A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the California Heart LP by Great Apes. It is often said that the mastering process required to present music on vinyl (instead of CD or mp3) is part of what really changes the overall experience of the format (above and beyond...
RASL by Jeff Smith Jeff Smith has made a permanent fan out of me against all odds. I’ve only read his book Bone, but what an epic tale that was. And Bone is far from being a perfect story, but that’s just the kind of impact the book can have on people. Smith...
Originally appeared April 2015 I’m sitting on a couch backstage at the Brighton Music Hall in Boston on a rainy spring day with Jon Spencer next to me while he looks at my record collection. They happen to be Blues Explosion records and now that I’ve finished...
There’s nothing I like better than being completely surprised by a random album sent to me by a label. Especially when you expected comedy albums and get a curveball mized in in the form of a music/comedy album. Especially when you actually end up really enjoying the...
While I heard a lot of people complain that 2016 was a really poor year for rock and all its associated sub-genres (punk, hardcore, hard rock, stoner rock, metal et c.), the only thing I can assume is that those critics simply weren’t listening. In fact; picking...
Editor’s note: There’s spectacular power in a simple list. It’s just so potentially affecting; there’s no pomp, no ceremony, no nonsense — all the power is just what’s there. That sense of power is what leapt to mind when Ground...
Let’s go ahead and call bullshit on the internet for trying to manufacture Shitty 2016 as a trend. This year was great for a number of reasons. One of these is the music that came out this year. New bands excelled and old ones outdid themselves. We apologize ahead of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the First Ditch Effort LP by NOFX. While the last few years may not have looked like the busiest for NOFX on the surface (yes, as every fan knows, four years lapsed between Self-Entitled and First Ditch Effort – the...
The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism: The Political Economy of Human Rights: Volume I by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman For being such a controversial writer, Chomsky’s writings have been surprisingly easy to obtain. After all, this isn’t soviet...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the In The Garden LP by Holy Sons. Even at first sight, those who are familiar with Holy Sons – the solo pet project of Grails drummer Emil Amos – will know that In The Garden is an important release for the artist. Why?...