SHARK-FIN AWARDS

Simmering beneath the surface in a fuzzy hue, we discover the outlandish melodic tones that will serve as the centerpiece for “Tumbleweed Tornado,” one of the ten tracks to be heard on Bloom’s Taxonomy’s Foley Age this late winter season. Though the structure of the song quickly lends itself over to synthesized …

It’s a refreshing occurrence, when the music industry shows the ability to still surprise you. Occasionally, an artist arrives who is so stupendously idiosyncratic and animated, that it restores your faith in originality. Now, it’s too premature to say that young Italian rapper, Dici is leading the charge to a …

If there’s any genre of music that’s taken a fair share of kicking from recent pop culture, it’s country music. Now I’d argue that some of this is fair, we’ve certainly seen an advent of “artists” who’ve made their appearances just to capitalize on a hungry market, who’s open to …

“You Raise Me Up” is given new life by flutists Steve Markoff and Patricia Lazzara in their spectacular cover. Lazzara, an award winning concert flutist and Carnegie Hall veteran met Markoff, an alto flutist, when he was a student to her. Over time as his talents tightened, their relationship transformed …

The vibrant sound of King Cole’s “The Mean Season” grabs me from the first and doesn’t let go. Having a sparkling vocalist such as J. Buck helps the song’s cause a great deal, but Cole’s long songwriting experience plays an important role. Cole knows how to construct a pop song …

They say everything human is finite and there is nothing new under the sun. Others say we live in an exhausted world; genuine inspiration, individual creativity, and a willingness to push the envelope are scant and, instead, it’s everyone for themselves, man the lifeboats, the end is nigh. It is …

The Damnedest Thing  is the 20 Year Anniversary reissue of The pulls 2000 LP. Yet it feels as relatively fresh as it probably did, two decades ago. The Pulls are a self-described Pop Punk outfit, but their initial impressions tend to lean towards the latter. Though the album boasts seventeen …

Elsewhere’s “The Pledge” is a single the Boston-headquartered trio cut with the ambition of raising funds for the Alzheimer’s Association. The recent release is another high water mark in the band’s long run as a force on the East Coast indie rock scene. Despite holding day jobs in the corporate …

Against the backdrop of what was a typically eccentric northern California afternoon, I had the pleasure of coming across the likes of Hēran Soun for myself as I prepared to present the acclaimed one-man musical wrecking ball with this year’s trophy for album of the year. As eerily calm and …

In an era of artists sounding like one after the other, Pennan Brae scores an unusual home run before anything else: originality. His entire style proves to be an eclectic set of contradictions, yet the marriage of said contradictions nonetheless produces a sort of unearthly coherence to the whole image. …