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A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Naked Giants’ The Shadow LP. While it’s not terribly uncommon for a band to make great creative changes in their sound and style unexpectedly throughout their career, the knowledge that such events can happen still...

The Dispossessedby Ursula LeGuin I love Sci-Fi. I really do. I like to think of myself as a sci-fi guy. I’m not just talking movies and TV shows (the good ones, at least), but I try to actually do the work and read the classics. I’m waiting to meet a guru of the...

Run the JewelsRTJ4 4XLP Deluxe Edition + Instrumentalsphoto: turntablelab.com Is there any hope left for the youth? In a year filled with turmoil, the stakes have never been higher. If there ever was a time to educate ourselves it’s now. But, what’s the song of the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Crash Test Kid LP by Sammy Brue. After releasing a debut album which, while obviously ambitious, ultimately yielded results which were “just okay” followed by an EP that revealed a greater-than-average Blind Melon...

The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs, Vol. I: Building Solidarity on the Tracks, 1877–1892by Eugene V. Debs, Tim Davenport (Editor), David Walters (Editor) Look, I try my hardest not to hate on books, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Going in, I was expecting...

Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacementsby Bob Mehr Sure, we’ve reviewed this book already, but something this awesome deserved to be revisited. So, here’s a special edition of I Wanna Be Literated. I don’t quite understand why I never made this...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Ghosts of West Virginia LP by Steve Earle and The Dukes. I confess that – for a variety of reasons, many of which are not rooted in rational or critical thinking – I have never really given Steve Earle a whole lot of my...

Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthoodby Lucy Knisley I’ll be the first to admit that becoming a dad has made me soft. It comes as a surprise because I’ve been a cynical bastard for most of my life. And although I never wanted to become...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Smell The Magic 12” reissue by L7. As a critic, I am not often given to crossing music with politics (unless, of course, I’m reviewing something like an album which has a political slant about it – like a Bob...

The Flaming Lips American Head (Warner Brothers) From the moment they have the opportunity to hear American Head, there’s no doubt that Flaming Lips fans will rejoice at the band’s return, for several different reasons. Some fans will just be happy the band...