After nearly a decade of crafting introspective songs as Susto, Justin Osborne wrote his most personal record to date. On 2021’s Time in the Sun, the Charleston, South-Carolina-bred singer-songwriter and guitarist unpacks, at times, contradictory ideas of hope and despair. Time in the Sun was written during the early onset of what has become into an open-ended global pandemic. And …
Playlist | January’s Best New Music
Featuring a few dozen new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists, our Fresh Squeeze playlist features the best new music emenanating from Northeast Florida and beyond. Handpicked by our team of contributors, there are no rules or genre restrictions; just songs we thought were worth a share. Our latest Fresh Squeeze playlist includes the return of several prominent musical …
Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker Collaborate on Three New boygenius Singles
When Lucy Dacus sings about “gettin’ pissed about humidity” on the brand-new boygenius single “True Blue,” I can’t help but nod in agreement. Who among us here in Northeast Florida wouldn’t relate? It’s one of dozens of spot-on lines on Dacus’s latest release with collaborators Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers: the album, simply titled the record, will be released in …
Soccer Mommy | Tiny Desk Concert
When Sophie Allison says to our friends and coworkers assembled around the desk, “We’re finally doin’ it,” she really means it. A little less than exactly three years ago, Allison had just released the wonderful Color Theory as Soccer Mommy; it’s an album that marked significant strides in her songwriting and production. A big year was doubtless in store for …
Crosby, Stills & Nash co-founder David Crosby has died at 81
David Crosby, a prominent figure of the free-spirited 1970s Laurel Canyon scene who helped bring folk-rock mainstream with both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died at 81. His publicist confirmed the artist’s death to NPR; no cause of death was given at the time of this report. Crosby had long dealt with serious health problems, including multiple …
Go | The Best Live Music in Jax this Week
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Garage Rock The Schizophonics – Tuesday, January 24 Jack Rabbits | San Marco San Diego garage rock band The Schizophonics bring their three-chord (or less) style pummel to Jack Rabbits on Tuesday. Watch …
Dust Fuss’s Gear Essentials
Dust Fuss’s first full-length album, Motorsigh, is just what we need for a stoic start to a new year. Vocalist and guitarist Taylor Olin describes the feeling of the record as “liberating, like crushing a can with your boots, paired with the goofiness of amateur baseball and the bad-kid energy of a cigarette in the locker room.” That mix of …
Now Playing | Stella Kola, “Rosa”
Stella Kola by Stella Kola The eponymous debut from Stella Kola is a curveball from an already-unpredictable roster of underground U.S. musicians who are as provincial — in this case, the weird grottos and orchards of Massachusetts — as they are inscrutable. Led by Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man) and Beverly Ketch (Bunwinkies) the album opens with “Rosa,” …
Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week
A great week to see the city's best local acts
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Electronic Severed+Said, Creep City, ISYA, Golden Clouds – Thursday, January 19 The Walrus | Murray Hill A showcase of some of the city’s most enthralling experiments in electronica headlined by Severed+Said at The …
Jake Blount | Tiny Desk Concert
Jake Blount has an astonishing imagination. While a concert of folk tunes could simply be a singer and perhaps a fiddle or banjo, the young proponent of traditional music brought eight bandmates and told the NPR crowd that they were here to play “Black folk music from the future.” Most of the songs are from Jake Blount’s late-2022 release, The …
Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week
Jazz Discovery Series, Palomino Blond, The Grass Is Dead and more
Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Bayou Soul Marc Broussard – Tuesday, January 10 PV Concert Hall | Ponte Vedra An adult-contemporary-radio mainstay, Marc Broussard mixes funk, R&B, rock and pop for a fusion that’s been referred to as …
Jazz Discovery Series Presents Celebrated Bassist Michael Feinberg at the Jessie
The proverbial overnight sensation — ten years in the making — upright-jazz-bass virtuoso Michael Feinberg continues to bridge the genre’s storied traditions with the open-minded skills and fearless approach of a contemporary player. Feinberg is featured in a workshop followed by a performance with local musicians from JAMS (Jacksonville Arts & Music School) and the John Lumpkin Institute at the …
Local Spotlight | Three New Tracks by Jax Artists Out Now
New year. New local tunes. As we unearth new music from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got three great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. A reminder: You can hear the best new local tunes at 20 minutes after …
The Smile | Tiny Desk Concert
Surely my musical highlight for 2022 was this Tiny Desk concert from The Smile. Just how Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner were going to perform songs from their sonically adventurous album A Light for Attracting Attention was a puzzle not only to me but to the band. They arrived early, along with saxophonist …
Playlist | Jax Music ’22 Year in Review
As we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This year, our team reviewed more than five dozen releases from Jacksonville artists. (That’s more than one new song per week!) Before we close out 2022, we wanted to make …
Winterland V Announces Full 2023 Lineup
Jacksonville-based, independently run nonprofit music festival Winterland has announced its full festival lineup, adding an eclectic list of 21 local, regional and national artists to the two-day music event headlined by alt-grunge-psych-pop rock group The Dandy Warhols, legendary Brazilian rock outfit Os Mutantes, multi-instrumentalist and R&B/Soul singer and producer Sudan Archives, indie singer-songwriter Sasami, North Carolina psych sextet The Nude …
Go | Best Live Music in Jax this Week
Corey Kilgannon album release, Copland's Rodeo and more
Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Americana Danny Attack – Thursday, January 5 Jack Rabbits | San Marco …
Go | Best Concerts of the week in Jax
Mary J. Blige at VyStar, Fistmas, LPT on NYE and more
Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Jazz Blue Jay Jazz Jam – Tuesday, December 27 Blue Jay Listening …
