WHO: Brook Pridemore WHAT: Metal is My Only Friend WHY: Brook Pridemore has been at it for quite a while, honing his craft. And just when I think he’s outdone himself, he does it again. Metal is My Only Friend has been out for a couple years now but, as I take calm walks enjoying the Fall weather, its brilliance has finally hit me. This is most definitely an underdog of an album that exceeds all expectations. It’s beautifully crafted,...
Hello there dear readers and welcome to a new edition of our Back to School Guide. We know, it’s been a crazy year, right? For most students, Back to School this year means school from home (at least for the Fall semester), which means now more than ever, it’s important to create the right environment to stimulate those neurons. Like with every year we have some old favorites and some brand new goodies that seem to have come completely out...
As good or remarkable as any band could eventually prove themselves to be, history has proven conclusively that it’s truly rare for any band to arrive that way (see Nirvana, Ween, Wilco, etc. for examples of bands which developed over time) out of the proverbial box. In that regard, The Glands were no exception; when they started, this little band from Georgia was a perfectly average-at-best band, drawing inspiration from punk and college rock. They produced music of a quality...
WHO: New Bomb Turks WHAT: Nightmare Scenario (Diamond Edition) WHY: I know that the New Bomb Turks album everyone drools over is Destroy! Oh Boy!, and sure, that’s a great one, but people seem to forget the magic in Nightmare Scenario. It’s catchier, better crafted, and easier to handle. Oh, it’s also a way better album. The NBT have now rereleased it as a Diamond Edition for its 20th anniversary. If you loved the rawness of the original Nightmare Scenario,...
WHO: Personality Cult WHAT: New Arrows WHY: New Arrows is nothing new but it’s got that sound that I happen to absolutely love. It’s raw, fast, poppy, and full of guitars. I’m not quite sure how Personality Cult mastermind Ben Carr did it, but he figured out a way to distill a buzzpop album down to the essentials. Of course, a good way to do that is to let the Marked Men influence you a bit. You don’t have to...
WHO: Nice Guys WHAT: Self-titled WHY: I’ll gladly say that Nice Guys are the best band in Boston and fight anyone who wants to challenge that. Remember, this isn’t exactly the same band from 5 years ago. They used to stick to the EP format and sounded raw and sloppy as they should being a weedcore band. Nowadays they’re a tight proggy hardcore punk band and have finally bestowed their debut LP on us. It’s punk rock blast, fast, spastic,...
WHO: The Bombpops WHAT: Death in Venice Beach WHY: There probably hasn’t been a band more ready to be the new NOFX. They’re on FAT, their albums sound like they should, and they’ve even stood in for NOFX in their videos. But while it’s easy to write off such a band as being a derivative of a derivative, they quickly showed that they’ve got the genre figured out well enough to make a great record in their debut Fear of...
Yes! It’s the End! The end of the year! The end of the decade! The end of our current layer of epidermis! Everyone is making lists, but now, more than ever, we can proudly say we have the ONLY list worth looking at if you want the best recommendations for music, movies, and TV shows of 2019. Holy cow, did we NAIL it! We’ve thought about you, dear reader, all year long, and how you can enrich your life by...
Hoooo boy! It’s that time of year again! We just spent a grueling weekend with our families for Thanksgiving, seeing people we would rather avoid, commuting in a hellscape, and realizing that the pit of small talk is bottomless. But now it’s time to reorient ourselves and get ready for the Holiday season that actually matters. As always, we are featuring some old favorites, revisiting some previous companies, featuring new ones, and coming out of left field on one or...
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