Mark Shikuma

"I have a strange relationship to variety," singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt said in a 2008 NY Times interview. "I like variety." Merritt’s prolific work accurately reflects his statement — from leading his band, The Magnetic Fields, to working on numerous side projects, including a recent scoring of an Off Broadway musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s tale […]

The new offering from Denmark’s Efterklang, Moving Chairs, joins the slew of top-notch recordings released this year. On this, the quartet’s first studio recording since their stunning 2007 offering, Parades, Efterklang uses contemporary pop influences as starting points, creating an engaging spectrum of songs while providing the band’s most accessible record to date. Led by […]

It seems that three is a lucky number for the gifted singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston. His new record of originals, Rain on the City, his first in eight years, is his third attempt at finishing the release. The result is Johnston’s finest recording since the overlooked masterpiece co-produced by T-Bone Burnett and Roger Moutenot, Blue Days […]

Formed in 1993 in Austin, Texas, Spoon, fronted by songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Britt Daniel, has offered an impressive catalogue of pop songs influenced in equal measure by early Gang of Four, Wire, The Velvet Underground and Can (the band’s name is derived from a Can song). Instrumentally, the rhythms are angular, jagged and choppy, […]

Estil Cortez Ball and his wife, Orna, performed original gospel and country folksongs throughout Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as performing for a local radio gospel show from their hometown of Rugby, Va., for over 40 years. E.C. and Orna created a huge catalogue of songs, mostly gospel-based, with E.C. providing lead vocals […]

Athens, Georgia-based singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day after ingesting an overdose of muscle relaxants. He and his touring band had just completed a brief West Coast tour less than a month earlier in support of his powerful new release, At the Cut. Chesnutt was 45 years old. He had been involved in a […]

Singer/songwriter/bandleader Mark Harrison has swung back and forth between Memphis and Nashville without breaking ties with the musical influences that come from both sides of Tennessee. Starting in 1993, Harrison led his Memphis-based band, Snakehips, with their debut full-length, Lit, a solid recording that wore its T.Rex/Replacements/Big Star/Stones influences proudly, accompanied with that Memphis soul-based […]

Continuation — Alex Cline (Cryptogramophone) Percussionist and composer Alex Cline, guitarist Nels’ twin brother, performs with a dynamic quintet including pianist Myra Melford, to execute a challenging and dazzling sum, often unpredictable and wonderfully surprising. The Sun Came Out — 7 Worlds Collide (Sony) This collaborative effort led by singer/songwriter Neil Finn includes members of […]

Drummer, percussionist, instrumentalist and composer Glenn Kotche has been prolific in his output lately. Earlier this year, he appeared on his primary band’s release, Wilco (The Album), then recently, on the excellent recent 7 Worlds Collide collaborative project (The Sun Came Out), headed by Neil Finn. With his duo project, On Fillmore, Kotche has released […]

Performer, musician, vocalist and composer Carla Bozulich frequently challenges her audiences, her listeners and musical boundaries/definitions. Bozulich’s art is often unsettling. Her reputation as a provocateur goes back to the mid-’80s with the Los Angeles experimental noise band Ethyl Meatplow, and later with The Geraldine Fibbers, which featured guitarist Nels Cline (with whom Bozulich would […]

The 28-year-old singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart has been the figurehead for the wave of “New Weird Americana,” also simply termed, “Freak Folk.” Now, under the banner of a major label, Banhart, whose persona seems to put the “freak” into folk, finds himself in an interesting crossroads. Banhart had reached an artistic pinnacle with 2004’s Niño Rojo, […]