Do you like The Kinks? Do you also like baby-making music? Then you’ll love Hollow Hand. The psych folk band, hailing from Brighton, centers mostly around Max Kinghorn-Mills, who not only looks like a young Ray Davies but writes songs like him too. The outfit’s 2nd album, Star Chamber, releases this Friday October 19th on Talkshow Records and is well worth taking for a spin. Star Chamber opens with “Ancestral Lands”, which sounds a bit like an unfinished demo, but is so beautiful in its rawness that it immediately locks you in as a listener. “Blackberry Wine” is a brilliant tune, sounding like the lost Kinks/Donovan collaboration. There are so…
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POW Magazine Reviews The Routes- Dirty Needles & Pins
Living in the remote mountains of Japan may get lonely for Chris Jacks, the one man band behind The Routes, but it seems to have a benefit for us fans- after only 8 months, The Routes have released a second album- Dirty Needles & Pins, out today via Greenway Records. Despite the quick turn-around between albums, Dirty Needles & Pins is a fully formed effort. The album showcases a more definitive sound for The Routes- holding on to some of the psychedelia from their previous release In This Perfect Hell, along with all of the angst and aggression within the songs’ themes, Dirty Needles & Pins adds a harder edge…
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New Release: Moral High Horses
Here’s a Halloween treat for all you trick or treaters- San Francisco’s own Moral High Horses released their debut EP this month. Released October 13th, the 4 track EP is an outstanding debut, brimming with Beatle-esque psych pop that keeps a decidedly modern edge. These don’t sound like the songs of a band’s first release- each track is beautifully written and thoroughly constructed. According to a recent post to the band’s facebook page, “We’ve been holed up for nearly a year recording this EP going through bouts of frustration and depression, moving mics inch by inch chancing better sounds, working with limited resources and equipment, breaking said resources and equipment…
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POW Magazine Reviews Michael & The Machines’ “Mantras & Melodramas”
Michael & The Machines have a longstanding relationship with POW Magazine. They were the first act to take the stage at the first Gathering of The Tribes festival presented by POW in 2015. 2 years later, as POW has just finished presenting Gathering of The Tribes: The Second Renaissance, Michael & The Machines have released their debut album, Mantras & Melodramas– out now on Soundport Records. Michael & The Machines is the semi-solo project of Michael Padilla, previously of The Soft Bombs and Dora Flood. Though most of Mantras & Melodramas was played and recorded by Michael alone, live shows feature a roving cast of friends/musicians, the “machines” of Michael…
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POW Magazine Reviews Pickwick’s “LoveJoys”
LoveJoys, the sophomore release of Seattle’s Pickwick, shows a band that doesn’t fear reinvention, and is embracing the waves of change. 4 years after their self-released Can’t Talk Medicine, and also after some internal turmoil with the band and the loss of a member, Pickwick is back with a more polished, grown up sound: “We rediscovered what we do best by not overthinking what we make, and learned to love the process of creating again” relates vocalist Galen Disston. “LoveJoys is a specific type of euphoria,” says drummer Alex Westcoat “a liberating feeling of inspiration that can only be achieved through the sacrifice of one’s own ambition. It is the…
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POW Magazine Reviews Dion Lunadon
That awkward moment when you discover the album you’re reviewing is the solo project of a musician who not only played in one of your most-listened to bands during high school, but also currently plays bass in a band that’s been extensively covered by the site you write for… Dion Lunadon is most well known for his roles in the rock n roll kiwis The D4, and more recently as bassist for noise rockers (and POW favorite!) A Place To Bury Strangers. I however, was completely unaware of this when I heard Lunadon’s track “Reduction Agent”. I was simply so impressed that I immediately contacted him about doing a review.…