"Prolific" suggests "fruitful" or "productive." Former Guided By Voices bandleader Robert Pollard is beyond prolific. The 51-year-old songwriter from Dayton, Ohio, has been busy. Aside from the 16 full-length records released by his band GBV, Pollard has released 20 solo records under his own name, and he has released 25 additional records of "side projects." […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Rock ’N’ Roll
Tom Stoppard is sometimes unfairly regarded as a playwright where ideas trump character, but in fact he has a rare ability to create characters who express themselves through the ideas they espouse. From his first success, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead, to his recent three-play epic of 19th century politics, The Coast of Utopia, he’s […]
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Carried To Dust
From their early stages as Giant Sand and Friends of Dean Martinez, Calexico was a band that strove to hone their own sound — a mix of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western soundtrack music, mariachi horns, experimental treatment flourishes and subtle percussion — while providing backup to various artists such as Michael Hurley, Victoria Williams, Richard […]
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Natural
Natch’l bluesman Taj Mahal released his first album in 1968, which means that he’s now been in the blues business for 40 years. “I’ve outlived the former music business,” he told me when I asked what had changed for him over that time. “I started out playing music that I liked, music I thought needed […]
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I Think My Older Brother Used to Listen to Lagwagon
When I first heard the album Trashed in high school, there was something so familiar, so honest, so inspired about Lagwagon’s music that they instantly became my favorite band. It’s surprising to say, but almost 15 years (and five albums) later, they still are. As the title suggests, their newest (half) album, I Think My […]
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Brothers
It was one of our first dates, a night at the Old Town Bar and Grill where we danced to music by a band of Mardi Gras Indians. The Wild Tchoupitoulas, led by Big Chief Jolly, aka George Landry, sang the battle songs of his New Orleans “tribe,” backed by a band of brothers, his […]
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Letter Home
The concept of “home” has been a recurring theme in song, literature and art. It conjures up the literal, physical structure, the metaphorical and one’s history. Resident singer/songwriter Lila Nelson uses the various forms of “home,” telling an eclectic assortment of stories in song, for her excellent new record, Letter Home. Nelson displays her gift […]
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Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails
The merger of Scott McCaughey from Minus 5 and Steve Wynn, former leader of the LA-based ’80s band the Dream Syndicate, makes for a perfect doubleheader. Together, the songwriters have culled baseball folklore, stories and forgotten personalities to inspire a new album that, to borrow baseball verbiage, goes the distance. With the contributions of REM/Minus […]
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Afro Blue
As any musicologist will tell you, the blues comes from Africa. Nowhere is this more evident than in the bluesy music that comes out of Mali, particularly as played by the late great guitarist Ali Farka Touré, whose sound was famously described by Martin Scorsese as "the DNA of the blues." Before he died in […]
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Heavy Psych
Along with the likes of Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu, Nebula helped shape the direction of the ’90s desert/stoner rock movement. They didn’t necessarily enjoy the high profile fanfare and commercial success of their peers, but thanks to impressively consistent recordings and Eddie Glass’ signature guitar style, Nebula quickly established themselves as one of […]
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Mind-Altering Music
Psychedelic: It’s a word that conjures images of stoned ’60s-style hippies with flowers in their hair noodle dancing to endless guitar solos. My New Oxford American Dictionary tells me it’s an adjective "relating to or denoting drugs that produce hallucinations and apparent expansion of consciousness" and also "a style of rock music originating in the […]
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Indigo Shoes
If you’ve been lucky enough to see the local band Absynth Quintet play live, you know they’re amazing. Sometimes the improvisational jams may go on just a tiny bit too long, but the individual band members’ undeniable talent quashes any negative aspects on that front. The collective picking styles presented by Ian Davidson on banjo, […]