Hurray For The Riff Raff: Look Out Mama
In the five plus years since songwriter Alynda Lee Segarra began the project, Hurray For The Riff Raff have always been a standout in the particular genre of waltzy folk-pop common among the groups of buskers and street musicians who’ve established formal musical partnerships in New Orleans. In a spectrum that is bounded by the [...]
High In One Eye: Memory Hoarders
“Don’t you think it might be a little too messy to actually enjoy?” asked a car ride acquaintance of mine recently after hearing Memory Hoarders, the newest release by New Orleans noise punk duo High In One Eye. I suppose on some level she was right to at least bring it up: Andrew Landry and [...]
Sun Hotel: 03.02.2012
It has actually become part of Sun Hotel‘s charm, that even in the short time lapse between tracking and the formal release of each recorded work, the band already appears to be waist deep in their next musical act. Without altogether abandoning or disowning past songs, they routinely tweak or tinker with arrangements in a [...]
Underhill Family Orchestra: 03.01.2012
Every time the roving bacchanal known as the Underhill Family Orchestra rolls into a foreign town in their graffiti-doused psychedelic Dodge Ram Cargo Van, they must be expecting a hoard of Timmy Martins to traipse over and drop their jaws in wonderment at the sight of seven veritable savages, all bearing the surname “Underhill”, cavorting [...]
Vox and the Hound: 02.25.2012
When a band is as bursting at the seams with diverse and experienced talent as Vox And The Hound, a common and not necessarily unfortunate trope may be to proceed with caution, employing a lowest-common-denominator approach to songwriting that plays to no member’s particular strength at the risk of unleashing a soundclash of incompatible virtuosity. [...]
King Louie’s Missing Monuments: Painted White
Louis Paul Bankston aka King Louie is arguably the most prolific musician to emerge from New Orleans’ storied but largely obscured underground music scene. The Harahan native has fronted or belonged to nearly a dozen bands in his 25 year career, including the short-lived but highly influential 90s punk outfit The Persuaders as well as [...]
Frankie Rose: Interstellar
Frankie Rose, who the heavens do you think you are? Admirably, though stupidly, averse to the gravy train, you quit the Crystal Stilts and you abandoned the Girls Dum Dum and Vivian to record one of the best thin-air albums of 2010, Frankie Rose and the Outs. You then offered the only decent cover track, [...]
Prinzhorn Dance School: Clay Class
Prinzhorn Dance School‘s self-titled debut was one of those rare records that genuinely, and successfully, escaped critical dissection. Definable or vaguely describable, sure: it was minimalist, nostalgic post punk. But it defied nuanced explanations of potential importance or relevancy in the zeitgeist of 2007. Similar to MGMT’s Congratulations, Prinzhorn Dance School seemed to elude any [...]
Habitat: 01.21.2012
A good bit of natural uncertainty seems to surround new local trio Habitat, who for a time only played intermittently between each member’s full-time band schedule and who have yet to formally record even one original song for public consumption. Through most interpretations, the band is nothing more than a side project: guitarist Andrew Landry [...]
