2007 seemed a subpar year for rock music and America in general, but in the words of Kiss, “everybody’s got a reason to live” and the following 9 CD’s (one reporter’s opinion, as always) were as good a reason as any this year… save for the fact that death still blows. So, without further ado, entertaining us on the road from here to the great reality show in the sky: 9. Maritime- Heresy...

When it comes to ultra-prolific singer/songwriters (Ryan Adams, Robert Pollard, etc.), a frequent charge leveled by critics is that they need an editor- someone to help them determine which of their myriad songs should go on the album of the moment and what should be left behind. One man who seems to be exempt from this seldom-used-yet-somewhat-stinging criticism is Neil Young. For close to forty years, Weird Uncle Neil’s...

Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to find the interesting stuff… and sometimes it ends up not being interesting at all. Some smaller releases from the last few months in a nutshell: Maritime- Heresy & The Hotel Choir (Flameshovel) Top- notch American power pop out of the Cheap Trick/Guided By Voices school and somewhat reminiscent of Philly’s late, great Bigger Lovers. Davey von Bohlen’s...

The most exciting thing to come out of Olyphant, PA since the road to Throop may be local blues/rock duo Dealer In Wares. The group is made up of Tim Beckage on guitar and Sarah Yzkanin on harmonica and vocals. They look like they would get carded buying smokes but they play the blues with more grit and feeling than 90% of the supposed blues cats out there today. Yzkanin’s voice sounds like it may have been lifted...

The hipster forest is teeming with wolves these days. There’s the rawk of Wolfmother, the racket of Wolf Eyes, and the Modest Mouse-recommended Wolf Parade (while we’re at it: whatever happened to Wolfie?). Enter Los Angeles’ tender new hope: Sea Wolf. Led by ex-Irving vocalist/songwriter Alex Brown Church, they play an indie/folk/pop that should appeal to fans of other gentle giants like Iron & Wine,...

When The Donnas, still in their teens, first came on the scene in the late 90′s, they seemed charmingly stuck twenty years behind the times. They dressed like fast girls circa ’77 and played a primitive hard rock that seemed solely influenced by Kiss, The Ramones, and AC/DC. They were the American teenage rock n’ roll machine- chicks who did a lot of time in detention for cutting classes and smoking...