Fighting Giuliani and “Disneyfication” of our fair city, was adult industry stalwart, Richard Basciano.

Jamiroquai Automaton (Virgin) It’s been seven years since Jamiroquai released an album, but it sounds like they haven’t missed a beat on […]

Despite enlisting a bunch of songwriters this time out, original Blondie members, Harry, guitarist Chris Stein and drummer Clem Burke create a pretty much spot-on old-sounding Blondie record here (Matt Katz-Bohen plays keys/Tommy Kessler second guitar rounding out the band). Songs like “Already Naked,” with its wide open space and Harry’s echoing vocal is poppy yet slightly sad, “Fun,” with its upfront popping bass under another fine Harry vocal (and again a sing-able chorus) is funky ‘fun.’

Future Islands The Far Field (4AD) To me, the most striking thing about Future Islands is their vocalist Samuel Herring, whose passionate […]

“Larger than life” is the description most associated with artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, so director Pappi Corsicato had a wealth of […]

On Lucid Jacob Didas hits us over the head with some very serious statements rapped over stark instrumentals; good stuff indeed.

Californian alternative metal group Saint Blasphemer hits us directly in the face with their latest Theotokos. And though this is heavy stuff to be sure, vocalist John Castellon has lots to say in his lyrics (he is the head of the Orange Country Poetry Club) and the players here, Castellon on guitar as well as singing, bassist Steve Shell and drummer Steve Ybarra deliver nuance in their heaviness.

Playing devils’ advocate…Locked nose-first into our cell phone faces, avoiding conversation, for the most part, taking whole weekends to ‘binge-watch’ Netflix shows, pretty much the human animal seems woefully distracted by all this digital access it has. Is V.R. another way we are disconnecting from the here-and-now, real flesh-and-blood relationship possibilities?

Transgender music pioneer and cult solo acoustic artist Shawna Virago’s new studio album Heaven Sent Delinquent is simply brilliant. It’s great when you hear someone basically just singing to a well-played acoustic and having something truly worth saying. Virago manages a seemingly raw approach in a punk folk sensibility across 10 songs about us all, be we misfit, outlaw or garden variety suburbanite looking for, identity.

Jidenna The Chief (Wondaland Records/Epic) Jidenna shouldn’t only be a name, but a description of a style. Jidenna, who grew up partially […]