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...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the reissue pressing of the Brazen Head EP by Swingin’ Utters. Let me tell you what an absolute joy it is for me to review this album for you on our Vinyl Vlog. We’re going to dig deep for this one; not only are we going to look deeply into the grooves pressed into Brazen Head (one of the most underrated EPs of all time), we’re going to take you through some...

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...

I know I can always refer to Wilco when I want to make a point about what an idiot I actually am. Not that it isn’t obvious to most people. Wilco is one of those bands that I’ve avoided most of my life. First because they weren’t aggressive enough, second because I associated them with my ex, and third because I thought they were washed up at this point. Like I said, I’m an idiot. Another reason for me to...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the L-Shaped Man LP by Ceremony. Ceremony is one of those bands that I have always trusted and respected to the point where I’ll sit down and patiently wait to absorb their new albums when they come out. And patience is something that is essential for old fans of this band. Having started out as a “violence punk” band (whatever the hell that means), each subsequent album has found Ceremony adapting and...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Circle Jerks’ debut album, Group Sex. At this point, six years after the band that Keith Morris, Steven McDonald, Dimitri Coats and Mario Rubalcaba started took off (ahem – no pun intended) and brought hardcore punk into a much brighter and broader spotlight before a much larger audience, the history of where OFF! came from and the circumstances which got them started have been well-documented. It is already a matter of public...

Here’s a treat for the Elliott Smith fans out there, a new version of the song ‘Plainclothes Man’ – originally recorded by Elliott when he was with Heatmiser, has been released. It’s a track that will be included on the soon to be released soundtrack album for the documentary about Elliott’s life, ‘Heaven Adores You’. A press release about the film reads: “Heaven Adores You is an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith (1969-2003). By...

Title: The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader Author: Errico Malatesta AK Press has been doing scholars a service these past few years by putting out some pretty stellar anthologies of some of anarchism’s greatest writers. First it was Proudhon and the Property is Theft! anthology. Then, there was Kropotkin’s Direct Struggle Against Capital. Both edited by Iain McKaye and both informative and thorough. But this anthology on Errico Malatesta takes the cake.  I don’t...

101 Artists To Listen To Before You Die Author: Ricardo Cavolo I have to tell you, there’s nothing that irks me more than false advertisement. Even if Cavolo tells the the reader right at the beginning that this is just a collection of his 101 favorite (or essential to him, at least) artists. Whatever the case may be, 101 Artists to Listen to Before You Die is not what it claims it is, and Cavolo himself admits it. What this...

PJ Harvey has been working on her 9th album as part of a live art installment at London’s Somerset House. This is the first track that has been released. It’s a catchy tune with lyrics that speak of atrocities committed against children. We can only guess that a music video may come along later that is interspersed with images of starving and abused children from around the world. “28,000 disappeared” is the ringing chorus that will stick in your ears…...