observations.