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Mike Viola is playing guitar in Ryan Adams ’ band the Shining for almost a year now.  In return the " Stairway To Paradise " 7″ (available on vinyl and digital) was produced and recorded by Adams.  The title track is slightly different from what Mike has done before. It's darker, quite mysterious - but still with his well known ability for harmonies. " Roxxy Girl " and " Clink Glasses, Salud " prove he's again on top of his game.  Side note: If you look at the song length you'll recognize that three of the four songs are just 60 to 100 seconds long. That's really short for a song, but regarding to Mikes' discography it's exactly the length of the best songs he's ever written. Ryan Adams talks about Mike Vioa at Pax-AM: " Mike is a genius. His songs are pure genius. He records himself though sometimes and he ruins everything. So I made him come to my studio and just him and me made music under the name Defc...

Watch out, here they come: The One and Only PPL MVR . Here are the facts: Origin: unknown Species: unknown Intention: unknown Trademarks: Yelp as loud as possible, karate kicks and Rock 'n' Roll! There's very little known about them, but one thing is quite clear: they rock! Buy the EP at iTunes HERE ! I will try to get an interview with them, but it MAY be quite difficult. We'll see! www.pplmvr.co

Nick Piunti - Beyond The Static This is the fantastic new record from Nick Piunti - out on Bandcamp (digital, CD) HERE .   Beyond The Static by Nick Piunti Air Traffic Controller - People Watching Air Traffic Controller are back with the new song " People Watching " - the full record is coming soon.   Timmy Sean - Songs of the week From Timmy Sean: "52 NEW SONGS! Every week in 2015, I will be releasing a previously unheard Timmy Sean track! Expect brand new songs, songs that I've had half finished for years, some covers, some live recordings, and some new versions of old songs that I wrote for LUZER way back in the mid-00's. But they've all never seen the light of day until now." Judging from what's already out - this is a great project!   Songs Of The Week by Timmy Sean Ben Lee - Big Love   Kelly Jones - Heaven's On Fire (Kiss Cover)  

10.000 Years is a concept album. And it's one of those rare concept albums you won't just pretend to be impressed by its topic and its statements, listen to it once and put it in your shelf - where it will be covered by dust for years.  No, it's one of these records you will play once, be really impressed - and next you'll recognize you have it in constant rotation and reading the lyrics in the booklet very carefully. And 10.000 Years is also one of the best records of sophisticated pop music you will ever listen to. The Honeydogs  - which were founded about ten years before as a Country Rock band - convince with a musical width across many musical genres, e.g. Retro-Pop, Samba, Blues-Rock, Folk or Oriental - you have to be careful not to get dizzy. 10.000 Years tells two futuristic stories loosely bound together. Topics go from end time wars, genocide to genetic test-tube modification. The fact that these fictitious stories are not so different from w...

Tracy Bonham - Wax & Gold The very successful pledge music campaign for the newest record of Mrs. Bonham is over. The album Wax & Gold will have an official release likely later this year. More at pledgemusic.com Ben Lee - Love Is The Great Rebellion After many years being an independent artist Ben Lee  got a major record deal and has signed to Warner Bros Records. The new record Love is the Great Rebellion is out June 2, 2015, the first single Big Love will be released on Record Store Day (April 18, 2015). More HERE . The Lilac Time - No Sad Songs A prose-poem, which Stephen Duffy composed especially for the release of the new and ninth album by his band The Lilac Time , contains the lines: " I was a flower child, now I'm a flower man ." It took a long time before one became the other. When viewed from space, Stephen Duffy's path may well appear labyrinthine, filled with loopholes and trapdoors. Yet a sober perspective reveals p...

10 Futures  is the latest album by Matt Hales - also known as  Aqualung - and it's out now. I was very sceptic about this record. About half of the songs are performed by guest vocalists, which is quite new to Aqualung . And the first single Tape 2 Tape  shocked me the first time I listen to it quite a bit. The thing is: this record is a grower. A huge grower. The 10 songs combine a wide range of genres into a surprisingly homogenous result.  Stand-out tracks are hard to name. I recommend to start with:  Tape 2 Tape, Eggshells, Be Beautiful, New Low, Hearts, To The Wonder (every single one of these songs would be worth it alone to buy the album).

This is good stuff! Most compilations have fillers or a varying quality of songs. This hasn't. Start to listen to tracks 1, 2, 6, 9. Ben says: " This album began as an exploration of songwriting. I decided to write songs for different voices, and invite these singers to perform them. My dear friend Sam Spiegel offered to produced the record I had conceptualized, and we began working on the collaboration in earnest in 1998.  Over the next 6 or 7 years we continued to record intermittently. All kinds of wonderful musicians came by and offered their help with recording. I should have kept better notes during the sessions but I know you can hear Eric Gardner, James Valentine, Rusty Logsdon and Alfredo Ortiz amongst many others. I am grateful to everyone who played a part in these recordings, large or small, remembered or forgotten. " A MIXTAPE FROM BEN LEE by BEN LEE