Category Archives: Album Reviews

Album Review: Nic Masangkay – DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide

Nic Masangkay – DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide (2019, self-released) Exclusive Ball of Wax preview link! Nic Masangkay’s DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide tells the story of how one might create something deeply strong and beautiful out of … Continue reading

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Album Review: Virgin of the Birds – Numberless Needs

Virgin of the Birds returns to Seattle for their first Pacific Northwest show of 2019 at the Conor Byrne on May 11, joined by The Foghorns (also playing their first show of 2019) and Sam Russell’s new old-soul band Doug … Continue reading

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Album Review: Darryl Blood – Parse

Darryl Blood – Parse (2019, self-released) Darryl Blood’s works are often based around piano motifs or chords (major, minor, 7th or augmented, jazz, and a kind of “dark jazz”) played straight on the beat, and this works perfectly as both … Continue reading

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Album Review: The Rainieros – The Fool EP

The Rainieros – The Fool (2018, self-released) “. . . no, it’s not nothing that I hadn’t heard before.” “The Fool” is a strong opener for the eponymous EP. The song is emotionally buoyant in the “High Lonesome” hallmark of … Continue reading

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Get On With It: Going Home with the Foghorns

The Foghorns – . . . on a Dog’s Ass Sometime (2017, Knick Knack Records) The older you get, the more the memories pile up. The Foghorns’ new album . . . on a Dog’s Ass Sometime (a companion piece … Continue reading

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Let’s Live it Up While We’re Alive: Thoughts on the Foghorns . . . on a Dog’s Ass Sometime

The Foghorns – . . . on a Dog’s Ass Sometime (2017, Knick Knack Records) “Oh, the way you used to look at me / like an old Trans Am on the road” – so begins . . . on … Continue reading

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Album Review: Virgin of the Birds – Secret Kids (Ball of Wax Midwives a Lit-rock Masterpiece)

Virgin of the Birds – Secret Kids (2016, Abandoned Love/Song, by Toad) I. Virgin of the Birds is celebrating the release of a uniquely outstanding record October 22, 2016 at Substation. Secret Kids, the band’s sophomore LP (out today), is … Continue reading

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Album Review: Aaron Semer – Love Amidst Collapse

Aaron Semer – Love Amidst Collapse (2015, Knick Knack Records) Seattle songwriter Aaron Semer describes his debut Love Amidst Collapse as “a campfire at the end of time.” The songs on Love Amidst Collapse are both familiarly rustic and oddly … Continue reading

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Album Review: Carlos Forster – Disasters

Carlos Forster – Disasters (2015, Acuarela Discos) Heartbreaking songwriter Carlos Forster is back with his second solo outing, Disasters, on super rad Spanish label Acuarela Discos. Like his first solo release (Forster once led the fabulous Bay Area band For Stars) … Continue reading

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Left Field Finds: They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love

“Open up the boxes, tumble down the walls, let them be the thing they want to be, not necessarily like you and me!” This is the message of the group, a community youth band from 1968 South Side Chicago led … Continue reading

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