Sound Obsession

Charles Wesley Godwin, Union Stage, Washington DC - 6/27/19 Mini Mansions, DC9, Washington DC - 5/30/19 GZA, Howard Theatre, Washington DC - 5/3/19 Whitey Morgan, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO - 4/20/19 Whitey Morgan, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO - 4/20/19 Whitey Morgan, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO - 4/20/19 Baroness, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Baroness, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Baroness, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Baroness, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Baroness, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Zeal & Ardor, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/10/19 Jamey Johnson, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/4/19 Jamey Johnson, The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD - 4/4/19 Failure, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 3/28/19 Failure, 9:30 Club, Washington DC - 3/28/19 Mike & The Moonpies, Pearl Street Warehouse, Washington DC - 3/27/1...

2015 was an exceptional year for music.  Here are my top-ten favorite albums of 2015, and check out my ten runners-up and honorable mentions .  Hey, better late than never.  Enjoy. . . . 1. Ghost: Meliora (8.5/10) Meliora is Ghost's third LP, released in late summer of 2015. The title is a Latin adjective meaning "better" and so it is that the album continues an upward trajectory for the Swedish occult-metal band, adding to their mock-ecclesiastical mythos. Ghost's breakout debut Opus Eponymous mined a spooky mediaeval aesthetic exemplified by a traditional proto-metal sound, while their playful sophomore album Infetissumam (previously reviewed here ) skewed baroque, incorporating disparate elements like disco, surf-rock, and choral music. By contrast, Meliora is the band's take on 20th century modernity and futurism (its cover references Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis ) . Accordingly, on Meliora , the band's musical palette...

Mini Mansions:   The Great Pretenders Label:  Capitol Records Released:  March 23, 2015 8/10 Despite what some of the press might tell you, Mini Mansions aren't really a Queens of the Stone Age side project.  Mini Mansions are an LA-based psychedelic pop trio comprised of Zachary Dawes (guitar and bass), Tyler Parkford (keys and vocals), and Michael Shuman (percussion and vocals) - a distinct animal all its own.  Yes, Michael Shuman has been playing bass in Josh Homme's marauding rock collective Queens of The Stone Age since 2007, but arguably wasn't a full-fledged Queen until contributing to their chart-topping Grammy-nominated tour de force  ...Like Clockwork from 2013 ( my favorite album that year ).  By that point Shuman and his Mini-cohorts had already been kicking around for years, putting out a stellar and criminally overlooked self-titled debut in 2010.  That first album , Mini Mansions (released on Homme's own indie imprint Rekord...