TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 093 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into a vinyl copy of Gone by the Dawn by Shannon & The Clams DATE: 10-23-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman Shannon and the Clams are one of the greatest gems to have come out of the garage rock/punk mine recently. I know acts like Nobunny, Black Lips and King Khan get all the attention and that’s fine with me; there’s just more Shannon and the Clams left for me to...

TITLE: Vinyl Vlog 092 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Fish & Chips EP by Harrington Saints DATE: 10-15-15 WRITER: Bill Adams The coolest thing about Harrington Saints’ new EP is the fact that, unless you were tipped off and are expecting what the band has in store (like, if you already read this review – for example), you won’t be expecting to get your mind blown or your face melted. The reason for that really is...

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...