Sunday, January 1 1995
John P. Strohm, Vestavia
With just the right dose of irony, the exotic-sounding Vestavia is actually the name of the Birmingham, Alabama suburb where John P. Strohm now resides.…
Superjaded: An Inch Below E
Superjaded wants to please everyone. While they’re inescapably catchy power pop, they never let you forget their rock credentials (their press material makes quite an…
Scot Sax: self-titled
A heads-up to all you overly serious types, bemoaning your daily fate in this troubled economy: lighten up. The message from Scot Sax is that…
Martin Sexton: Wonderbar
Growing up in Syracuse, NY in the ‘70s Martin Sexton’s musical tastes were shaped by listening to AM radio where he heard the likes of…
Darrell Scott, Family Tree
Family Tree is a grab bag of an album. Filled with scraps and pieces, it contains a few treasures but the majority of songs might…
Sick Bees: My Pleasure
The stand-out track on the Sick Bees’ My Pleasure is without a doubt “Strawhat’s Dogs” (sung as “straw hat’s dogs), a tune that brings to…
Senor Coconut: El Gran Baile
When I first heard Señor Coconut’s El Baile Alemán, I thought I’d stumbled upon pure genius. The second album, but first U.S. release, from Señor…
Tracy Scott Silverman: Trip to the Sun
If you’re not used to hearing the violin outside the context of classical or bluegrass music, Trip to the Sun might be a pleasant change…
Source Direct, Exorcise The Demons
If Source Direct has anything to say about it, the new millenium is here now. The dark drum’n'bass of this English duo perfectly suits this…
Stone Coyotes: Situation Out of Control
The Stone Coyotes’ press release describes them as “AC/DC Meets Patsy Cline.” I get the AC/DC part—guitar solos and all—but I don’t think that lead…
Stars: Nightsongs
Both the band’s name, Stars, and the title of their album Nightsongs have an obvious appropriateness about them. The after-midnight feel of these songs wraps…
Will Smith: Willennium
I love Lil’ Kim, but I do wonder what she’s doing on Will Smith’s unbashfully titled Willennium. Besides getting paid, I mean. The best I…
Shooter, ...And Your Point?
Here’s something I bet you haven’t heard before: A 4-piece modern rock combo with an disenchanted female singer who makes flippant pop culture references as…
Soulhat: Experiment on a Flat Plane
Soulhat is similar to Walter E. Kurtz, the insane army colonel who was the subject of the film Apocalypse Now. Of Kurtz it was said,…
Ken Sharp: Happy Accidents
There was a time when my Mom’s fluorescent green plastic Magnavox played all day in the kitchen. I remember songs like “Hot Child in the…
Smoking Popes: Live
Crooning like The Moz is one thing, but contrasting a raging punk-pop beat against it made the Popes truly unique. With brothers Matt and Eli…
6X: Kung-Pow! | PopMatters Music Review
It’s getting hard to find really great melodic rock ‘n’ roll bands these days. Often, bands in said genre can be cheesy, or fail to…
Stone Temple Pilots, No 4
Stone Temple Pilots have endured a gargantuan amount of criticism in their time, both good and bad, fair and unfair. They’ve been heralded as one…
Soltero: Science Will Figure You Out
As the name might suggest (Spanish for “single”), Soltero definitely feels like a one-man project. Despite the list of musicians that played on Science Will…
Slowcoach: New Strategies Are Necessary, This Is Not Solid Ground
The title to California trio Slowcoach’s debut New Strategies Are Necessary, This Is Not Solid Ground sounds like it’s meant to be a warning post,…
