Jeffrey Lewis Bares All and Is a Bona Fide Freewheeler
Jeffrey Lewis has plenty to say, and his distinctive outlook remains intriguing and often provocative. He goes to dark places, but finds gratitude in a hundred ways.
folk punk
The Pogues’ New Collection Highlights Their Important Legacy
The Pogues always painted portraits of shaggy underdogs who were broke but not broken, embattled but still very much in the battle to survive, sympathetic if surly.
Sunny War Refutes Complacency and Embraces Defiance
Sunny War’s music and lyrics stand in resistance and vulnerability, evoking a reminder of music’s powerful ability to inspire change.
Sunny War Creatively Challenges Conventional Musical Norms
Sunny War is a punk rocker who now lives in the country music capital and writes personal folk-based protest songs about our mutual situation.
Laura Jane Grace Brings Great Songs to ‘Hole in My Head’
Hole in My Head is full of good songs, and Laura Jane Grace is an excellent songwriter with intriguing lyrical turns of phrase and an ear for catchy melodies.
Violent Femmes’ 40-Year-Old Debut Is a Work of Singular Vision
Violent Femmes’ heart, sound, and aesthetics belong to an earlier, acoustic, analog, atomized rather than the Internet-connected world. It’s like a musical Catcher in the Rye.
The 10 Best Early Billy Bragg Songs
In his first records, Billy Bragg slashes and burns his way through the political and personal struggles of early adulthood with youth’s passion and idealism.
Sunny War Preaches Raw Realism in ‘Anarchist Gospel’
Sunny War is one of the most promising, exciting voices in American roots music. Anarchist Gospel is a testament to clear-eyed persistence and gritty hope.
Terre and Suzzy Roche Remember the Roches’ 1982 LP ‘Keep on Doing’
Forty years old, Keep on Doing is a high-water mark in the Roches’ career and a testament to their animating principle of being wholly themselves.
Junior Brother Speaks His Own Language on ‘The Great Irish Famine’
Junior Brother’s The Great Irish Famine captures the range of feelings we face when learning our place in an increasingly shaky world built on a foundation of tragedy.
Violent Femmes Celebrate 40 Years of Punk Folk
Marking four decades of folk-punk excellence with overdue vinyl reissues and extensive tour, Violent Femmes tell us how they haven’t missed a beat.
Dream Teamer Brett Newski Hoops It Up to Make “Varsity” for Winning Project
When life’s struggles get you down, singer-songwriter Brett Newski provides the perfect pick-me-up with his new book and accompanying soundtrack album.