A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Rock Bottom Rhapsody LP by Pokey LaFarge. Listening to Pokey LaFarge’s ninth album (first for New West Records, and first I had ever heard) had a very strange effect on me. I knew the sound had me interested right away but, before even the A-side if the album had played through, I had already picked up my laptop and found out everything I could about the band. I looked up all...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fortieth Anniversary, Record Store Day 2017-released, limited edition 2LP reissue of Blank Generation by Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Not so very long ago, I was muddling through the stacks at my favorite record store when the sight of something surprising gave me pause. There, on a reasonably cool spring day, I found a copy of the Record Store Day reissue of Blank Generation by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, originally...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into All Them Witches’ Nothing as the Ideal LP. Over the last five years or so, I’ve become acquainted with Nashville’s All Them Witches; reviewed a couple of their albums and gotten to feel like I know the band – or at least know what to expect from them from album to album. I figured I knew, for example, that their psychedelic/classic rock amalgam would end up being a consistent thread through the...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Acid Dad’s self-titled debut album. I must confess that I slept for an unreasonably long time on Acid Dad’s self-titled debut album. I’m not sure how or why, I have to own that it did indeed happen. I have to own it because from the first moment the sound began to build after I put the album on my turntable and let a stylus sink into it, I was aware of what...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Receiver 10” EP by Thee MVPs. There aren’t many things in this day and age of digital recording, mastering and production which feel like “going home,” but the tinny production, screeching guitars and speedy, cymbal-soaked drumming which dominates Thee MVPs’ Receiver EP comes pretty close. For about twenty minutes total (three cuts on the EP’s A-side and two on the B-), this Leeds-spawned group manages to recapture the fire which started...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Price We Pay 7” by Noi!se. A lot of years ago, this guy I know played in a really, really good rock-punk band. For a long time that band had a standing tradition: release a 7” single and go out on tour to promote the release. It was a fairly lucrative practice and, eventually, the band celebrated a milestone anniversary (I can’t remember how many years) by releasing a CD which...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the LP + 7” reissue of Peculiar by The Slackers. I remember the first time The Slackers released Peculiar in 2006 (back then, it came our on Hellcat Records). At that time, I was only a few years into working in the music press. I had a pretty good relationship with Epitaph, and they sent me a CD copy of Peculiar for review. Back then, I wasn’t too into ska – I...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Take The Light With You LP by Wildlife. Sometimes the arrival of a record doesn’t bring with it a spectacular introduction – in fact, it would be easy enough to overlook some albums completely on the wrong day – but those albums can sneak up on you, win your heart and capture your imagination if your back is turned and are otherwise engaged. That’s precisely what happened to this critic when...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 12” UV digitally printed “Lost” single by Noi!se. For novelty’s sake, let’s address all of the obvious potential talking points to be found about Noi!se’s UV Digitally printed 12” “Lost” single. Yes, it looks really, really cool. Yes, I think that stranding a three-and-a-half-minute song all alone on a 12” vinyl record is a questionable use of resources, regardless of how cool it looks. Yes, the quality of the graphics on...
Wild Flowers of AmericaLost in the Salvation Army The Best Show giveth and giveth. I’ve always respected Tom Scharplin’s music taste. And as host of the Best Show I knew that when he would air his grievances about a band (which would be constantly), the man knew what he talked about. On one of my regular weekly listen, Scharpling played the opening track of Lost in the Salvation Army and I was hooked right away. I had to find this...