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  “I Got A Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival” by Rick Massimo Wesleyan Press – out tomorrow 4.5 / 5   We are a hard sell on reads, especially nonfiction. We are incredible biased. And we feel that Rick Massimo, formerly of Providence Journal fame, is one of perhaps two reporters we could imagine who’d put together such a fine history of our favorite festival. (The other being the oft-quoted Jim Gillis in this book, retired from The Newport Daily News.) This history is coming out tomorrow. It is as exhaustive as it gets: several sources, dozens of interviews, archival reviews, et ceteraRead More →

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Imaad Wasif – Dzi Grey Market – out June 16 4 / 5 Imaad Wasif is the musician you haven’t heard of that you’ve already loved. As a former member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he performed on Show Your Bones, their second full-length; he also co-wrote the soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are with Karen O as well as toured with her and the crew. The Los Angeles-based pysch rocker is on his fourth full-length solo album, and perhaps like you, we’re surprised his name hasn’t jumped out at us sooner: now there’s no going back. Dzi, which takes its inspiration from IndianRead More →

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Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up  Nonesuch Records – out June 16 3.5 / 5   Fleet Foxes can’t seem to get out from the shadow of their debut self-titled LP. But don’t despair: their third LP Crack-Up is still a solid offering from the Seattle-based “baroque pop” quintet. While Crack-Up doesn’t rely as heavily on the whiskey smooth harmonies unleashed in 2008’s Fleet Foxes, the latest release does something that we greatly appreciate from a band: Crack-Up experiments, it expands. Most of the waters the Foxes test are in terms of songwriting and composition, specifically with dynamics and unexpected musical progressions. While not as blissful and macabre as something like “White WinterRead More →

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Larkin Grimm – Chasing an Illusion  Northern Spy Records – out June 16 2.5 / 5   We respect Alice Coltrane. We like Ornette Coleman. We love Pharoah Sanders. And New York City-based Larkin Grimm references them all on her latest full-length, Chasing an Illusion. But somehow, with all this free-form Jazz woven into Illusion, it’s not enough to get us to enjoy her ostensibly folk-ish album. We’re not saying one can’t work a little of Sanders’ magic into modern folk (or what remains of folk, here), but what Grimm has offered, while earnest and certainly adventurous, is actually fairly boring. Yes. We apologize for the unimaginative term,Read More →