A last second booking in Cleveland could either result in disaster or an unexpected pleasant visit, and this entirely depends on, I believe, the fickle hand of higher powers.  The veracity of my statement is pretty clear to those that live around here.  Snow drags on for months and it’s right about mid-February that things [...]

Whoever said there are no second acts in America apparently never met Owen Pallett. The versatile artist who once performed under the moniker Final Fantasy has not only survived since shedding the JRPG-inspired name, he has positively thrived between touring with The Mountain Goats, lending a hand on recent releases by Gentleman Reg and Gigi, [...]

Live music is important.  Records are great (obviously) because they allow for the mass distribution of art.  But.  There’s no perfect substitute for a really good live show.  At their best, records are (often) just pale imitations of live music.  There are artists who subvert that notion and are still wildly successful (Grizzly Bear comes [...]

Brooklyn quartet Bear in Heaven’s 2009 LP, Beast Rest Forth Mouth wound up as one of our Best Albums of 2009, and as the band tours around the US, armed with even more European/US touring on tap, the Hometapes label act is primed for the stars.  The inclusion of the record on Pitchfork’s top 50 [...]

Mrs. Citizen and I braved the suddenly fierce Cleveland winter last night, trudging to The House of Blues to see Rusted Root.  As I’ve written here before, Mrs. Citizen and I have a strong emotional connection to Pittsburgh’s finest neo-hippies, so we were well-primed for a killer set.  We weren’t disappointed.  It’s been seventeen years [...]

My buddy Vin and I arrived at the show just in time to see Whiskey Daredevils, a local band with a lot of buzz. They started off their set by saying “Thanks for coming out on Wednesday night, we know you could be at home watching Modern Family.” That’s true, it’s a good show, which [...]

Before I dive into my impressions on Tuesday’s killer Medeski, Martin & Wood show, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about the spirit embodied by the band.  It goes without saying that the show was amazing. (They’re one of the four or five tightest live acts in the world, irrespective of genre; you [...]

Rolling into shows in full pre-game mode has its benefits, particularly when artists exceed lofty expectations and melt faces.  Full disclosure, I’m not a big live review blogger, and toss the blue-ribbon to my colleagues Brian, Justin, and James in this arena.  I’m much to erratic cognitively during live performances and my mind can just [...]

I’m going to start off the day by jumping right into a quick review of The Drones show at Schubas Tavern that I mentioned last week in this space. In the interest of full disclosure, I went to the bar this past Tuesday woefully unprepared. Though I was fully aware that The Drones have been [...]

The Beachland Tavern was pretty packed last night, especially considering it was a Monday. I’ll admit being surprised by this, particularly in light of the disagreement I’d had with another friend the day before about how attendance for last night’s A Hawk and a Hacksaw show would be. She said it would be busy, I [...]

Last night was one of those nights I really wanted to stay home. I took a mid-evening nap and woke sweaty and groggy about 8:15 PM. Only one thing would’ve made me choose to get up rather than flip the pillow over to find the cool side and return to slumberland: a show at my [...]

(Editor’s Note:  Going into Mission of Burma’s performance on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, I figured that if we heard five canonical songs from Signals, Calls and Marches and Vs., we should count ourselves lucky.  I was expecting a lot of new material, given that the band’s got a record coming out in [...]

To begin this review, it’s important to make our apologies for getting this review up nearly a month after the show took place.  This isn’t our normal operating procedure, and folks, we feel terrible about it.  Of all of the shows this summer, these two early August gems were among the best we’ve seen all [...]

One of the best moments in my sometimes semi-professional career as an indie rock writer occurred only a handful of days ago, some time around 8 PM Sunday before last. A few moments earlier, I had just begun interviewing Daniel Johnston, but his brother, who serves as Daniel’s manager, had pulled him away to sound [...]

(Editor’s Note: I did not attend Lollapalooza as a journalist this year.  I attended strictly as a fan and to have a good time drinking and listening to music with my friends.  That said, as an aspiring music journalist it is my duty to at least bring you some sort of report from an event [...]

This review isn’t intended to short-change any of the other three acts that performed at The Grog Shop Wednesday night.  No doubt, Joe Pug’s countrified folk amply brought the house down to close the night out and lollapalooza festival mates April Smith and the Great Picture Show kicked ass, as well.  This is a review [...]

(Editor’s note:  We wore earplugs to the show this evening.  We were expecting a full on aural assault, given the sheer volume of The Warlocks recorded output, assumed there would be a significant amount of tympanum-shattering distortion (there was) and were feeling the full weight of our status as tetriagenarians.  It’s the first time that [...]

Cleveland was a quiet town on Sunday night. It had been a long and wonderful weekend filled with numerous music and party options, including a day-long underground rock scene mega-fest, and many of the usual concert-goers were only able to think of an early bedtime or  about getting everything accomplished that had been pushed aside [...]

(Editor’s note:   Brand new dick Justin absolutely killed his first live review for us yesterday.  As such, I’m feeling more than a little bit of performance anxiety.  James and Kevin and I have kind of grown up together on the internet and then new guy comes in and shoots his first two posts into [...]

On my walk over to the Grog Shop last night I was still a block or so away when my show partner for the evening texted me that she was waiting outside the venue. She also added that there was a long line. The fact that she beat me there, despite her 40 minute drive [...]