A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Is This What It Feels Like To Feel Like This 12” EP by The Wombats. After having embarked on a career which has seen the band release six full-length albums, one compilation and nine EPs with startlingly minimal popular notice, there’s no way to deny that The Wombats are one of the most tragically underrated bands of all time. Someone, somewhere could go so far as to call the band’s ability...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the All Killer No Filler (1977 – 2001) 2LP by The Senders. It’s funny how, as perfectly well-exposed as a scene and its associated lore might be, there are always bits which are obscured by shadows. In the New York punk scene of the 1970s, for example, everybody knows many of the stories and associated minutiae for The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie and many others – even The New York Dolls and...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into both the Black Skies EP and the Waiting EP by Bishop’s Green. Bishop’s Green Black Skies EP (Pirates Press Records) As cool as some album covers are (and the cover of the Black Skies EP is definitely very cool), the peril is often that the image on the cover of a record just doesn’t match the music. It could easily be argued that Black Skies falls hard into that trap; with crows...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Growin’ Up LP by Luke Combs. I confess that it took a few days of listening to Luke Combs’ third album, Growin’ Up, constantly in hopes of finding a lede into the music before I finally found one which explained why I liked it as much as I do. I mean, the lyrics about hometown kicks aren’t terribly new or unique, and the performances are about as orthodox as it’s possible...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into NastyFacts’ Limited Edition “Drive My Car” 12” single. As every punk knows, it’s not terribly uncommon for many bands of a certain vintage to have a pretty abbreviated catalogue of releases. The idea of “one and done” isn’t uncommon at all, really – but it’s still saying something when a band’s total output was limited to ONE SINGLE before they closed up shop. That’s not small, that’s infinitesimal – so of course...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Otherness LP by Alexisonfire. The cool thing that Alexisonfire has always done (and this is not a claim that many bands can make) is that they have always challenged their audience without making it look intentional. When the band’s first album appeared in 2002, for example, the idea that three bands (Condemning Salem, Helicon Blue and Plan 9) could converge and intermingle punk, metal and emo DNA into one unit and...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Second Nature LP by Lucius. Not so long ago, an article was published outlining the concept and idea of “post-genre” pop, and the very idea made this critic scoff. “Attention spans have grown shorter,” I thought. “The way that many young people define themselves, the things they like and the things they don’t like have seemed to become even more codified.” It took a couple of minutes, but I finally figured...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Flatliners’ New Ruin LP. In the twenty-year duration of The Flatliners’ career to date, it’s actually pretty remarkable to observe the turns that the band’s music has taken. After beginning with some respectable (if not terribly memorable) ska-core in 2005 and then taking a couple of years to develop (see how it works with 2007’s The Great Awake), The Flatliners really hit the big time hard with 2010’s classic Cavalcade and...

Lou Reed Words and Music, May, 1965 (Light In The Attic) One question repeatedly comes up in writers’ groups, especially with beginning writers: “How do I copyright my work?” I resist the temptation to say, “Do you really think someone is going to steal your poetry?” and tell them, “Mail it to yourself.” As long as you don’t open the package, the postmark establishes that you wrote the enclosed material on or before that date. Lou Reed did that with...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Stranger Things 4 – Soundtrack From The Netflix Series 2LP compilation. I usually steer clear of soundtracks because I’m not the greatest fan of compilations in general; when I throw on a record, I usually want to hear an artist’s idea seen through from start to finish as well as all of the developments included along the way. I want to seen an album grow and develop and see the things...