TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 091 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into a vinyl copy of Magick Spells by Gateway Drugs. DATE: 10-12-15 WRITER: Bill Adams The idea that a change of something as seemingly inconsequential as the format on which an album is presented (be it CD, cassette, vinyl record or mp3) can change the listening experience completely may seem unbelievable, but that does not mean it isn’t true and cannot happen. Of course the medium (format) that one...

TITLE: I Wanna Be Literated! 091 A critical evaluation of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, edited by Walidah Imarisha and Adrienne Maree Brown DATE: 10-09-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman Peanut butter and jelly, gin and tonic, books and fireplaces. I couldn’t help but get excited whenOctavia’s Brood got announced because it was combining two things I love: anarchism and science fiction. So of course I had high hoped for this book, which collects short stories blending science fiction (or...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 090 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the die cut US Mail single by Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One. DATE: 10-09-15 WRITER: Bill Adams I’m rarely impressed by die cut vinyl releases. I mean, sure – oddly shaped music-playing vinyl is neat to look at, but that just can’t be all it is for me; I need good music to come out of it when the needle touches it because the music is the important...

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...

TITLE: I Wanna Be Literated! 090 A critical evaluation of Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe DATE: 09-30-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman Ever encountered a book that you “get” as soon as you read the first page? Hell, I’ll go a step further and say that Rat Queens might even be a book you could accurately judge by its cover, which has four mythical female creatures fighting a dragon on it – if you didn’t notice....

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...

TITLE: I Wanna Be Literated! 089 A critical evaluation of Alex + Ada Volume 2 by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn DATE: 09-16-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that Alex + Ada has a lot of potential. Touching on subjects like sentience, robotics, ethics and morals, the developments and ideas discussed in this book are most certainly thought-provoking and are worthwhile if we want to learn more about ourselves as a society and as...

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...