REVIEWS

ARTIST: All Them Witches – DATE: 12-05-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Dying Surfer Meets His Maker LABEL: New West Records Above all else, the first thing you need to know about All Them Witches is that nothing is exactly as it seems. If all you saw was the album cover, you could justifiably assume it was the work of a metal or stoner rock band – but you’d be wrong. If all you heard was the group’s name,...

ARTIST: Dilly Dally – DATE: 12-05-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Sore LABEL: Partisan/Buzz Records In this age of computer-generated musical perfection, it’s refreshing to hear Sore – Dilly Dally’s debut album. For the first time in what feels like forever, listeners are confronted by a female-fronted (both on vocals and guitar) outfit who is unafraid to have (and bare) some teeth and anger without trying to be cute about it as well as presenting their music exactly as...

ARTIST: Bob Odenkirk – DATE: 11-08-15 REVIEW BY: Ollie Ottoman ALBUM: Amateur Hour LABEL: A Special Thing Records How exactly did Bob Odenkirk blow up like this? And actually, why did it take him so long? And why is he most famous for his smallest contribution to show business (a supporting character onBreaking Bad)? All these questions pop into my head when I think of the place Bob Odenkirk has in pop culture these days. The man has created...

ARTIST: Shannon & the Clams – VENUE: Great Scott – Allston, MA – 18/10/15 DATE: 10-29-15 REVIEW BY: Ollie Ottoman How can anyone in their right mind not have a smile on their face when listening to Shannon and the Clams? I know the band gets me smiling, and it has nothing to do with their live persona, their charming low-fi sound, their heavily rockabilly-inspired music or their matching costumes. At least that’s not the case not anymore. These...

ARTIST: The Brains – DATE: 10-21-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Out In The Dark LABEL: Stomp/Warner Music Since they first stumbled out of a Quebecois crypt ten years ago, The Brains have always attempted to reach as many ears as possible. Of course, their first introduction was made as a psychobilly band – but it didn’t take long for the group to begin reaching for more inspiration from beyond the constraints of rockabilly. With each successive album, elements...

TITLE: Public Enemy – LABEL:Metropolis/Universal Music Group International DATE: 09-30-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams While saying that some things never change is only a fraction less trite than earnestly claiming that everything that an old group is oding currently is “same as it ever was,” that doesn’t mean seeing Public Enemy rule a stage in the second decade of the new millennium isn’t as gratifying as it was three decades ago. For twenty-eight years, Chuck D, Flava Flav and...

ARTIST: Young Empires – with free mp3 download for ‘Uncover Your Eyes’ from The Gates by Young Empires DATE: 09-18-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: The Gates LABEL: Pirates Blend/Sony Music It’s difficult to qualify an album as simultaneously smooth and defiant, but that’s the only way to accurately define Young Empires’ debut full-length album. On first listen, no one will argue that The Gates isn’t smooth; from the second “Mercy” bursts out to open the album, listeners are...

ARTIST: Motörhead – DATE: 09-17-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Bad Magic LABEL: UDR It’s hard to tell what happened to Motörhead between the release of Aftershock and the recording of Bad Magic, but there’s no missing the change in the band’s demeanor as this album plays. It’s possible that the new energy so apparent in Motörhead’s twenty-second album comes from the new company that Motörhead majordomo Lemmy Kilmister has been keeping lately (like Dave Grohl and Queens of...

ARTIST: VENUE: Paradise – Boston, MA – 10/02/15 DATE: 10-06-15 REVIEW BY: Ollie Ottoman PHOTO: Ollie Ottoman Having moved away from the Philadelphia area to Boston four years ago, nothing brings a brighter smile to my face than seeing some great Philly band right here in beantown. I can’t help but feel proud about Kurt Vile not because he’s a true Philly artist (dude hasn’t been tempted to move to the more affluent music towns like LA, NYC or Nashville),...

ARTIST: James Leg – DATE: 09-13-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Below The Belt LABEL: Alive! Records It might be hard to believe or remember now, but the piano was once the go-to, working class compositional implement – not the classy, poppy flavor-addition it often is now in the twenty-first century. In fact, it has really only been within the last eighty-five years or so that the instrument wasn’t everywhere; at one time – in addition to being the...