Archives for April 2020

For any trip-hop head that wants to check their age, it may intrigue you to know that in 2020 RJD2‘s breakout album Dead Ringer is officially old enough to vote (and we hope for democracy’s sake, it does). RJ’s spent the past eighteen years digging in the crates and twisting knobs to find the most lush, exotic, and soothing sounds to mash together into infectious instrumental hip-hop, perhaps most notably for mainstream audiences with the Mad Men title theme, “A Beautiful Mine”.

In the midst of RJ’s insatiable appetite to produce, collaborate, and remix, he’s gearing up to release his seventh solo album, The Fun Ones, next Friday. We’re counting the days ’til we have our new favorite instrumental record, but last weekend RJD2 treated us to his own sonic stimulus package, featuring hints of ’80s R&B and ’70s funk, topped off with a gorgeous original string arrangement, “20 Grand Palace”!

–Photo: Nick Fancher

After a soft-spoken upbringing in secluded Southeast Georgia, Liza Anne Odachowski stumbled upon the power of songwriting during a guitar class at summer camp. Equipped with pages and pages of introspective prose and poetry ripe for lyrical adaptation, Odachowski dove headfirst into music, and by the time she’d decided college wasn’t right for her, she already had two highly-streamed self-released albums out. Since then Liza Anne‘s landed spots at ACL Fest and on TV with Conan, not to mention touring dates with Margaret Glaspy, Ray LaMontagne, Paramore, and Kacey Musgraves (as a hand-picked opener, no less).

Following up the 2018 LP Fine But Dying, Liza Anne’s continued the saga of heavier, more distorted and poignant indie tunes, having just put out her third single of the year (just in time for everyone’s quarantine-mandated staycation), “Bad Vacation”!

–Photo: Brett Warren

To put it lightly, Forth Worth’s Matthew McNeal found success at a pivotal time in his life…

A month prior to the release of 2018’s Good Luck, the Studio 1A veteran made the heartbreaking decision to pull his father off life support, and although he soon met success on the road and in the media, McNeal would come to face more anguish in the months that followed. McNeal returned from tour with a set of new singles endowed with mourning and appreciation, but just as soon as he’d come back, he lost his house and most of his possessions to an electric fire. The subsequent near-fatal car accident and identity theft episode finally led McNeal to fill his glass again, this time with Good Grief.

Once again recorded and produced with the help of drummer Andre Black and Grammy-recipient Ted Young (whose credits can be found among The Rolling Stones and Kurt Vile), Matthew McNeal’s third album reflects the singer’s painful journey over the past two years across soul, alternative, and indie, disavowing genre constraints in favor of raw emotion. The thirty-five minutes on Good Grief is powerful to say the least, and although McNeal was slated to play at the Cactus Cafe later this month, in these gloomy days, we could all use a healthy serving of “Levity” right about now.

–Photo: Emily McNeal

When Jordana Nye’s church organist father first encouraged her to pursue music, he had no idea what he was about to unlock. Nye opted to play violin over the suggested piano before swapping out for a six-string, and now at just nineteen, Jordana‘s already built up quite the reputation with her mononymous bedroom pop project.

Jordana’s debut album Classical Notions of Happiness was first inspired in the wake of a high school friend’s suicide, fueled by the loss of youthful innocence and blind optimism and recorded between her home state Maryland, New York, and Nye’s new headquarters in Wichita, Kansas. With the addition of her three-piece backing band, Jordana opted to re-release Classical Notions of Happiness along with three new community-driven bookends that unwontedly but welcomely go way beyond what you’d expect from traditional bedroom pop. The redux edition of Classical Notions of Happiness came out last Friday so get your quarantined self in motion with one of the new ones, “Sway”!

For many groups, self-assigned and off-kilter genre labels tend to overdo it when describing a sound. But somehow (almost inexplicably), Austin four-piece Lord Buffalo stays true to descriptors like “mud-folk”, “ghost-town Americana”, and even “Crappalachian butt rock”.

Going back to their 2012 eponymous debut, these bison barons have stirred up a soil between rustic soul tones, stony-faced vocals, gloomy psychedelic arrangements, and grimy rhythms. And since then Lord Buffalo’s continued to roam around the Lone Star State on a mission to keep classic Southern styles from going extinct in the modern era. Last Friday Lord Buffalo pulled their latest hide off the tanning rack, Tohu Wa Bohu, featuring eight-tracks that’ll keep you content in these trying times, one of which certainly gives the quartet some solid celebrity status, “Halle Berry”!