A raw live set from Brooklyn in the summer of 2005 found Alpha Cat returning to the stage after personal tumult. Sales benefit organizations seeking to end discrimination toward those seeking help with mental health issues.
“Have you ever been to Electric Ladyland?" Counterbalance's Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn have, and they file this report.
Bob Dylan's first album of original material since 2012, Rough and Rowdy Ways, is a suitably grim, brilliant collection of ten songs for our dark times.
Luke Top's "Poltergeist" offers an unexpected confluence of influences, that range from reggae to pop and exotica. Proceeds from streams and sales go to the Loveland Foundation.
Melismatics/Soul Asylum members prepare their debut album as Ryan & Pony with the catchy, Jesus and Mary Chain-esque rocker "Start Making Sense".
For all his love of American vernacular music in its many forms, Bob Dylan has a deeply European sensibility.
Released alongside Nirvana’s Nevermind, the importance of Pearl Jam's Ten has been somewhat overshadowed by that record. Pearl Jam were barely together for a year, but released a cohesive debut that would help define '90s alternative rock.
The Beatles once again make their way onto the list with their 1969 tour de force Abbey Road. Halfway through, Klinger and Mendelsohn realize they can steal but they cannot rob.
Bob Dylan returns as prophet, historian, and joker on his latest album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, an unending puzzle with rich content.
Veteran rocker Willie Nile delivers another ode to his adopted hometown from New York at Night. "New York City has always inspired me. I love the energy, the grit, and the mystery of it all", says Nile.
Welsh "new wave" band the Alarm return with a folk-rock anthem in "Ghosts of Rebecca" and a stirring new album, STREAM [Hurricane of Change].
Butch Walker delivers what is arguably his most ambitious release to date with American Love Story. "I'm calling everybody out," he says, about a record that he concedes may not be for everyone.
Musically 1991 will forever be remembered as the year alternative rock conquered the masses. We explore how alternative became the dominant form of rock music in the 1990s.
Whatever the reason or reasons why Manic Street Preachers' Gold Against the Soul remains the least celebrated of the band's storied career, this shiny and very impressive rerelease is an opportunity to rehabilitate it in the minds of many.
Paul Weller has no interest in accolades but only pushing his sound in new directions. The British music legend talks about his album On Sunset and what his own future will be in a post-pandemic world.
Contrastography compares the histories of two famous entities to display some unusual coincidences. First up is Prince vs. Bob Dylan.
Everyone's favorite noise rock curmudgeon, Steve Albini sounds off as he prepares to release an eerie score to a horror film.
Psychedelic rockers the Grateful Dead changed directions in 1970 and went country with Workingman's Dead, becoming early folk-rock/country-rock pioneers.
Larkin Poe pack Self Made Man with unadulterated power. The multi-instrumentalist sisters strut their musicality while firmly rooting their sound in Southern rock 'n roll.
The rock 'n' roll crossfire of Counterbalance returns with a look at Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 epic Born to Run. Strap your hands ’cross their engines!
Australia's Datura4 deliver a highway anthem for a new generation with "West Coast Highway Cosmic". Take a trip without leaving the couch.
The Fall's Reformation! Post-TLC, originally released in 2007, teams Mark E. Smith with an almost all-American band, who he subsequently fired after a few months, leaving just one record and a few questions behind.
The Beatles' 'The White Album' is a piece of art that demonstrates how much you can stretch, how far you can bend, how big you really are. The album is deeply weird. It has mass. It has its own weather.
Nine tracks, recorded by the BBC in 1996 show David Bowie in a relaxed and playful mood. ChangesNowBowie is a glimpse into a brilliant mind.
Mark Doyles biography of the Kinks might complement a seminar in British culture. Its tone and research prove its intent to articulate social critique through music for the masses.
Forty years later, Rush's ability to strike a nearly perfect balance between mainstream invitingness and exclusory complexity is even more evident and remarkable. The progressive rock classic, Permanent Waves, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Powerpop overlord and part-time Raconteur, Brendan Benson, grafts hip-hop beats to guitar pop on his seventh solo album, Dear Life.
A cross-country move, new love, and a sense of home provide the basis for the Harmed Brothers' new LP, Across the Waves. Hear the new single, "Picture Show", while co-founder Ray Vietti tells the Americana band's story.
Up next for the Counterbalance series is David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Press your space face close to mine!
Melkbelly's PITH wondrously pivots between noise-rock abandon and the warmness of lo-fi pop.
The Lumineers' Wesley Schultz recalls the Beatles' influence on his band, perhaps most of all the Let It Be album, released 50 years ago this month and the subject of a forthcoming documentary.
The Beatles' 1968 self-titled double LP has been referenced by everyone from Joan Didion to Charles Manson and analyzed literally backward and forward. Mendelsohn and Klinger, always smiling and arriving late for tea, discuss the Number 14 album on the Big List.
On Straight Songs of Sorrow, Mark Lanegan tells stories from his life and wrestles with death, his chief subject.
The first ever hip-hop/metal crossover from Translation Loss is an exciting joint venture that seamlessly melds two seemingly disparate genres.
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