First off there’s the name. Can there ever be a more perfect name for a rock ‘n’ roller than Sleepy LaBeef? It makes Conway Twitty sound positively gentrified; even Hasil Adkins pales next to such a mighty moniker. Next there’s the look. Six foot seven inches of orange polyester topped off by the baleful eyes [...]

Maybe this album should have been subtitled, “Something Pissed Off This Way Comes”. On “Pretty Nighttime Glimmers” John Crooke sings, “Holding my chances, I’m holding my tongue,” but that reticence is momentary.
Crooke is best-known as the leader of North Carolina band Jolene, whose career path has gone the predictable route of indie-to-major-to-indie (though this [...]

As pop bands go, Map of Wyoming has a hell of a pedigree, including Chris Von Sneidern, whose recent solo records have been virtual pop masterpieces; former Go To Blazes guitarist Tom Heyman; and Dale Duncan, who sings lead and wrote most of the songs on Trouble Is, the band’s second record. It’s a significant [...]

Dar Williams has never been afraid to see herself as a work in progress, and, as usual, it makes for fairly good art. Her acknowledgement of an ego apart from the Earth Mother most other female folkies bow to allows Williams to have true familiarity with her subjects and narrators — usually different parts of [...]

The second album by Austin’s Beaver Nelson is a subtle charmer. Its scruffily rocking grooves are completely honest, with the opening two tracks, “Fallen Down” and “Your Little Girl” playing the congenial host, wooing you in through the door.
Once he’s gotten your attention with the earthy honky-tonk bred riffs, Nelson dims the lights and [...]

The Go-Betweens always did have a flair for beginnings and endings. When Grant McLennan and Robert Forster met in 1977 as avant-garde college students in Queensland, Australia, it was a coupling that produced some of the most edgy romantic pop songs of the 1980s. But it was never a smooth ride, and there were many [...]

The fifth album from New Jersey quintet the Schramms is one of those hushed, muted affairs that requires a close listen, multiple close listens, actually, to fully appreciate all its subtle charms.
Heard at arms’ length, 100 Questions sounds unsubstantial, with only the occasional lyric or rolling melody sticking in the craw. But up close, [...]