Matthew Logan Vasquez – Solicitor ReturnsNo label-out now4 / 5 Let’s cut to the chase for y’all: it’s a good album. Now Austin-based rocker/writer Matthew Logan Vasquez, from Delta Spirit / Middle Brother fame has his solo album. And it’s good. It took us a few listens to get into his slower pace on here, but it’s grimy, it’s deliberate swagger, it’s confident and assertive. Some time back, Vasquez mentioned that he envisioned his Delta Spirit not as “Americana,” but as a rock outfit. We think this is the album he envisioned when he said that (not their decent, but lyrically flawed 2012 Delta Spirit).Read More →

Andy Shauf – The PartyAnti Records– out May 204 / 5 We have a strange relationship with Saskatchewan-ian Andy Shauf. We’re going to be honest: we caught a bit of his set at the Newport Folk Fest a year or two back, and we were entirely not blown away. Kind of underwhelmed. And so his fourth album, The Party, almost feels the same. But hear us out, because we believe the studio is his element. The Party is a concept album, a large cast of characters thrown together, each given a slice of the life of a house party. What seems underwhelming is here actuallyRead More →