Mark Shikuma

Shortly after the U.S. Civil War, many of the war photographers employed by Matthew Brady turned their focus to the torn country’s wide-open spaces. Photographers such as Timothy O’Sullivan, who witnessed the carnage and suffering first-hand, turned their cameras on undeveloped, untouched landscapes with human existence almost nonexistent in the frames. Their photographs illustrate a […]

The Feelies, a New Jersey-based band that drew great critical praise for their quirky and nervous 1980 debut, Crazy Rhythms, have always operated on their own time schedule. It took nearly 20 years after their last full-length release to produce their new recording, Here Before — the band called it a “hiatus.” And what’s incredible […]

When my old friend (and fellow music aficionado) was dating his then-girlfriend (now wife and mother of their two children), he sat her down to listen to both sides of Nick Lowe’s 1979 sophomore release, Labour of Lust, stating that the record was an example of perfected contemporary pop. More than 30 years later, his […]

Musician, singer/songwriter and producer J Mascis, best known as the frontman for Dinosaur Jr., has been quietly prolific. In addition to his work with Dinosaur Jr., whose original members regrouped in 2007, Mascis released records with The Fog, Witch, Velvet Monkeys, Gobblehoof and, most recently, Sweet Apple. After his largely ignored 1996 solo acoustic album, […]

At first listen, one might mistake White Fence’s new release, Is Growing Faith, for some lost oddball gem from the ‘60s, perhaps in a similar vein to the recordings by the obscure ’60s/’70s psychedelic group Pisces, which the Numero Group record label recently unearthed. Instead the record is the second full-length in less than a year […]

Albuquerque-based duo A Hawk And A Hacksaw (also referred to as AHAAH), featuring former Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and violinist Heather Trost, has carved out an impressive progression of Eastern European folk-influenced recordings. For Barnes, it seems that he, as opposed to his other Elephant 6 collective brethren, sought out a reverse musical […]

It’s no coincidence that garage rock’s quiet renaissance man, Greg Cartwright, was reared in Memphis, a mythic geographical location where Delta blues, R&B, soul, pop, rockabilly and country collide. It’s evident that a young Cartwright, initially inspired by a small burgeoning early ‘80s Memphis music scene led by Tav Falco & The Panther Burns, soaked […]

Alongside Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull has established herself as one of rock’s grand matriarchs. Over a career spanning four decades, Faithfull has experienced a number of defining phases, beginning in 1969 with her version of “As Tears Go By.” She reinvented herself in 1980 with Broken English, followed by the emergence as a latter-day chanteuse, […]

Recently inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the pioneering female rockabilly star Wanda Jackson deserves better. Teaming up with White Stripes leader Jack White, one might think that White, as a producer, would take a more reverent route, as he did with Loretta Lynn on her fine comeback record, Van Lear Rose […]