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JONATHAN DONALDSON

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Julian Lynch | Terra

Underwater Peoples (2011)
Although experimentation in music nowadays is certainly in vogue, there aren't many records that will straddle the line between commercial plausibility and healthy art-for-art's-sake like Julian Lynch's Terra.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | May 06, 2011

Neutral Uke Hotel strum gaily over the sea

Flight from the hater brigade
Shawn Fogel of Golden Bloom knows that his latest stage act is a formula for potential enormous suckitude. Take one of indie rock's sacred cows — Neutral Milk Hotel's 1999 album In the Aeroplane over the Sea — and play the whole thing, straight through, on ukuleles. Then have the audacity to call it Neutral Uke Hotel.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | April 13, 2011

Cold allure of Toro y Moi

Wave lengths
Listening to the music of Toro y Moi, one can almost hear the years of juvenile tape swapping, the late-night DJ conversations, and even the city-kid confidence and swagger that it must take to put music this fresh — this good — on the map.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | April 12, 2011

Ron Sexsmith faces his doubts

Stepping out of the shadows
Shhhh. There's a middle-aged English music legend sleeping in the shadows. Look a little bit closer and you might see the outline of his fedora and iconic Buddy Holly glasses. I'm not going to say his name, but he's just one of the members of rock's royalty who frequently lauds Toronto-based songwriter Ron Sexsmith.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | March 24, 2011

Henry Rollins is a icon worthy of the Brattle

Fifty sense
Clocking more than 100 shows per year for multiple decades now, Henry Rollins is a clean-living, world-traveling, rapid fireball of neurosis. At 50, the former Black Flag frontman has become less of a punk-rock pundit and more of a genuinely funny orator at large.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | March 09, 2011

Mitch Easter brings his old-school Pro-Tools

Studio affects
Could some of rock's greatest albums possibly be produced in somebody's home studio, a by-product of the Garage Band generation? Underground-rock producer/nerd Mitch Easter doesn't think so.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 16, 2011

Sweden's Radio Dept. create musical graffiti

Art for pop's sake
Growing up in the small Swedish town of Björntorp, Johan Duncanson didn't have bright explosions of spray paint on underpasses to remind him that art could exist outside the lines of commercialism. Instead, music, movies, and comic books provided the language he could jump into.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 02, 2011