DuneOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrackby Hans Zimmer Can you believe they made a Dune movie AGAIN? And that it turned out THIS good? Jodowosky’s Dune opened my world to the mythos surrounding the book and to Jodorowksy himself. My cultural world was changed after watching that documentary, so of course, after seeing David Lynch’s movie, the idea of a new Dune movie is a loaded proposition to me. What was a good sign was that Denis Villeneuve would be directing. The...

Edge of Tomorrow It might be time for us to rehabilitate Tom Cruise. He’s long reigned supreme as America’s favorite weirdo actor celebrity, and it’s his own fault. Who could forget that appearance on Oprah years ago when we all realized just how strange of a bubble the man lives in. That just opened up a pandora’s box of oddness that directly relates to the shady organizations the man associates himself with. We’re a small-time website here, so we’re...

The ClashCombat Rock + The People’s Hall40th Anniversary Edition Let’s add something more what has already been said about a 40 year old album by one of the most important bands in history. If you’re a punk, you’re already familiar with the Clash’s Combat Rock. If you’ve never heard the Clash and are curious to get into them, and want to understand them in true “album form,” Combat Rock offers the perfect starting point. It’s an incredibly ambitious album that...

Praise the powers that be, I think I finally understand Ty Segall. I’ve been listening to the man’s records for ten years and think I finally get him. Not that he was that much of a mystery to begin with. He’s a garage-god, yes. He’s hyper-prolific, sure. He’s handy with the axe, definitely. I think it can be said that his records are very good, but with the exception of Manipulator, I don’t think any have quite stuck with me....

Pearl JamLive on Two LegsRecord Store Day Exclusive Everything critical that can be said about Pearl Jam has already been said. What’s left now are just end stories and personal experiences. The validity of “grunge” as a music genre can be debated (and it should be since it’s complete limited to the bands that came out of a certain part of the earth in a certain point of the 90s), but what is a fact is that Pearl Jam was...

MF DoomOperation: Doomsdayphoto: turntablelab.com Pity the state of mainstream hip hop. Seriously, pity it. I’ve completely tuned out and shun it. It’s one of those weird situations where I don’t listen to it, but I just know it sucks. I was in an Uber the other day and speaking to the driver, who was a rap fan and had insights into the process. I could pinpoint what I disliked about it, and he had names for these different elements. He...

What a year it’s been for live shows and what a time to be alive. Many of us took up hobbies during COVID and mine was trying to fill some gaps in my musical knowledge. Boy, did Superchunk fill that gap. Very seldom does a perfect band come along: one with a rich back catalog and a whole approach to making music that seems perfectly catered to your sensibilities. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Superchunk until a few...

Jon Spencer & The HITmakers Spencer Gets It Lit (In The Red Records) As he has been famous for doing since he first founded the Blues Explosion in 1991, Jon Spencer has succeeded in confounding his fans by including a couple of songs which didn’t appear on the vinyl release of his newest album, Spencer Gets It Lit, on its CD counterpart.Fans may be less than surprised at Spencer’s choice (the guitarist has a long history of augmenting the track...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Drag Me LP by S-E-R-V-I-C-E. While fans already had a pretty good idea where Jon Spencer would end up following the dissolution of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 2016 (other than making appearances in the multitude of projects to which the guitarist had offered both his name and talent over the years, he also has a newly minted solo career to develop), the question of where drummer Russell Simins may...

Mastodon Hushed and Grim photo: thegroovemanscollection There’s a reason why Mastodon is currently one of the biggest metal bands that still matters. They don’t pack in stadiums, I know, but they’re not playing tiny venues either. They’re big enough to play all the late night shows (I’ve seen them on Letterman, Kimmel, and Fallon), and even occasionally do the oddball appearance (remember when they were on the Human Giant show?). Also, they have a sense of humor about themselves. These...