Archives

Son Henry & T. Rogers Band Grace (Twang House Records) In 2009, American blues musician and lap steel virtuoso Son Henry arrived at a music festival in Estonia with only his lap steel. The rest of his equipment was stuck at Heathrow Airport, where it remained for...

WHO: Mary Timony WHAT: Untame the Tiger WHY: Timony might be considered a guitar goddess, but if that’s the case, she doesn’t let it on. Maybe it’s safer to say she’s a guitarist’s guitarist. That being said, anyone listening to her music can expect the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Complicators’ self-titled album. While it’s very easy for any critic to come off as surprised when a band reassembles a set of well-used, time-honored musical cliches and presents something which works,...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the This Is How Democracy Dies LP by Brigata Vendetta. Okay, after the last few years of pundits both educated and ill-informed questioning the health and longevity of democracy and looking at the concept so closely the...

The last thing you think about after you have a near-death experience is when the next good show is coming to town. But, I love music. It’s funny, because I got hospitalized right after the last show I attended in November, and after you rehab and try to get back...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Vapids’ Revenge Therapy LP. Beyond a certain point, it’s understandable how fans of any given punk band lower their expectations of new albums, when they’re announced. Part of that might have to do with...

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm The mind plays tricks on us. Especially, the child’s mind. Haven’t you gone back to something you remember loving as a kid and realizing it’s total shit? Distance is probably what’s making the heart grow fonder. I was having these...

WHO: Aesop Rock WHAT: Integrated Tech Solutions WHY: Boy, this was a close one. Aes’ last two albums had failed to resonate with me and I was starting to fear that either his best days were past him or that I was unable to relate to the guy’s music. I delved into...

Six Weeks in Russia, 1919by Arthur Ransome I look at Arthur Ransome’s Six Weeks in Russia, 1919 with both awe and disdain. It’s a thin book, definitely, and it’s also probably the last book I’ll be completing for a long time. After getting sick to the point of...

Barbie Hey Barbie, you gotta help me out here, OK? Look, I love Greta Gerwig. There was no chance in hell I was going to see Barbie if it weren’t for Gerwig’s involvement. The fandom behind the movie was dumb. It’s full of stunt casting and I knew it was going to...