A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the limited edition Girly-Sound To Guyville 7LP Box Set by Liz Phair. I confess that, when I first read about Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound cassettes in the SPIN Alternative Record Guide about thirty years ago (even in that, they only drew a passing mention in favor of focusing on Exile In Guyville and Whipsmart) , the whole idea sounded like an exercise in urban myth-making. Not that I hadn’t seen or heard an...

CompanionOriginal Motion Picture Soundtrackby Hrishikesh Hirway There’s only one group of movie fans more annoying than musical fans and that’s horror fans. They’re almost exclusively the same people who are overly obsessed with Halloween. A sad lot, really, because you’re basically reducing a movie to jump scares, or tropes within tropes. What’s the best scary movie released in recent years? Midsommar? Give me a break. Give YOURSELF a break and read a book. Which is why, I gotta say, bravo,...

WHO: Die Spitz WHAT: Something to Consume WHY: Die Spitz blew up and are growing the way a good band would, by honing their skills, playing shows non-stop, and letting the buzz happen naturally. It doesn’t hurt that they put out an awesome record Teeth and that their live shows, indeed, rip. So, all eyes are on them with their first studio album on their new label Third Man (See? They’re doing it right!). Something to Consume is bewildering because...

DescendentsMilo Goes to College There have been few albums in my life that have been breakthrough albums. The kind of albums that open your mind. Albums that, when they hit you, you say to yourself, “Oh, wait a minute. I see it now.” Like that final scene in the Matrix: you can finally see the coding that’s been floating in front of you all along. I’d like to sit down one day and take note of these albums...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Empty Bottles LP by BOGOs. Strictly on the face of it, it’s really, really easy to mistake The BOGOs in general – and their Empty Bottles album in specific – as a novelty. Before listeners hear a note of music from the album, a story has already been told by the glaringly bright and garish color scheme which dominates the album’s artwork and is neatly supported by the collection of liquor...

WHO: Civic WHAT: Chrome Dipped WHY: It was a grower, for sure, but Chrome Dipped is superior to Taken by Force in catchiness, pounding melodies, clever lyrics yet still retains so much of that surfer rock that made them popular (?). THIS is what I thought I was signing up for. It’s just high quality rock and roll with garage undertones. Of course it wounds a little like the Saints. A straight forward, great, rock record that you can’t help...

A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection Horror movies are tricky, aren’t they? I mean, they shouldn’t be. Why would a genre be tricky? I’ll tell you why. Because most horror movies aren’t scary. They’re either dumb or dependent on jump cuts. At least lately they are. Don’t believe me? Just look at Midsommar (dumb), Sinners (dumb), or Malevolent (jump cuts but also really dumb). What’s really scary is a smart script. Ironically, it’s what horror movies nowadays are also...

Seeing a good opener can be a cathartic experience. Sometimes it’s interesting, and you check them out when you go home, but most of the time it’s forgettable. I can count on one hand when an opener has blown me away, and I don’t even need all my fingers. When I caught the last few songs of Die Spitz at an OFF! show years ago all I could think of is how loud it sounded. Then, watching them put their...

WHO: Alex G WHAT: Headlights WHY: No one does lo-fi moody like Alex G. It would be easy-listening, but Headlights is just weird enough and subversive enough to give it an edge. But then there’s a consistent sweetness in all these songs, and nowhere more evident than on Afterlife. His style becomes more singular with each album and Headlights is the obvious progression for him. We should all be excited about what’s coming next. Listen to it...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “The Beast” b/w “Rebecca” split 7” single by The Drowns and Wonk Unit. Perhaps just to prove how versatile they can be, The Drowns’ “other” recently-released split 7” single (shared this time with Wonk Unit) illustrates just how far the band can stray from their established punk pedigree and steer into something closer to rockabilly without crashing, terribly. Some fans will scoff at such a change and they’re well within their...