Articles By: Joseph R. Reeves 
An interdisciplinary artist and writer whose creative endeavors have become synonymous with the wildly different lifestyles he has manifested through artistic interest, necessity, work ethic, and his desperate efforts to capture an honest portrayal of the American dream through an often gritty life on the road. Since graduating from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Reeves' unique accounts of vagabond living have become a massive undertaking in surveying the cultural landscape of contemporary America, and have become the subject of an ambitious manuscript, a notable blog, several short stories, and countless works of art spanning between traditional, performative, and digital mediums.
Inter Arma – Sky Burial album review
In the dark, ominous musical realm of Heavy Metal, I am admittedly, only a sightseer. You might say I’m a softcore “hardcore” appreciator, or that I only collect precious “metal,” or even that I’m a light “heavy” listener; however you put it, the gist of the word play amounts to me being a mere scrapper among real metalheads. That said, I’m no virgin either. I’ve made it to second or third base, depending on who you ask, and I’m definitely [...]
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Billy Bragg – Tooth & Nail album review
I am a generally forgiving music nerd. One who understands that not everybody is, or even should be racking up scores of sleepless nights over the The Complete Hank Williams catalogue, exciting contemporary trends in hip-hop, or any other such nonsense. But even I will make an unnecessarily labored sigh accompanied with an exaggerated eye/roll before derisively having to outline Billy Bragg’s practically mythic CV. I know it’s a snide gesture, but I really can’t help it. Sometimes, my voice [...]
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Deerhoof – We Do Parties EP review
Six months after the release of their 12th studio album, the wildly undefinable D.I.Y. noise-pop act, Deerhoof, has blown their international fan-base another sweet kiss with the release of their recent digital EP, We Do Parties. I for one, will take it on the cheek with a rosy blush and a nervous smile. But for a band who has the reputation of peppering their deepening catalogue with freebie EP’s, and fan-friendly promotional stunts, you have to wonder why they didn’t [...]
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Ron Sexsmith – Forever Endeavor album review
Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith has always given listeners a candid, and bountiful assortment of beautiful failure in both the content of his music, and his productive career as a multi-instrumental under-dog. But “productive” does not necessarily go hand in hand with “successful,” as careers go, and “beautiful” does not necessarily go hand in hand with “appealing,” as music goes. Without successful or appealing happening, bountiful anything has little agency. You get the feeling from Sexsmiths’ demeanor that he might be [...]
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Memory Tapes – Grace/Confusion album review
When New Jersey’s reclusive electronic songsmith, Dayve Hawke, set out to release his third album under the Memory Tapes monicker, he had some expectations to live up to. Among thriving peers Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Millionyoung (to name a few), Hawke’s debut ’09 LP, Seek Magic, established him as a force to be reckoned with among the prominent electronic sub-genre, Chillwave. But after the disappointing release of 2011′s LP, Player Piano (which applied some liberal twists to the trajectory [...]
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Milk Teddy – Zingers album review
While listening to Milk Teddy’s debut full-length LP, Zingers, you might feel the natural urge to articulate the exact sound you are hearing by drawing comparisons to it, or thumbing through an ever-thickening glossary of sub-genres. This is a completely healthy inclination, I assure you. But when a band is concocting sounds complex enough to span chasms between pop, punk, indy, new-wave, and psychedelic genres simultaneously, you have to kind of wonder if you’re wasting your time with labels. So [...]
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Timid, the Brave – Timid, the Brave album review
There’s a place where the burned out smokestacks of the city skyline spout great plumes of inspiration and creativity. Where people say hello to each other on the street, and the hollow clink of spared change in empty cup, resounds with the warm familiarity of a childhood wind-chime. Where abandoned mills have been transformed into studios, and the proud sons and daughters of steel workers are now musicians, or creative entrepreneurs. Where is this magical place, you might ask? Well [...]
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Teen Daze – All of Us, Together album review
I wish I could just be BFF’s with every up-and-coming young artist on the scene, I really do. But at the end of the day, I’m just like you, or at least some of the poor bastards you know: I’ve got a job to do. I don’t earn my ridiculous canvas bags of money with dollar signs on them from being nice, I earn them from being honest (not to be confused with the money that gets tucked in my [...]
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Public Image Ltd – This is PiL album review
More often then not, you tend to know what to expect when an old band tries to make a comeback with a “new” album. I don’t mean “old” like how the digitally fed culture kids of current times mean old either (as in several i-pod generations away or, maybe even two years old), I mean, like, really old. Such albums tend to defy the word “new” by re-working a combination of old tricks with old styles and sounds that ultimately [...]
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Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Here album review
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros might well be one of the few outstanding contemporary examples of pure and enjoyable, feel-good, family friendly music that makes the tenuous journey all the way to the ears of mainstream listeners and back again with applaudable unpretentious, and resounding gusto. Their hopeful tone and charm-the-pants off you positivity are not up for debate even among the coldest of critics, but now, with their forthcoming release of the commonly ill-cited sophomore album, the band [...]
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