SULFUR CITY announces debut album “Talking Loud” for May

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Canadian rock band Sulfur City‘s new album features front woman Lori Paradis enjoying a bit of musical ecstasy, an image that evokes a Janis Joplin LP cover. It’s a clever strategy in making that connection as it highlight the band’s greatest asset, their superlative lead vocalist. Thing is, Sulfur City really are a rawk band, not blues/soul band, so Grace Slick is really a better comparison point as Paradis shares Slick’s graceful enunciation and more restrained sense of energy and drama. Did I mention this is a serious rock and roll record, something that’s vanishing faster than bees these days? Sulfur City is a really honest to goodness working class rock band, the kind you can unwind to with beers and pool games at the local pub. Paradis even possesses the requisite career history as she’s been a construction worker, house painter and trucker. Those are careers that make you tough and give you the right rock ‘n’ roll mindset. – POPMATTERS

RECORD STORE DAY : LEFT LANE CRUISER premieres previously unreleased song “Bloodhound” via NO DEPRESSION

Beck In Black, a loving collection of LLC material from the onset line-up of Freddy J IV on the vocals and guitar crunch and Brenn Beck on the boom bap drum kit and blowing some harp – a fleeting piece of envelope pushing Blues to add to your collection alone, if not for only 800 copies on limited edition metallic gold vinyl courtesy of Alive Naturalsound Records, of course. God Bless Record Store Day! – Scott Zuppardo / NO DEPRESSION

RECORD STORE DAY : HOLLIS BROWN premieres previously unreleased song “Completed Fool” via ALL MUSIC

New York’s Hollis Brown continues to deliver their stomping, warm classic rock sound on “Completed Fool,” a track from their upcoming Record Store Day EP, Cluster of Pearls. You might know them from their four-star debut, Ride on the Train, or Hollis Brown Gets Loaded, a track-by-track reimagining of the Velvet Underground’s classic Loaded. – Chris Steffen / ALL MUSIC HERE

Nice review of The BONNEVILLES via ALL MUSIC

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Andrew McGibbon, Jr.’s guitar work boasts plenty of primitive ferocity and a sublime distorted tone, while drummer Chris McMullan hits hard and generally stays out of the way. While the Bonnevilles boast good, gritty technique, McGibbon is also a solid vocalist and songwriter, and there’s a greater depth to his tales of woe than most of his peers deliver. The Bonnevilles sound tight and naturalistic on these sessions, which have a fine sense of space, and the duo is smart enough not to overdo their sense of menace. – Mark Deming/ALL MUSIC review here