Music of the World

OFFICIAL: http://nickblackmusic.com/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/nickblackfanpage/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/nickblackmusic Written by Daniel Boyer, posted by blog admin The third album from songwriter, singer, and guitarist Nick Black, Summer + Spring rates as his peak moment thus far and shows his development outstripping what anyone following his career to this point could have credibly believed possible. His work in a R&B/soul vein, mingled with an occasional dollop of straight blues, artfully straddles a line between stylistic fidelity to its source and commerciality. Black has hit upon a winning formula for shaping genre music whose appeal reaches far beyond purist ranks and, instead, satisfies both the demands of the form and what modern audiences enjoy in popular music. He accomplishes this with a songwriting style that’s equally personal and relatable while his instrumental and vocal talents bring a vibrant hue to it all without ever risking...

OFFICIAL: http://blacknotegraffiti.com/ FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/BlackNoteGraffiti TWITTER: https://twitter.com/blacknotegraffi Written by Raymond Burris, posted by blog admin The second full length release from Ann Arbor’s Black Note Graffiti, Volume 2: Without Nothing I’m You, is an eleven song collection that positions this (then) four piece to rise several more notches in the world of indie rock. The band, furthermore, crackles with the potential to take their act far outside the warm but relatively narrow confines of the indie scene. Rock and its musical progeny may swim upstream commercially in our modern music world, but what that means is that the limited room for viable acts culls the fat off the genre and those who boast marquee status truly deserve it. The band’s talents are considerable – musically, vocally, and lyrically. The growth they’ve exhibited since their 2013 debut is surely the result of the inherent talent they’re dealing with, but it...

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/therealyyy/ Written by Raymond Burris, posted by blog admin YYY’s A Tribute to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds sets a new standard for releases of this stripe. Tribute albums aren’t nearly as common as they once were and it is difficult to recall a single instance of a musical performer who debuted with one. Austin Carson, otherwise known as YYY, isn’t your typical performer however. Minneapolis based Carson has an all-encompassing musical vision that irrepressibly imposes itself on the iconic album’s fourteen songs and he further augments the effort by putting a cadre of local indie musicians and singers to work in guest star roles throughout the release. The production is very good and, despite the predominance of electronic textures in these reinterpretations, Carson calls upon a wide variety of instruments to help realize this album. One cannot accuse Carson of aiming low with his object of veneration. YYY tackles, with this release, one...