Happy 10th Anniversary to Bombino's Azel

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Bombino's album, Azel. 

His third studio album was produced by Dave Longstreth.

Brand New Tune from River Whyless LP Due 6/8/18

In 2016 one of the surprise finds for RtBE was the Asheville based River Whyless. We loved their second full length We All The Light and even ranked it in our year end review just outside our top ten picks for the year.

Now the group has their follow up full length coming out June 9th titled Kindness, A Rebel. The first single from the record arrived at RtBE's inbox and it is titled "Born In The Right Country". From it's title you can pretty much sum up the fact that it is about our current political state. You can grab it here through the medium of your choice or hear it now:



It is an intriguing, fairly straight ahead song from this band that speaks to the issues facing the world today. We are excited to hear the full length. Here are a few tunes from the band to hold us over until then.   

2016 Recap: Favorite Albums, Shows, Etc

With all the hectic happenings at the end of the year, things can be missed. This is just a catch up post to point out a few of our favorite things from 2016 that shouldn't go unnoticed. There were many strong releases, great live shows, amazing musical moments....2017 has a lot to live up to.

 In case you missed it here are our Best of 2016 series of posts...

Our picks for best album art of 2016, where we check out some creative album art from the last year.

Our picks for best live show of 2016, what an amazing year for live tunes...all of these were jaw dropping nights in their own ways.

Finally our one, two, three, part picks for best albums of 2016.  Again all of these are fantastic and worth your time and attention.

Feel free to let us know your choices in the comments and thanks as always for reading and exploring...as the patron saint of this blog stated:

What are those of the known, but to ascend and enter the Unknown? 

Year In Review 2016 - Top 10 Albums Part 3

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2016 Top Ten Albums numbers 5-1:

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation, just click on the name and title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on the their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

Today we start our top ten, in retrospect it was a year with a lot of good albums but few great ones, sorta like 2011 which overall was the weakest year of releases since we started this site. This year just may beat that one when it comes to just OK albums as opposed to all-time greats, time will tell. Click that Read More button to get started with numbers 5-1 today. 

Year in Review 2016- Top 10 Albums Part 2

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2016 Top Ten Albums numbers 10-6:

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation, just click on the name and title and you can read our full opinion. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on their Top 20 so you can expect some overlap if you already have seen that list.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

Today we start our top ten, in retrospect it was a year with a lot of good albums but few great ones, sorta like 2011 which overall was the weakest year of releases since we started this site. This year just may beat that one when it comes to just OK albums as opposed to all-time greats, time will tell. Click that Read More button to get started with #10-6 today. 

Year In Review 2016- Favorite Live Show

The live show is a slippery thing. There are lots of variables at play, most having little to do with the performance itself. Does the venue have enough bathrooms? Is it going to rain? What day of the week is it on? Did I have a shitty day at work before hand? Did tickets cost waaay too much? All of this effects one's opinion of a live show before the band even tunes up and with reason, but when the stars align, there is no place RtBE would rather be than in the moment of magic occurring spontaneously from the stage.

Live Music Has No Equal!

Taken By The Fantastic Megan Donohue

While we can't see every show that is out there, we try our hardest to see as many as we can here at RtBE. Sure there are a few left in the calendar year, but for now, here is a listing of of the best concerts we were fortunate enough to have seen in 2016. Also because who doesn't love arbitrary rankings, one show at the bottom took the top prize as RtBE's 2016 Favorite Live Show. To continue our Best of 2016 just click that Read More button and get started

Year in Review 2016- Top 10 Albums Part 1 (The Just Misses & Let Downs)

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2016 Top Ten Albums: The Just Misses & Let Downs:

In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation, just click on the name and title and you can read it. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on the their Top 20 so expect some overlap.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

Today we are going to focus on the "Just Misses" of our top 10 and unfortunately the "Let Downs" released this year. Obviously these are just our personal preferences, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments. Expect installment 2 (#10-6) soon, but for now click on the jump:

Year In Review 2016- Best Album Art

We kick off our Year in Review section of 2016 with a favorite feature in the Best of... area, Album Art. Like in years past we will be choosing our Best Albums of the Year, a few we were underwhelmed with and our favorite show. Today we are starting out by judging books (records) by their covers (vinyl sleeves, jackets, digital pics, etc). We are going to support the creative minds behind the Best Album Art Work of 2016.

The biggest gripe RtBE has with digital music is not the quality (that has been massively improved) nor the disposal nature of it (still a problem, but whatever), it is the lack of amazing album covers and art work.

Sure there may be great artists out there but seeing it on a screen, in iTunes or elsewhere is nothing compared to holding an LP cover or even a CD booklet with pages of lyrics, pictures etc. Thankfully the rise of vinyl is helping this dilemma but it is still not enough. The hours we spent staring, actually holding, examining tons of covers while listening to music can not be adequately recorded, it added new dimensions to the sounds. You were connected to album in a more physical way, things were deeper, more evocative...Anyways...

Let's get right to it. We will talk about a few like, and link to the review of the release (if there is one) then celebrate a winner who wins absolutely nothing but internet praise.

2016 was NOT the best year for album art, don't believe me? Go click through what Fuse picked for the best covers for the first half of the year...yeah, they ALL suck.