Contributor
484 items by Will Hermes Will Hermes’ Profile on
-
"Secret Love" | SONG REVIEW
La Gold Dust Woman's first new music in a decade is a glimpse of In Your Dreams, a collaboration with Eurythmics' synth-pop scientist Dave Stewart. (It's due in May.) "Come on, it's time to go upstairs"...
January 18, 2011 9:15 AM ET -
The King Is Dead | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to The Decemberists' "Down By the Water" When a 12-and-a-half-minute murder ballad ("The Island," from 2006's The Crane Wife) stands as one of your...
January 18, 2011 12:00 AM ET -
Cape Dory | ALBUM REVIEW
Click to listen to Tennis' "Marathon" and "Take Me Somewhere" Great backstory: Denver husband-and-wife team Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley sail around the East Coast...
January 18, 2011 12:00 AM ET -
"Row Jimmy" | SONG REVIEW
The bookish Portlanders cut a loose cover of the Grateful Dead's two-step, with Colin Meloy doing a spirited Jerry. It's like closing time at the library's special-collections room. Gallery: Random Notes, Rock's Hottest Photos
January 3, 2011 9:15 AM ET -
Will Hermes' Best of 2010 | ARTICLE
Albums 1. Junip, Fields (Mute)In a year that demanded serious chilling-out, Jose Gonzales made a gorgeous chill-out record, all gentle melodies and hypnotizing grooves. Yet — as with most things — below the...
December 27, 2010 11:15 AM ET -
Ten Essential Captain Beefheart Songs | ARTICLE
When the man born Don Van Vliet died on December 17, he left behind a body of highly original rock and roll that mixed free-jazz with the blues and influenced everyone from PJ Harvey to the...
December 20, 2010 11:15 AM ET -
III/IV | ALBUM REVIEW
Around 2006, prolific, hard-drugging singer-songwriter Ryan Adams cleaned up and began spitting out even more music. III/IV is 21 songs from 2007's Easy Tiger sessions, supplanting that album's wired folk rock with a blend of punk head...
December 14, 2010 11:25 AM ET -
"Getting Ready for Christmas Day" | SONG REVIEW
"Got a nephew in Iraq/It's his third time back," sings Paul Simon, pondering the fate of a relative spending Christmas abroad. "Jingle Bells" this ain't. The first taste of his forthcoming LP is built around a 1941...
December 13, 2010 5:55 PM ET -
"Last Night at the Jetty" | SONG REVIEW
The Animal Collective crooner evokes the sound of a woozy man stringing together bits of doo-wop at the bottom of a well, backed by wobbly synth, hand claps and the odd shriek. We'll have what he's having!
December 10, 2010 9:45 AM ET -
4x4=12 | ALBUM REVIEW
Rocking stages in his trademark LED mouse helmet, Joel Zimmerman recalls the salad days of Daft Punk, when cartoon robots ruled clubland. 4x4=12 is audacious, mixing generic house grooves with eclectic fare like "Bad Selection," a...
December 7, 2010 12:45 AM ET -
"Hold My Hand" | SONG REVIEW
When it first appeared, there was some doubt that this 2007 "collaboration" — circulated in a rough but near-identical version after Michael Jackson's death — really happened. (Members of Jackson's family are among the skeptics.) Musically, the...
December 1, 2010 6:50 AM ET -
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" | SONG REVIEW
This version of the Thriller killer, cut by its producer for his new album, finds T-Pain splashing on the Auto-Tune like cheap cologne while Thicke channels Michael more straightforwardly. This at least beats Justin Guarini’s version from...
November 29, 2010 8:50 AM ET -
West Coast Seattle Boy - The Jimi Hendrix Anthology Experience | ALBUM REVIEW
For Jimi Hendrix fanatics, the selling point of this four-disc set is a full CD of songs on which the guitarist doesn't sing lead and barely solos. Instead, he plays sideman to Little Richard, Don...
November 25, 2010 9:25 PM ET -
Pretty Hate Machine (Reissue) | ALBUM REVIEW
"Head like a hole/Black as your soul," bellows Trent Reznor on his debut, the first industrial singer-songwriter album. The sound of a studio janitor shouting down his enemies and baring his diseased soul over...
November 22, 2010 12:25 AM ET -
Cannibal | ALBUM REVIEW
Ke$ha's main competitor rocks a mean meat dress, but can she rock a couplet like "Your little heart goes pitter-patter/I want your liver on a platter"? This EP proves Ke$ha would kick Gaga's ass in...
November 22, 2010 12:15 AM ET -
"Down by the Water" | SONG REVIEW
Surprise! This isn't an 18-minute prog epic. Instead, it's a tight folk rocker from the Decemberists' forthcoming album, The King Is Dead. R.E.M.'s Peter Buck adds signature guitar chime, Gillian Welch contributes powerhouse backing vocals, and there's...
November 19, 2010 10:35 AM ET -
Silent Movies | ALBUM REVIEW
Not long ago, avant-garde music was supported mostly by academia and arts endowments. Now rock & roll has gotten into the act too. When Jeff Tweedy signed up Nels Cline to be Wilco's lead guitarist, Cline had...
November 16, 2010 12:50 PM ET -
DIRTY BABY | ALBUM REVIEW
Not long ago, avant-garde music was supported mostly by academia and arts endowments. Now rock & roll has gotten into the act too. When Jeff Tweedy signed up Nels Cline to be Wilco's lead guitarist, Cline had...
November 16, 2010 12:47 PM ET -
"Edge of Madness" | SONG REVIEW
A benefit track for victims of the BP oil spill, "Madness" begs for justice on behalf of the Gulf Coast over spry zydeco. Too bad Slick, Jefferson Airplane's grande dame, is barely audible. Jefferson Airplane:...
November 12, 2010 6:51 PM ET -
National Ransom | ALBUM REVIEW
Elvis Costello traffics in so many genres, it must be hard to focus on one. Here, he doesn't. Instead, busy producer T Bone Burnett brings period detail to a set of country, folk, music-hall and rock songs...
November 1, 2010 12:00 AM ET
