Author: Jon M. Gilbertson
Record Review from web archive January 2, 2009
Mark Kozelek
The Finally LP compiles ten examples of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon frontman Mark Kozelek’s artistic modus operandi: acoustic guitar delicately picked and gently strummed; vocals delivered with sadness as persistent as breathing and softness as intense as whispering; and a willingness to pay homage to other songwriters. Only the opening and closing [...]
Record Review from web archive December 28, 2008
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Any time interesting male and female singers team up, the comparisons are obvious and tempting: Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Cash & June Carter, George Jones & Tammy Wynette, and so on. Yet the differences between those famous duos and the pairing of Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan are more telling than the similarities. [...]
Record Review from web archive October 28, 2008
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
If Ryan Adams were a politician, he’d be the sort that pundits enjoy describing as a “polarizing figure.” His detractors – including Robbie Fulks and Paul Westerberg, the latter of whom obviously inspired Adams – consider him arrogant and derivative. His defenders – including Elton John – regard him as raggedly brilliant. Both camps will [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Jordan Zevon – Insides Out
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 [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig, Lazarus, Dig !!!
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 [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #75 May-June 2008
Poi Dog Pondering – 7
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 [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #74 March-April 2008
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Real Emotional Trash
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 [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #74 March-April 2008
Steve Poltz – Traveling
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”, [...]
Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #74 March-April 2008
Emmylou Harris / Patty Griffin / Shawn Colvin / Buddy Miller – Pabst Theater (Milwaukee, WI)
The aw-shucks modesty of this show’s title — “Three Girls And Their Buddy” — carried over into the coziness of the setup: four comfortably utilitarian chairs arrayed in a broad semicircle across the stage. When Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Buddy Miller came out to occupy those chairs, they had the relaxed, collective [...]
Waxed - Record Review from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007
Shooter Jennings – The Wolf
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 [...]
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