The recent passing of Captain Beefheart leads me to make a confession which might surprise some of you. I'm someone who loves weird music (and I pride myself on that love), yet I never really got into Beefheart. In fact, I never listened to Trout Mask Replica (widely acknowledged as his masterpiece) until a couple of years ago, and then I was disappointed. Why was I disappointed? Frankly, it wasn't weird enough. when I finally put it on after years...

It's funny how times have changed in punk rock. There was a time when, unwilling to wait for something to happen to them, a clutch of bands took matters into their own hands and made their careers exist of their own accord. They cobbled together their own records and often either self-released them or released them on small labels. They booked their own tours and manufactured their own merchandise to sell from the side of the stage at shows, and...

Hello there my little audiophiles!There ya go. Fi' dollar Billy tol' me to be a little more polite, but tha's as much as he's gonna get. So how's yer itch doin' ya ready fer more music 'st fell offa the back of a truck? 'Course you are, an' 'ere's a little more dis week than 'ere was las' week too – anna tunes're gettin' better ta boot. I swung by Fat Wreck Chords' web site an' picked up some new...

There is music, and then there is what may pass as music, but is really just one guy yelling for an hour straight. This is my first review telling the world to not buy an album. This is the first time I’m telling you, the reader of this review, even if you have the audacity to steal music to not download The Apollo Kids by Ghostface Killah. Ghostface Killah has come to us with a new album. I’ve listened to...

Kill Rock Stars is pleased to announce that on March 1st we will be digitally releasing a new album from Winnipeg quintet Boats! Boats makes music songs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Sometimes their songs are about fictional performing duos who have holes in their bodies and/or have a belief that they will one day give birth to a flock of birds. Sometimes they are about winning the Superbowl and finding treasure before encountering colossal failure. Often they are about a...

When Cage the Elephant released its' debut album just shy of two years ago, the band exhibited the kind of pent-up energy often found in one of Jack White’s many musical excursions; hectic, driven, and bouncing off the walls like a kid snowed in after a three-day sugar binge. That was a really strong start but, with their second studio album, the Elephant is really out of its' cage and the result is a sound that rampages willy-nilly across musical...

With a sixteen-year history of basically releasing the same thing each time they record a new album (punk rock covers of pop songs – d'uh!), it's a pretty safe assumption that everyone in the world knows what to expect of Me First and The Gimme Gimmes. Everyone knows that, whatever might come out next from everyone's favorite cover band, it's going to be fun, it's going to be funny and it's going to be effective; those who like the Gimme...

Sick Of Sarah and everything they represent is beautiful. What the band has done on its' debut long-player, 2205, is revive the truest and most honest kind of girlie power pop (think either The Runaways or The Bangles at the beginning of their respective careers) written and performed with nothing to lose; they just go for it. You're skeptical – I know. The Bangles and The Runaways were both dogged by the fact that they had too much money to...

Awright youse,I'm not sure wha's goin' on here, but how'd I go from snaggin' FORTY pieces o' beaut-ee-ful SWAG fer you junkies, an' 'en I'm down ta twenty less 'en a week later? Which one o' youse ratted us out huh? HUH?! That wasn't too bright, was it? Well, lucky fer you, yer uncle Don has his ways o' gettin' good stuff when stuff's not all 'at plentiful an' I done myself proud this week. I found some good, good...

"Fat” Mike Burkett has gone on the record reasonably recently saying that, shortly before work began on Coaster in 2009, NOFX has strayed a little too far from center for everyone in the band's comfort and needed a little reigning in for their next record. “I asked why we aren't we playing old-school punk anymore,” remembers the singer of the time. “we've been playing this 'NOFX breakneck speed' melodic hardcore, hardcore started with The Germs and Black Flag and...