Poi Dog Pondering has put down headquarters in three geographical locations — Hawaii, Austin, and Chicago — and has gone through a rather larger number of members. 7, which is in fact the collective’s seventh album, amalgamates the moves and switches: It not only features members from the band’s various eras, but also covers almost [...]

A fantastic double album is as heavy a trophy for a band as a prize-winning book is for a novelist: What kind of encore won’t disappoint? Nick Cave, who with the Bad Seeds nailed down both length and depth with 2004’s Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus, sidestepped the question, writing a western movie [...]

Although Jordan Zevon is the son of the late Warren Zevon, it’s unlikely that Insides Out is an attempt to trade on the family name. (The looming spirit of the elder Zevon would probably point out how little commercial value the name had while he was still alive.) Instead, Jordan’s debut takes honorable cues from [...]

Stephen Malkmus is essentially a litterateur who fell into rock music, but he’s made the best of regularly putting down a book and picking up a guitar. The knowledge of a smart reader has found its way into his music, from the earliest shambles of Pavement to his fourth album under his own name, Real [...]

With a website that includes a song eulogizing a dependable piece of luggage, and the physical comportment of an aging ragamuffin, Steve Poltz clearly isn’t looking to be taken seriously. Yet while some of his credentials are duly modest (like his tenure leading the Rugburns), one of his songs — “You Were Meant For Me”, [...]

If there’s one artistic trait Shooter Jennings shares with his late father, it’s the way he gets tugged between outlaw attitude and people-pleasing amiability. Sure, Waylon rode with the Highwaymen, but he also threw down with Bo and Luke Duke. Shooter’s third studio album, The Wolf, doesn’t go quite that far, but it yaws pretty [...]