Toni Smailagic’s Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Just when I thought I had my list of favorite albums set in stone, SZA dropped perhaps the best record of the year with the release of her sobering sophomore effort in December. Don’t get me wrong, RENAISSANCE is by far my …
Rain Henderson’s Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. My listening habits tend to be littered with repetition. I’ll find one song or one album and let that sucker play over and over (and over) for days, sometimes weeks. If a sound clicks with me in a moment of time, it …
Daniel A. Brown’s Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. In 2002, the music world, like the overall planet, continued to dust off the feared-eschatological wipeout of the Covid pandemic. For millions, collective trauma and survivors’ relief were parlayed into music consumption. Bandcamp Friday continued to make the rest of the week …
Matthew Shaw’s Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. My approach to music listening reminds me of the way former Daily Show host Jon Stewart used the action of a youth soccer match as an analogy for the short-attention span of cable news. In essence, the entire rosters of both teams …
Watch Jax Multi-Instrumentalist & Songwriter Animal Clinic Perform at Blue Jay Listening Room
While synthesizers have been commercially available for more than a half-century, a puritanical divide long existed between analog- and electronic-approaches to music. However, owing much to decades of experimentation by artists in a range of genres — from mainstream pop to hip-hop to rock and folk — as well as the genre-agnosticism of modern listeners, the bridge between man and …
Terry Hall, singer with ska icons The Specials, dies at 63
LONDON — Musician Terry Hall, who helped create one of the defining sounds of post-punk Britain as lead singer of The Specials, has died. He was 63. The band announced late Monday that Hall had died after a brief illness. It called him “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has …
Al Pete’s Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Let me begin with two recurring thoughts. 1) I kept saying to myself “A lot of albums came out this year,” and 2) R&B, or what some may classify as alternative R&B was a constant in my 2022 rotation. Music had special …
Carissa Marques’ Favorite Albums of 2022
As we spin the final grooves of 2022, JME Contributors are recapping their favorite music of the year. Each year feels like a marathon trying to keep up with the newest music and catching up with the hits I missed from the year prior. This year, I found myself listening to albums as a way to try and grow closer …
The Best Roots Music of 2022
In 2022, artists working within the orbit of the unstable category “roots music” got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and continued to challenge the rules of established scenes and forms. Before any tradition is solidified, it travels from hand to hand, heart to heart. Whether pushing the boundaries of mainstream country, demanding an expanded vision of traditional …
Jax Singer-Songwriter rickoLus live from JME Studios
In a now famous — and, thanks to YouTube, now widely available — 1965 press conference, a young and insouciant Bob Dylan was asked if he considers himself more of a singer or a poet, among other earnest questions by a fawning San Francisco press corps. “Oh, I consider myself a song and dance man, y’know?” Dylan answers without skipping …
JWJ Hip-Hop Festival to Honor Late Jax Rapper-Producer Paten Locke
The James Weldon Johnson Hip-Hop Festival will return to JWJ Park in Downtown Jacksonville for its second iteration in February. This year’s fest once again includes a lineup of emcees, lyricists, visual artists and DJs. The 2023 JWJ Hip-Hop Festival will also honor Paten Locke, highlighting the life and work of the late, and unimpeachably great, Jacksonville rapper and producer …
Go | The Best Concerts in Jax this Week
Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Rock Parks and Razz, Mommy’s Little Helpers, Tonal – Tuesday, December 20 …
A Guide to the Best Holiday Music Events in Jax
The Jacksonville (Holiday) Music Experience
The holidays are always fun and festive, especially for fans of local music. While we have plenty of national and international acts coming through this region, December is a time for putting the spotlight on local artists and organizations, many of whom have special programmes of music, custom-made for the season. Here’s our guide to the best holiday music events …
The 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2022
A pall has been hanging over hip-hop this year: the ongoing criminalization of being a rapper looms large. The genre has faced over-policing and sensationalism before, dating back to the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit in 1999, but the scope of the crusade has expanded: lyrics continue to be treated like transcripts by the law, rappers are painted as crime lords …
The 10 Best Classical Albums of 2022
As many Americans step out and reconnect to a version of what their musical lives were before the pandemic, I remain, stubbornly, at home. No, I don’t have “cave syndrome,” but I’ve not had COVID and I want to keep it that way. My last concert was March 8, 2020, when I gleefully let the sounds of Third Coast Percussion …
Yes, Local Artists are Still Making Music Videos. And They’re Worth Watching
It’s been several decades now since MTV’s programming consisted primarily of music videos (and occasionally imbecilic cartoon characters watching music videos). Though the art of — and money devoted to — music videos may have peaked long ago, artists continue to view visual representations of their work as both an extension of their creative pursuit and a worthwhile promotional vehicle …
Local Spotlight | 3 New Songs by Jax Artists Out Now
Majestic Mother, L.O.V.E. Culture and Lost Club
We’re all about music discovery here at the Jacksonville Music Experience. And as we unearth new tunes from artists around the globe, we love to shine the high beams of our Local Spotlight series on the beautiful noise emerging from Northeast Florida. This week, we’ve got three great new tracks by Jacksonville artists. A reminder: You can hear the best …
Go | The Best Concerts in Jax this Week
Jake Blount, Toubab Krewe, Trick Daddy and more
Each week the JME team looks long and hard at the concert calendar to identify the best live music in Jacksonville. Our weekly Go concert recommendations are updated every Monday morning and are always available on jaxmusic.org. For the comprehensive list of this week’s concerts, go to our live music calendar page. Jam Toubab Krewe – Wednesday, December 14 1904 Music Hall | Downtown …