A deeper look at the grooves pressed into NEEDLES//PINS’ self-titled album. There is something particularly special about self-titled albums – the unspoken rule is that, when a band puts its name on an album like that, it is intended to exemplify just exactly who that group is at its core. A self-titled album is a statement of a band’s personality as well as a statement of intent; bands always stand behind their output – even if only for the moment...
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...
Nobody Bob Odenkirk is known as a powerhouse of comedy. Over the past 3 decades he’s been in just about every comedy project worth watching. Few people get the craft quite like him. As someone who had been an underdog through most of his career, it’s been interesting watching him blow up as a serious actor after his role as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad. Odenkirk is becoming quite the household name. But an action star? Are you serious?...
WHO: Bracket WHAT: Like You Know WHY: If you’re a Bracket fan, you’re either a lover of pop punk, the Fat Wreck sound, or both. Like You Know if a new old album, meaning it’s an album that was meant to be the follow-up to their stellar debut 4-Wheel Vibe that never surfaced after their label went under. Now, it’s finally here. Why wait till now, we’ll never know, but Like You Know is a time capsule both in composition...
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 Blood Lemon’s self-titled debut album. The beauty of great music – I mean truly great and timeless music – is that while listeners will feel as though they can easily pick out aspects of what they’re hearing and place it among other excellent or classic works, they’ll also breathlessly enthuse about how original that album is too. Listening to Blood Lemon’s self-titled debut album is just exactly like that; from note one,...
WHO: Liquid Death/Various Artists WHAT: Greatest Hates Vol. 2 WHY: A silly concept album that has no business being this good. Because casual searches online can’t seem to shed any light on whether there’s anything special about this product, I’m comfortable saying Liquid Death is just water. Canned water that looks punk rock. As Liquid Death’s website itself says, it’s completely unnecessary. And so, Twitter has a lot of opinions on why this a dumb product. That was expected. What...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the new craft pressing reissue of the Creatures For Awhile LP by Personality Crisis. Things like this get said a lot but, in this case, there is actually verifiable proof: while they were working, Winnipeg, Manitoba-based punk band Personality Crisis were in a league of their own. Granted, the band was not around for very long (Personality Crisis formed in 1979 and ran until 1984) and Creatures For Awhile was their only...