January 21, 2009

Dear And The Headlights Drunk Like Bible Times [4.5/5] Dear And The Headlights have come a long way since we first saw them three years ago warming up 40 kids at Neckbeard’s Soda Bar, a long-since-closed hole in the wall in Tempe, Arizona. With multiple ginormous tours under their belts (alongside everyone from Paramore to...

Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves [4/5] These days, there are as many country-rocking singer/songwriters as there are Los Angeles baristas with head shots. So Chris Wollard’s solo debut, & The Ship Thieves, isn’t going to grab anyone by the lapels like Andy Dick on a bender; its charms work a longer game. Wollard’s moody,...

Ben Folds Way To Normal [4/5] The piano-pounding poet laureate of brokenhearted irony-peddlers everywhere, Ben Folds runs the gamut of his multi-faceted musical career on his third proper solo album, Way To Normal. He screams himself hoarse on the punky “Dr. Yang,” a slamming wall of drums and crashing piano that makes up in...

Take one glance at the activities of his veteran counterparts and you’d think it was inevitable Ben Nichols would try the solo thing. But while his day job Lucero first established themselves as a band more than ten years ago, the fruits of Nichols’ potential solo labor weren’t tangible until he recently unleashed his solo...