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A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Exit Stencil reissue of the Sings Blues and Hymns LP by Cat-Iron. In my life, I have had three perception-altering experiences with the blues. The first was when I heard Howlin’ Wolf; when I first heard the moans and...

Mad Max: Fury Road & Fury Road: Black & Chrome Edition Is it possible for a movie to come full circle and end up better than when it started? That certainly seems to be the case for Mad Max. It’s not just that Fury Road has been such a success – much more...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Citizen Of Glass LP by Agnes Obel. As one listens to Agnes Obel’s third album, Citizen Of Glass, it quickly becomes apparent that it’s only a matter of time. The first couple of albums Obel released really only...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the For The Kids EP by Baby In Vain. Some self-important critic somewhere will review Baby In Vain’s first EP and say they saw it coming. Over the last couple of years, bands like Dilly Dally, Like A Motorcycle and Ex Hex...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fortieth Anniversary, Legacy Celebrates edition picture disc reissue of Boston’s debut album. How does one attempt to celebrate the release of an album like Boston? To date, the record has sold twenty-five million...

Ape-Men of the Apocalypse by Brad Dwyer I finally was able to understand the Cosmic Superhero Epic genre when I read Joe Casey’s G0DLAND. Until then I had only read Jack Kirby’s Fourth World series and was thoroughly shocked by it. Shocked because it was so...

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil, Gillian McCain Having done my fair share of biography readings I have come to appreciate the oral history format more and more as the years go by. It just took a book like Please Kill Me to make me...

Artist: Rascal Flatts Album: The Greatest Gift Of All Label: Big Machine Records/Sony Music What do people mean when they say “that music moved me”? Moved you from your seat to turn it up? Moved you from the room to get away from the twisted sounds of crashing and...

WHO: Jeff Rosenstock WHAT: WORRY. WHY: It’s just about official: Jeff Rosenstock holds the title as the most relevant punk artist active today. What at first seems like your standard batch of punk songs, upon closer inspection reveal to be nuanced, complex, and...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Ready Take One LP by Erroll Garner. What do critics really know about jazz? Such was the first question I found myself asking as I wound my way through Popmatters and Jazzwax looking at longer-lead reviews of Ready Take...