SHARK-FIN AWARDS

Bluegrass’ cultural presence isn’t isolated to Appalachia, nor is its influence nearly as insular as it was just a century ago. In 2020, bluegrass is seeing a revitalization alongside an Americana revival critics have been more than enamored with in recent years, and the biggest reason why just might have …

Punk Goes The Velvet is the new five-track EP from London’s Jupiter In Velvet. Featuring a bevy of songs ready for rotation, the psychedelic and punk laden tracks are sweltering in power vocals and driving guitar riffs. Not to mention the swarming drums, Punk Goes The Velvet is one nod …

Making a debut album is harder than making any other record, mostly because the task of establishing yourself within a well-known scene or genre can seem next to impossible in this modern, post-millennial era. Even with this being the case, there’s swagger to the performance we get from aspiring rockstar …

Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee are the Alabama duo Sugarcane Jane, and their new CD Ruffled Feathers; Songs In The Key Of Me – is a brilliant bunch of folk leaning America tunes made over an inspiring one week period. These seasoned vets are on their tenth release, so there …

In the darkness that seems to wash over us in the first ten minutes of the extended improvised jam session that is Ian C. Bouras’ “IMP (Live at Utica Brews),” there are shards of a melody that never fully join together and yet remain stoically connected through a broad conceptualism. Bouras, …

Coming to us fully-loaded with a righteous riff that set off a hurricane if given the right set of speakers to be filtered through, Lavendine’s “Rapture” doesn’t waste our time with a long, drawn out introduction to its fireworks – it gets right into the business of dispensing pure color. …

Skulking into focus with a pendulous swagger, we find the opening cut in Daniel Tortoledo’s Through out These Years, “Dark Times (Brothers and Sisters),” ready to crush us with its sonic presence just as it would the grim-shaded imagery of its music video. Tortoledo’s voice meshes with the melody of the …

Some bands don’t mind using the same formula over and over again, and while 308 Ghost Train haven’t been in the business of making rock music for very long, they’re already proving that they’re not a part of the aforementioned group of artists in their new single “Bleed Over Me.” …

Jesse Lynn Madera’s debut studio album Fortunes brings a high degree of musical and songwriting acumen together in a stylish package. The collection is brief, only seven songs, but Madera synthesizes country, jazz, and soul with such completeness that few listeners, if any, will feel cheated by its length. She builds her …

Little Hurt’s new single “Alaska” doesn’t feature a lot of grandiosity, and when it starts to play, there isn’t an enormous instrumental introduction that prepares us for the pop wonderment about to come pouring out of the stereo speakers. Off the top, the first thing we come in contact with …