REVIEWS

Artist: Greg Laswell Album: Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet Label: Vanguard/Concord Both the joy and peril of music and attempting to explain how or why it’s good to someone else can often be found in the language employed to accomplish the act. It’s strange how it can work sometimes; like some words and combinations of them sound exciting but, when one really attempts to break it all down, it quickly becomes confusing. For example (and this word appears predominantly...

We dreamt about it; that night we fell in love at the Baths concert in San Francisco just 5 miles west of the ocean. A sold out show at the Independent on Divisidero in the middle of the city where the cool kids who spin vinyl stand in the front to have their drums blown out by the bass in the speakers created by the dynamic duo Baths. Duo? You must think I’m confused… but it’s true. One single man...

As most any fan of Eighties and Nineties underground rock can tell you, the creative soil of the time was very fertile but the labels which tended it always carefully ensured that any artist they collected from it always fit within their very specific image. The handpicked stable that Alternative Tentacles kept, for example, was a group of very intelligent maniacs who regularly took a confrontational stace as they attempted to expand their audience’s minds. Conversely, Sub Pop’s crew of...

At the beginning of February the groundhog told us that winter is fake and summer is real. This is probably in lieu of global warming. Some states experience a very summery winter – states like Florida. With the inspiration of forever summer comes upbeat pop with an experimental synth-y sound in Animal Collective’s tenth studio album Painting With released on February 19th, 2016. While band member Deakin is still M.I.A (he was also absent from 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion), Avery...

A new article by our Finnish Correspondent, Suvi Jyrinki This time I picked up an older album: Tilinteon hetki by Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, issued in 2004. The band has officially split up in 2006, but the power of their music has still remained. Timo Rautiainen played with Trio Niskalaukaus in years 1996-2004. Despite the name there was always four or five men, instead of just three, playing along with the singer. This band was one of the first...

23 Live Sex Acts (Total Treble) There’s no easy way to review an Against Me album anymore; well, not in the conventional sense, anyway. Everyone knows why, so why no talk about it? It’s not easy to review an Against Me! album anymore because Tom Gabel was replaced on the mic by Laura Jane Grace. Does that really make so great a difference? It shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t; the catch has everything to do with the gift...

As a child, I hated surprises. It was pure torture to know that you don’t know what you thought you knew and as a child know-it-all, this frustrated me. But this past Friday, Say Anything surprised me and all their fans. How? Surprise album! Unexpectedly, the band released their 7th studio album “I Don’t Think It Is” on Equal Vision Records. Their audience of grown-up punks woke up to find another consistently good album released by their favorite band of the...

Continuing our exploration of heavy metal music in Finland, here is a new review by our Finnish correspondent, Suvi Jyrinki. XII – Kouvostomolli by Viikate (=scythe in Finnish) could not have come out at any better time now that I needed something for just floating in mercilessly dark bittersweet moods and being aware of how ridiculous it is. The Finnish band Viikate has been around since 1996 and their music combines metal with 1960s instrumental rock. That´s why this band...

A Raw Youth CD by Le Butcherettes Ipecac Recordings Reviewed by G. Murray Thomas Teri Gender Bender is my new rock star crush, following Patti Smith, Deborah Harry, and Shirley Manson. They are all beautiful (in unique ways), but more important, they all have attitude. Just as their beauty is individual, so is their attitude. Smith’s is expressed in a hardcore stare, daring you to deny her her place at the table with Keith, Jim, and Jimi. Harry’s is a...

Dave Hill Let Me Turn You On (Aspecialthing/Allegro) Hold onto your seat because this album came completely out of nowhere! But, now that I’m aware of Dave Hill, the guy seems to pop up everywhere. Like, he hosts a show on WFMU and he plays in the band who wrote the theme song to John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight. Also, did you know he’s Cleveland’s pride and joy? Also, he’s a comedian and this is his first comedy album. But...