Frida Hyvönen
We all know Helsinki rocks; that's a given. But to pigeonhole the Finnish music scene as nothing but one huge population of Laika and the Cosmonauts headbangers would be a mistake. While Finland certainly stands shoulder to shoulder with Sweden and Denmark when it comes to steroidal rockers, the country is full of other highly talented acts that have nothing to do with turning it to 11 and playing three chords at top speed.
"The Modern"
Frida Hyvönen: the epitome of wintry F
Photo by Lynne Hawrelko
What a beautiful world we'd be living in if Joel Osteen or Pat Robertson or Rush Limbaugh used Gurf Morlix as musical director. His new Last Exit to Happyland is full of aching songs full of deep humanity and decency as well as head-shaking social accusations and knife-to-the-throat post-love observational depression that may end up in alcoholism or a suicide before he gets to the end of the song. And Patty Griffin singing "I got nothin', I got nothing' left to lose" on t
Carrie Rodriguez kicks of Conroe's free First Thursdays concert series tonight. After a long tenure as a duet with hall-of-fame-quality songwriter Chip Taylor, Rodriguez struck out on her own last year with She Ain't Me. The album is very much in a Patty Griffin vein, but the title track would do Loretta Lynn proud back in her "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" days - Rodriguez warns her man, ""Whoever Ms. Whoever is, she ain't me."
Opening with new material from his soon-to-drop Last
Gurf Morlix treks into town today for the official Houston release of his new LP Last Exit To Happyland. Whether the former Houstonian and Blaze Foley roommate is working on loping rockers or folksy Americana, Morlix is a master of tone and mood, squeezing maximum subtlety out of a few well-chosen notes rather than cluttering his poems with meaningless clatter and bang.
Morlix finds magic again with duet partner Patty Griffin. Griffin has some otherworldly instinct for finding transcendent
Last Wednesday evening's positivity-ruining shootings at TSU's "Trae Day" block party were a fine example of how ignorance and violence can crash even the most uplifting party, but also of something else: Sometimes we get lucky (or blessed, depending on your theological viewpoint). In three separate incidents involving gunfire and at least eight victims wounded, no one was killed.
Rocks Off is not sure how it happened, but it did, and that's cause for celebration. We wish the victims a swift re
In the third in our continuing series on the music of the five states of Texas, we examine the fictional state of New Texas, comprising Austin and the Hill Country. See Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
New Texas
Capital: Austin
Patron Saint: Willie Nelson
Lesser Icons: Roky Erickson/Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Alejandro Escovedo, Jon Dee Graham, True Believers, Freddy Fender, Nanci Griffith, Marcia Ball, Big Boys/Randall "Biscuit" Turner, Fas
