A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Bass Drum Of Death’s “Live… And Let Die” LP. Even on first glance at the cover of “Live… And Let Die“, I began to get excited. The cover of the album reminded me of so many other live albums I’d seen before; with a black and white photo and an arguably trite title, the album instantly calls to mind similarities to live albums by bands like Aerosmith, Judas Priest, The Black Keys,...

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How do you even define Billy Bragg’s music anymore? Nowadays it almost sounds like easy listening, but with a leftist political leaning. The man has always worn his heart on his sleeve and although his political songs can seem a little too on the nose and simplistic, his love songs are simply beautiful. I just love the guy, OK? The Chevalier is quickly becoming the cool spot to see shows. I remember it looking more like a rundown high school...

Civil War The only thing better than Civil War is the press tour Kirsten Dunst did for it. Not that anything she said was controversial, but because she came across as a cool-headed actress with perspective and confidence. She spoke out against genocide (wow!), avoiding plastic surgery (pot calling the kettle black?), and the stupidity of method acting. It was cool and endeared me to her even more. She’s cool, but you know what’s also cool? This movie. Of course,...

Dog Party Dangerous Good things come to those who wait, and for me, that’s the new Dog Party record “Dangerous.” Listening to Dog Party brought back some sweet memories from my college days. Days when I first starting getting into the Ramones. I had been exposed to punk rock in high school and it made a lasting impression but it was only in college that I started doing my homework and learning the basics. NOFX (RIP) only takes you so...

WHO: X WHAT: Smoke & Fiction WHY: Let’s round up the week with more X, shall we? It’s easy to point at bands that are still going and overstaying their welcome, but X certainly isn’t that. On Smoke & Fiction, the band shows they can still create inspiring and relevant music even at the end of their career. This album not only sounds like X, strutting and shimmying past rockabilly and punk rock, but it also sounds great: crisp and...

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A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Undefeated LP by Frank Turner. After releasing nine albums in seventeen years (and that’s just the studio albums – there are more comps and live albums that have appeared, as well), many fans may have a bit of difficulty getting excited about a new Frank Turner album. Granted, the singer has never made any gross missteps along the way in his catalogue, but it could easily be argued that fans feel...

In Penelope Spheeris’ Decline of Western Civilization Part I, X are depicted as the gatekeepers or elder statesmen of LA 70s punk rock. It’s hard to say whether that label really stuck, but whatever the case, they never asked for it. One thing is for sure, X have been a machine always on the move for the past 40 years, and the creative juices of “leaders” John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s never stopped flowing. X’s influence in music over the...

Stress Dolls Queen of No (Sun Pedal Recordings) Queen of No, the new Stress Dolls album, lives up to the band name. It is a journey through head Stress Doll Chelsea O’Donnell’s anxieties, ranging from health issues (she suffers from Crohn’s Disease), relationships, social media and more existential questions. Though the music is firmly based in pop-punk, a variety of styles illuminate the various themes which run through the album. In general, the more declarative songs — where she directly...