Email Author Rick Mason

2007 Stories by Rick Mason

• Of Montreal

  published October 3, 2007

  Last winter's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Polyvinyl) was a significant departure for Of Montreal, being thoroughly obsessed... More >>

• Electric Six; Gore Gore Girls; We Are the Fury

  published October 3, 2007

  Not to be confused with any wayward offspring of the 2000 presidential election's legitimate winner, Detroit's Gore Gore Girls hearken back to an... More >>

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

  published October 3, 2007

  Fiercely indie Clap Your Hands Say Yeah managed to become the buzz band of 2005 without label support of any kind—and maybe even partially... More >>

• Don Vappie & the Creole Jazz Serenaders

  published September 26, 2007

  Don Vappie has been a bit hyperbolically called the Jimi Hendrix of the banjo. The latest in a long, ancestral line of New Orleans jazz musicians... More >>

• Nick Lowe/Ron Sexsmith

  published September 26, 2007

  Nick Lowe is a dynamic force who's been gusting through popular music, albeit in an often understated way, for 30-odd years. He was a pub-rock... More >>

• Suzanne Vega

  published September 26, 2007

  New York City is both the focus and framework for Beauty & Crime (Blue Note), Suzanne Vega's gorgeously nuanced, elegiac new album, her... More >>

• Metric; Crystal Castles

  published September 26, 2007

  Although Metric, the Canadian new-wavoid quartet that is rapidly becoming an industry unto itself, has no new studio material on the shelves, the... More >>

• Nordic Roots Festival 2007

  published September 26, 2007

  The 2007 invasion of bands from the myth-shrouded realm on the northern rim of Europe promises yet another ear-opening romp among sounds as exotic... More >>

• Ana Popvic

  published September 19, 2007

  She's inspired comparisons to Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Bonnie Raitt, but guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ana Popovic's blues come... More >>

• The Rose Ensemble: Hawai'i Revealed

  published September 19, 2007

  The St. Paul-based Rose Ensemble is a world-renowned vocal group that has spent the dozen years of its existence combining extraordinary... More >>

• Chango Spasiuk

  published September 19, 2007

  Argentinian accordion is usually synonymous with tango, but not in the case of accordion ace Chango Spasiuk. He hails from rural, northeastern... More >>

• Loudon Wainwright III

  published September 19, 2007

  A brilliantly twisted songwriter whose brutal honesty is more like a 2x4 to the forehead than a rapier thrust between the ribs, Loudon Wainwright... More >>

• B-Side Players; Salvador Santana; Cipes & the People

  published September 12, 2007

  Ignited by a blaze of funky horns, a complexity of rhythms zeroing in from the hottest corners of the globe, and a cascade of rapid-fire lyrics... More >>

• Th' Legendary Shack Shakers

  published September 12, 2007

  J.D. Wilkes writes Southern gothic tales drenched in cinematic blood and guts. The head Shaker's songs are populated with maniacal holy-roller... More >>

• John McLaughlin

  published September 12, 2007

  Guitarist John McLaughlin was an innovator in rock-jazz fusion and exploring world music, first with the likes of Graham Bond and Brian Auger in... More >>

• Suzy Bogguss

  published September 12, 2007

  Sweet Danger (Loyal Dutchess), the new disc from nominal country singer Suzy Bogguss, is indeed packed with sugar, but there's nothing... More >>

• Mina Agossi

  published September 5, 2007

  Of joint French-Benin heritage, Mina Agossi started as a casual blues singer but quickly discovered jazz and her quirky but engaging approach to... More >>

• O'Death/Rock Plaza Central/the Western Fifth

  published September 5, 2007

  If you like weird-as-hell, entirely twisted takes on rootsy stuff originally planted behind the cesspool somewhere in Appalachia, then this is the... More >>

• Eliza Gilkyson/Ray Bonneville

  published September 5, 2007

  A writer of vivid, highly detailed songs most often about grim goings-on on the dark side of town, Eliza Gilkyson tackles ugly subjects like... More >>

• Ilgi

  published September 5, 2007

  The Latvian folk ensemble Ilgi has been around since the beginnings of the Baltic folk revival of the early 1980s, when the Soviet Union was still... More >>

• A Tribute to Bob Feldman: Celebrating a Life in Music

  published September 5, 2007

  When someone dies way too prematurely, as Bob Feldman did in January 2006, the tendency is to heap praise on the deceased regardless of the true... More >>

• Terence Blanchard

  published August 29, 2007

  A vibrant force in jazz since he took over the trumpet chair from Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the early '80s, Terence... More >>

• Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals

  published August 29, 2007

  Ben Harper's been nothing if not eclectic during his career, often pursuing a funky acoustic vibe but also rocking out and reflecting influences... More >>

• Paul Cebar: Tommorow Sound Now for Yes Music People

  published August 15, 2007

  Paul Cebar Tommorow Sound Now for Yes Music People Groovesburg Joys It's been six... More >>

• Caetano Veloso: cê

  published April 11, 2007

  Caetano Veloso cê Nonesuch As an icon in his native Brazil, Caetano Veloso... More >>