• Music Reviews

    New Year, New Writers, New Reviews: Donna Kern reviews Gyasi’s “Walk On”

    When original power groupie Bebe Buell sets her doe-eyed sights on a new artist, you’d better listen up. Her impressive lineup of exes includes Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Todd Rundgren and Iggy Pop, after all, but back in February, Bebe wrote on Instagram, “This is @gyasitheband … it’s safe to say that there’s no one like him in Nashville. Our very own rock God!” That’s some high praise from the high priestess of rock star muses. Bebe and Gyasi live in Nashville now and so, it increasingly seems, does rock ‘n’ roll. From the moment you land at the Nashville airport, spinning guitar displays, live music stages, and an entire…

  • Music Reviews,  Pow Magazine

    New Release: The Zags’ “The Cliff”

    We’re keeping the week rolling with PNW new releases with The Zags’ The Cliff, released last Friday. First of all, dig that album art! I could barely stop staring at it long enough to write this review. The Zags were formed in 2013. Original members and songwriters David Ricardo (guitar-vocals) and Stanton Hall (bass-vocals) added drummer Max Curry for The Cliff, the self proclaimed “(un)pop” trio’s third album. “The Zags’ sound is melody-and-hook-focused, with an emphasis on strong vocals — both lead and harmony. They synthesize decades of pop and rock influences, garnering comparisons to Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Big Star, XTC, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Guided by Voices, and…

  • Music Reviews,  Pow Magazine

    New Week, New Release: Shana Cleveland’s “Night of The Worm Moon”

    When I was a teenager, much to my parents’ chagrin, I painted my bedroom walls black. To contrast the blackness, I strung up Christmas lights around the room and installed a rainbow colored ceiling fan- each of it’s blades was a different color. I discovered that while the colors of the spinning blades were indistinguishable when the fan was on, by turning on a mini strobe light, each strobe flash would freeze an individual blade color, creating a really groovy effect. I spent many of my nights stoned, laying on my floor and listening to music while staring up at the stroboscopic rainbow spinning above me. Shana Cleveland’s sophomore solo…

  • Music Reviews,  Pow Magazine

    New Week, New Release: Kingdom Of The Holy Sun’s EP “The Man With The Little Hands”

    With a new 4-track EP, Kingdom of the Holy Sun comes back with a bang. The album starts abruptly with its first song, Man with the Little Hands. It’s pretty obvious to me that the song is talking about a certain someone who happens to run our country. It immediately dives into lyrics, saying things like, “feeling like you’re a man.” This song exemplifies what dominant male energy feels like, walking into a room, commanding all attention, and immediately asserting your importance. With a playful and jiggy tune, it covers the fact that the lyrics are an obvious statement on a certain president and his similar energy-ed supporters. ♪feeling like…

  • Music Reviews

    New Week, New Release: Hollow Hand’s Star Chamber

    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…

  • Music Reviews

    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…