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JONATHAN DONALDSON

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Dee's so fine

The girl-group delights of the Deelinquents
Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents co-founders Jen D'Angora (the Dents, the Downbeat 5) and Ed Valauskas (Gravel Pit, the Gentlemen) won't come right out and say that they had ambitions of ever forming a '60s-style girl group — they won't even come out and say they're married.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | March 02, 2010

Cotton Candy | Top Notch & First Rate

Teenbeat (2010)
Anyone who's seen Cotton Candy in person can attest that they're irresistibly camp and cute.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 23, 2010

Review: Jonathan Richman at Middle East upstairs

Jonathan Richman, live at Middle East upstairs, February 18. 2010
The closing show of Jonathan Richman's three-night stand at the Middle East upstairs hit an early peak on the second song. "My Baby Love Love Loves Me" (from 2004's Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love ) smothered the audience with the intensely romantic side of his persona.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 24, 2010

Various Artists | Songs For Chris Knox

Merge (2010)
On June 11 of last year, Chris Knox suffered a life-altering stroke.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 16, 2010

Yeasayer | Odd Blood

Secretly Canadian (2010)
Yeasayer have created a decadent, densely produced mess of a second album.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 09, 2010

Toro Y Moi | Causers Of This

Carpark (2010)
Toro y Moi's debut is a leap into a tactile æsthetic where surreal and sometimes unstable atmospheres lure listeners into simple, soulful songs.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | February 03, 2010

The Magnetic Fields | Realism

Nonesuch (2010)
This will be labeled as the Magnetic Fields' folk album, and fairly so.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | January 27, 2010

Slow emotion

John Cunningham’s songs are worth the wait
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned reflection?

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | January 12, 2010

Group hug

The crooked folk of Cuddle Magic
Things aren’t always what they’re called — we know that flying fish don’t fly and starfish aren’t even fish.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | December 15, 2009

Various Artists | Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat & Bossa Nova 1966–1970

Domino (2009)
Girl-group records are great and everything, yet the countless compilations out there were becoming a little hit-or-miss until 2005, when the great Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found box set finally gave this diverse genre a proper taxonomy.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | December 16, 2009

Robert Wyatt | Box Set

Domino (2009)
Emerging from the progressive cradle of Soft Machine and the late 1960s Canterbury scene, Robert Wyatt began his career as a solo artist after a freak accident left him paralyzed from the waist down in 1973.

By: JONATHAN DONALDSON | December 09, 2009