These days, it’s hard to define them, isn’t it?  In a musical world full of niche genres and file sharing — everyone’s product may have a better chance of being heard, and that’s great.. But it — as a result of a larger pie of musical choice, gets diluted in value.  I think that’s why the live music experience provides for so many, what the recorded medium cannot.

The 1990s were an excellent time to see live music. Not only were some of the oldest touring mainstays in their mature prime (i.e., Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, Rush, Eric Clapton) but a legion of next generation bands were emerging as part of a new mentality of what it meant to have a tour following.

Since last spring when I missed Chromeo play the sold out show at the Ogden, I have been anxiously awaiting the dance party that Chromeo is.

The Front Range in Colorado has had a long lasting love affair with bluegrass. Something speaks so truly to the mountain-base dwellers that it could be the most active genre of music performed in much of the area.

Liam Finn released his second album, FOMO on June 21^st, a full three years after his breakout solo album, I’ll Be Lightning. One thing is for sure – though the album title is less obviously evocative, Liam Finn’s live show, and the new music, continues to electrify.

Pop music since the 2000s has gone through interesting evolutions and continues as a topic of focus. So many styles and genres have been amalgamated and fused together. It seems as if modern pop seeks to embrace non-style or attaining something off-blues. The trend almost seems be a sound that denies roots and style, as if that would make it more interesting inherently through its disobedience of definition. In light of this goofy paradox, artists that reach out to roots seem to captivate my interest more so.

Upon walking into Music Hall of Williamsburg, it was easy to tell what kind of audience this venue attracted. It was a veritable sea of flannel, with thick-rimmed glasses aplenty, and varying amounts of facial hair. These were the hipsters of Brooklyn, all of whom had come flocking, on a Monday night, no less, to see Liam Finn.

Alt-jazz guitar sensation Todd Clouser and his latest ensemble A Love Electric lit up the jazz room at Dazzle in Denver on Wednesday.

Throughout Wilco’s two decades on the scene, the vacillating brain chemistry of frontman Jeff Tweedy has unfailingly fueled the band’s highflying creative trajectory.  Backed by the always vicious electric guitar chops of studio legend Nels Cline, the Chicago band’s 8^th studio LP The Whole Love -self-released on Wilco’s nascent dBpm Records- presents Tweedy at a critical juncture. 

In a classic Zach Deputy move, the one-man-band touring machine played 4 shows in two days at the Rockwood Music Hall September 13^th and 14^th in New York City. The venue was an intimate bar, with only a slightly raised stage for the artists, and a little dancing room for the listeners.