A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Raising The Roof 12” EP by Booze & Glory. It’s funny how, over time, the purpose of EPs has seemed to change. In the Nineties (read: when I began paying attention), EPs took on a pretty lauded and/or respected position as several such titles came up from the underground . Of course, all things must come...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Lunatics EP by The Drowns. It would be easy enough to curse The Drowns out for what the band has done with the Lunatics EP. Not unlike what innumerable other acts have done, over the years (Hot Water Music, NOFX and John Lennon all leap to mind), The Drowns have elected to take a moment that they’re capable of stretching out from their musical comfort zone (which has tended to stay...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Gotta Give It Up LP by Sweat. On the surface, the cliche that, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” writes itself into any discussion about Gotta Give It Up. Yes – from the opening notes of “Hit & Run,” the opening cut on Gotta Give It Up, Sweat presents itself like a tight and intense unit – an imposing and very metallic entity which also speeds along at a...

Draculaby Bram Stoker Remember when vampires were hot? Are they still hot? I think so, because What We Do in the Shadows is so popular. Maybe vampires work better as a punch line. Whatever the case, I’ve always thought vampires were a cool concoction. Maybe because it’s been parodied so much or maybe it’s the element of a foreigner as a tortured soul forced to feed off the blood of the innocent. Ghoulish! I remember Coppola’s Dracula was a huge...

Photos by the unmatchable Brittany Rose...

Lou ReedI’m So Free (The 1971 RCA Demos) Lou Reed is a hard man to pin down. He’s simply unknowable. Either because he wanted it that way, or because he himself wasn’t quite sure of who he was. He’s been analyzed and idolized endlessly as a messiah or a junkie or a misunderstood genius. The reality is that he was all of those things to some degree, but it’s probably also true that he didn’t care. He was just interested...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Warhorse LP by Charger. After releasing a couple of singles to introduce themselves last year, Charger (Rancid bassist Matt Freeman’s side project) has finally elected to give listeners a full-course meal of exactly everything they’re all about with the Warhorse LP. How, let’s be honest here – some side projects have all the tags to be of great pedigree in plain view, but Charger isn’t one of those; on paper, Charger...

The Book of Darrylby the Goggles Look, let’s cut to the chase here. I love a good idea, and the Book of Darryl is full of good ideas. The premise: imagine that Jesus had a childhood friend that he formed a band with in the dark years that weren’t covered in the bible. Add to that some great illustrations, inspired by the look of those medieval paintings and have them come to life to elevate the story. Then, write some...

Photos by Brittany Rose QueenFollow her on IG for the best coverage of Boston area...

Malignant Don’t listen to people who say Malignant is somehow shifting the paradigm of horror movies. Just approach it as you would a normal movie and allow yourself to be impressed, OK? People are dumb and you need to form your own opinions. This was my approach watching Malignant and I think I’m better off for it. It’s hard to do anything new with the horror genre because audiences don’t really want anything new. They want, generally speaking, the same...