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A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the It’s A Matter Of Time – The Complete PALP Session LP by Reverend Beat-Man & The Underground. In this era of digital production, rare is the album which feels and sounds dirty. Now, I don’t mean “dirty” in the sense that it was recorded poorly or the sound quality is poor, I mean the music feels dirty in that, after listening, a record leaves listeners feeling so unclean that listeners don’t...

The Christian Family The Raw and Primitive Sound of… (Voodoo Rhythm Records) While it would be easy enough to spill plenty of ink on the fact that The Christian Family is pretty evidently a kindred spirit to such popular “dirty shirt rock n’ roll” bands as The White Stripes, Boss Hog, Royal Trux, The Black Keys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, actually making such comparisons is entirely too convenient and doesn’t actually do anyone any favors. Stripped even more...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Confines Of Life LP by Neighborhood Brats. I confess that I spent most of my first play through Confines Of Life, Neighborhood Brats’ third full-length album (and my first exposure to the band), just trying to figure out where to start with it. Somehow, it just wasn’t easy to effectively catch or contain the band; from note one of “Who Took The Rain” (which opens the album’s A-side), the band is...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Tea Party Revenge Porn LP by Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine. Ignoring the fact that Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine really missed the opportunity to address the activities of the Trump administration and of Republicans in general (seriously – there was no new music from the band between 2014 and 2020 – how the hell did that happen?), it’s impossible to ignore the value of...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Head of the Household LP by Birthday Ass. I remember when I first started listening to indie rock, underground rock and other sorts of music which were a little left-of-center in nature, and it wasn’t always easy. In fact, it was often sort of a gamble; in the days before the internet, there were occasions when you didn’t know exactly what you were going to get, and you just sort of...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the All Are Welcome LP by Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One. After the events which have taken place in the United States over the last four years or so, one would have to ask if the album title and the image which adorns the cover of Lenny Lashley’s All Are Welcome LP is indicative of the singer’s sense of humor. That will get listeners to give the album a try on the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2LP Deluxe Edition reissue of Sirens of the Ditch by Jason Isbell. It’s pretty uncommon for me to wonder where I was when I review a reissue of an album which was originally released after 2002 (a.k.a. The year I joined the press). That is not to say there weren’t great albums that I didn’t get my hands my hands on to review them when they were new, it’s simply something...

Green DayFather of All Motherfuckers (Reprise/Warner)I must confess that, for the first time in almost thirty years (that was the first time I heard Kerplunk and became a fan), the first new song I heard from Father of All Motherfuckers felt like a balk and not a hit to me. The first song I heard was the album’s title track, and it really took me by surprise; I had read that Billie Joe Armstrong really wanted to change up what...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Bowels of Earth LP by Entombed A.D. I have to confess that the last time I paid any attention to the members of Entombed was around 1993, when the band released Wolverine Blues. The truth is that I became interested when I saw an ad for it in an X-Men comic book, and Wolverine Blues became my first real introduction to death metal. Ironically, I’ve been pretty picky about anything I’ve...

What a year 2018 was! Were there great releases? Heavens yes – there were enough great albums released this year that bands normally regarded as mainstays on my best-of lists of ANY year (like the Eels, for example) didn’t just get knocked down the numbers, they got knocked clean out of my ten best. Regarding metal albums specifically, Cancer Bats’ sixth album arrived and proved once more that, sometimes, a band’s sixth album can stand as proof that a good...