Johnathan Rice: Further North

I've been writing a lot of mini-reviews for the Weekly in the last month or so. A band or a singer comes to town, I listen to their latest disc and write a 50-word teaser. Some good, some bad.

But I also took part in one of my favorite review gimmicks recently, a quick peek back at CDs we missed the first time around. Here's what I posted on a great CD by a guy most of you probably have never heard of.

Johnathan Rice
Further North
****
Indie kids, don’t hate Johnathan Rice because he’s Jenny Lewis’ boy-toy. Hate him because he shares a bed with the darling Rilo Kiley lead singer and because he’s not just a pretty face. Rice, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter who grew up in Glasgow and Washington, D.C., saw his star rise in 2007 with the release of his second album, Further North, a collection of jangling guitars and spooky stories, road songs that echo The Byrds, the Pixies and a touch of Fleetwood Mac’s jaded SoCal worldview. A couple more albums like this and maybe Lewis will be known as Johnathan Rice’s girlfriend.

– Patrick Donnelly
Las Vegas Weekly, Dec. 27, 2007