Music In Review

There’s a unique duality to White Manna, the Arcata-based psych-rock band, which makes odd sense. Though it is partially named after a surviving ’50s burger joint in Hackensack, N.J., the word “manna” refers to the wafers eaten by ancient Israelites, wafers that also can produce sensations akin to psilocybin mushrooms or peyote. This duality, one […]

Couplings in music, ones that blur the personal and the artistic, are rarely fortuitous. Just ask Johnny Cash and June Carter or George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Their relationships traveled down many pothole-laden roads and hairpin turns. But though early in their journey, fortuitous just may be the apt term for Charleston, S.C.-based singer-songwriters Cary […]

Maybe Deer Tick’s leader, John McCauley, doesn’t like to be alone. In ’94, McCauley had initially intended to write songs and perform as a solo artist, but Deer Tick has evolved into a bona fide band. Diamond Rugs, McCauley’s new side project, was intended as another solo project but also quickly morphed into another band. […]

Kelly Hogan is what one might call an active wallflower. Hogan is best known as a superb back-up vocalist for an impressive and long list of musical icons and indie heroes – including Mavis Staples, Alejandro Escovedo, Jon Langford and most importantly, her close friend, Neko Case. After an auto accident tragically killed two members […]

It came to me by blind luck or coincidence. Either way, it was fortuitous that I found myself in Old Town Eureka on a nearly-abandoned, soggy, gray evening. Having heard the Austin-based singer-songwriter Bronwynne Brent on the radio the day before (she had made an in-studio appearance on KHUM), I was struck by her strong, […]

In late ’79, The dB’s, a New Jersey-based pop quartet, released their debut 7-inch single, “Black and White” b/w “Soul Kiss,” on Alan Betrock’s label, Shake; Betrock was the editor of the late-great ’70s music ‘fanzine New York Rocker. The dB’s song was packed with lo-fi energy: ringing 12-string guitars, a tinny lead riff and […]

Vermont-reared musician and songwriter Kyle Thomas is a tall, lanky “dude,” who you could easily picture hanging out with a group of skateboarders with his T-shirt, frayed jeans and soiled Converse sneakers, his foppish, uncombed hair tucked underneath a beat-up trucker cap. Thomas is an eccentrically ambitious songwriter who plays in several bands, including J. […]

“Good things come for those who wait.” It’s a hackneyed cliché, but the statement rings strangely true for Teenage Fanclub’s bassist, vocalist and founding member, Gerard Love. After over two decades contributing to the Scottish band’s trademark pop sound, a mixture of Byrds-like harmonies, ringing guitars and melodies loaded with hooks, the shy TF bassist […]

It is no secret that Los Angeles has been a breeding ground for fantasy and tragedy, creating the mythos of the “beautiful loser” character, treading water amid industry, delusion and artificial props, all spread across a vast desert landscape. Author Nathaniel West captured the sense of desolation past the hues of Hollywood in his slim, […]