Six Finger Satellite Severe Exposure Deluxe & Expanded Edition Trust no one when it comes to music. Well, trust your sources. I mean, trust sources who’ve been a good guide to you in the past. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, you CAN trust people when it comes to music. But, be cautious. There’s nothing worse than following the advice of people who know almost nothing about music. Like, you know Geese? That album they put out...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Ponderosa Bunchgrass and the Golden Rule LP by The Oot n’ Oots. I confess that I have sat on this review (or rather, have dragged my feet on writing this review) for an unreasonably long time. A lot of that had to do with the fact that I honestly had no idea how to approach it; The Oot N’ Oots (the band itself) and Ponderosa Bunchgrass and the Golden Rule (the...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fantasy > Reality LP by MOVIESTARZ. Over the last fifteen years, those working within the punk genre have gone to great lengths to try and reinvent it – but everyone has always come up a little short on achieving something which has felt brand new and exciting. When VICE Records made the leap and attempted to reinvent hardcore with OFF! on their First Four EPs release, the results were fine and...
Young WidowsPower Sucker Sorry to get heavy on everyone but I want to start this review with a question: “Why do we listen to music?” Deep, huh? The answer, of course, varies from person to person. Some listen to music to fill the silence, some for convenience, some unintentionally. My father even said once that he doesn’t like music. “Too noisy,” he quipped. He nailed it! I listen to music as a way to connect. These sounds – these organized...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the limited edition Girly-Sound To Guyville 7LP Box Set by Liz Phair. I confess that, when I first read about Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound cassettes in the SPIN Alternative Record Guide about thirty years ago (even in that, they only drew a passing mention in favor of focusing on Exile In Guyville and Whipsmart) , the whole idea sounded like an exercise in urban myth-making. Not that I hadn’t seen or heard an...
CompanionOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrackby Hrishikesh Hirway There’s only one group of movie fans more annoying than musical fans and that’s horror fans. They’re almost exclusively the same people who are overly obsessed with Halloween. A sad lot, really, because you’re basically reducing a movie to jump scares, or tropes within tropes. What’s the best scary movie released in recent years? Midsommar? Give me a break. Give YOURSELF a break and read a book. Which is why, I gotta say, bravo,...
DescendentsMilo Goes to College There have been few albums in my life that have been breakthrough albums. The kind of albums that open your mind. Albums that, when they hit you, you say to yourself, “Oh, wait a minute. I see it now.” Like that final scene in the Matrix: you can finally see the coding that’s been floating in front of you all along. I’d like to sit down one day and take note of these albums...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Empty Bottles LP by BOGOs. Strictly on the face of it, it’s really, really easy to mistake The BOGOs in general – and their Empty Bottles album in specific – as a novelty. Before listeners hear a note of music from the album, a story has already been told by the glaringly bright and garish color scheme which dominates the album’s artwork and is neatly supported by the collection of liquor...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “The Beast” b/w “Rebecca” split 7” single by The Drowns and Wonk Unit. Perhaps just to prove how versatile they can be, The Drowns’ “other” recently-released split 7” single (shared this time with Wonk Unit) illustrates just how far the band can stray from their established punk pedigree and steer into something closer to rockabilly without crashing, terribly. Some fans will scoff at such a change and they’re well within their...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Subculture Rock N’ Roll” b/w “Pleaser” split 7” single by The Drowns and Last Gang. Few things are as potentially harrowing for artists as a split 7” single release. Granted, a 7” can present several potential decisions which could make or break a band on the back of that release, but it’s even harder when a band has just one song to work with AND potentially has to compete with another...