WHO: X WHAT: Smoke & Fiction WHY: Let’s round up the week with more X, shall we? It’s easy to point at bands that are still going and overstaying their welcome, but X certainly isn’t that. On Smoke & Fiction, the band shows they can still create inspiring and relevant music even at the end of their career. This album not only sounds like X, strutting and shimmying past rockabilly and punk rock, but it also sounds great: crisp and...
WHO: Minneapolis Uranium Club WHAT: Infants Under the Bulb WHY: Like if Minutemen and Dead Milkmen had a very loud baby. There’s a certain edge with the clean sound of guitar, and smarts to these lyrics you just don’t hear anymore. The songs in Infants Under the Bulb are catchy, bouncy, bubbly, and there’s a certain urgency to Brendan Wells’ lyrics. There’s a deep (deceitful?) intelligence that’s being delivered by these songs. D Boon would be proud. Even the story...
Heyooooo! It’s that time of year again! Look, the world is getting dumber and dumber and I blame mainstream media. No, not news (well, a little the news), but just terrible music, movies and TV shows. So, it’s more important than ever that we focus on our scholarly duties and try and get smarter in a world hellbent on lowering our standards. Of course, it wouldn’t be a new school year without school goodies. Yes, books and food are more...
WHO: Redd Kross WHAT: Redd Kross WHY: Ever wondered what the Beatles and the Kinks would have sounded like as a garage punk band? Redd Kross injects some much needed crunch into that familiar musical sty;e. Yes, I’m late to the game on Redd Kross, but this self-titled is scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. Or at least, it’s endlessly fascinating. I wish it was a bit shorter, but this new self-titled just has its own story to...
WHO: Shellac WHAT: To All Trains WHY: In a world full of phonies, Steve Albini was a real one even to the real ones. To All Trains is a wonderful sendoff both to the main and his band. It rocks, it paces, it pounds, it zigs and zags, and is full of humor in a way no other band can get away with. It does effortlessly what others would consider taboo. Excellent, and dude, incredible. It’s just a shame it’s...
WHO: (the) Melvins WHAT: Tarantula Heart WHY: The Melvins “joke” that this is the best album they’ve released ever or in a long time. I don’t know if that’s necessarily true, because I remember Bases Loaded being pretty great. The thing with the Melvins is that they’re constantly putting out good or above average albums. However, I gotta say, there’s something quite special about Tarantula Heart. It’s sludgy, funny, heavy, ambitious, catchy as hell yet still retains the identity of...
WHO: Dog Party WHAT: Dangerous WHY: If you want straight up Ramonesy punk rock (an easy thing to find) done well (NOT an easy thing to find), look no further than Dog Party. It’s got all the catchy melodies and heavy riffs you’d want, but these ladies put their own flare on it all. Their new album Dangerous sees them treading new waters: it’s more mature, has a country twang to it, yet it retains all the fun and identity...
WHO: Kurt M Spieler/Vinegar Syndrome WHAT: New York Ninja WHY: Look, the point of SPOTLIGHT was to focus on music, not movies, but there’s a first time for everything. Imagine a man discovering 6 hours of footage, without sound, of an abandoned martial arts movie from the 80s and taking it upon himself to re-edit it, rewrite the script (sometimes by reading lips), rerecord the dialogue and sound effects, and find a band to write a score that would fit...
WHO: The Clash WHAT: Live at Jaap Edenhal, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1981 WHY: We’re not accustomed here at GC to recommend bootlegs, but this one is probably the mother of Clash bootlegs. Live at Jaap Edenhal is a live bootleg recorded from the console, and catches the Clash still at the height of powers still. This is finally a cohesive, high quality, complete capture of the band playing mostly their entire catalog (Combat Rock excluded). It’s interesting both as a testament...
WHO: Jon Snodgrass + Buddies WHAT: Barge at Will WHY: Jon Snodgrass’ appeal is very specific. His songs sound like they would fit perfectly in an ALL or Descendents album, but his drawl gives it all a country-western quality. Also, the man has a sense of humor that he doesn’t mind showing in his music. Barge at Will is a rocking collection of songs that sit comfortably in a beer-soaked bar, much like you would find in a Hold Steady...