A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Voodoo Rhythm Records Label Compilation Vol. 5 LP. I confess that label compilations have never been my favorite thing. Not that I’m definitively against the form (I have heard some good comps over the years, and labels like Sub Pop, Killrockstars, Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords and Pirates Press have a longstanding history of having produced some pretty great ones), it’s just that many of the compilations I’ve heard (and this includes...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 3LPs in the Acid Box by Acid. There’s no question that bands have come up with some pretty unusual items to include with their albums and/or box sets in the twenty-first century, but Acid – the band formed by Jeff Hassay and Imaad Wasif (Wasif – the guitarist who filled in for James Iha in the Smashing Pumpkins in the Nineties, formed The New Folk Implosion with Lou Barlow and collaborated...
Hello, dear reader. We thought we were out of the woods with this whole pandemic thing, huh? Looks like we have to hunker down for a while longer. We’re prouder than ever this year to bring you our take on the best this year had to offer. We’d like to consider ourselves mostly a music site, but there were some undeniably great movies and TV shows as well. Lists like these are all over the internet, but remember that, as...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Black Label Society’s Doom Crew Inc. 2LP. Funny thing about the bands and/or projects launched by guitarists, they tend to focus heavily on guitar. It is not uncommon, for example, for songs on such albums to feature extended examinations of the guitar as the central thematic and sonic element of every composition; the instrument functions more as the spine of the songs than the drums or bass or piano do. One needn’t...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the I Am Alive, But Only If You Say I Am LP by Long Range Hustle. While the nature of the album’s title seems inherently soft, on its face (most bands want to exclaim, “We are here,” but the title of Long Range Hustle’s sophomore full-length album seems to ask for the validation that most other bands just claim), there’s no question that I Am Alive, But Only If You Say I...
Madame Bovaryby Gustave Flaubert The bad thing about reading almost exclusively non-fiction is that, obviously, I purposely miss out on the great fiction out there. And the bad thing about missing out on fiction is that I miss out on some of the great classics. But, luckily I listen to the Best Show, and while discussing Tom Scharpling’s new book It Never Ends, the topic somehow switched to Gustave Flaubert. Intrigued, I checked it out, and I was pleasantly surprised...
The Incalby Alejandro Jodorowsky & Moebius It’s still strange for me to think about how the documentary Jodorowksy’s Dune changed my life. It made me appreciate Dune and Jodorowsky as a filmmaker. Now, I’m a fan of both and I have that little documentary to thank. As the film made me start a slow deep dive into Jodorowsky, I knew that eventually I would have to come to The Incal. I dove in with high expectations. The big thing to...
WHO: Fiddlehead WHAT: Between the Richness WHY: No lie, this one’s a grower. And a remarkable thing for an album that’s so short. Between the Richness is equal parts post-post-hardcore as it is western Mass, whatever that means. Pay close attention and you might notice the passion and rawness of Patrick Flynn’s vocals perfectly balanced with the elegant and rich guitars that adorn the entirety of Between the Richness. Somehow, this album welcomes you to its roughness, maturity, and intensity,...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into TK and The Holy Know Nothings’ The Incredible Heat Machine LP. It isn’t always easy for this writer to get into country music (there often has to be a “alt-country” plank in the floor to make it easier to enter on), but it didn’t take me long to find my way to relishing the music on The Incredible Heat Machine – TK and The Holy Know Nothings’ sophomore full-length album. From note...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Vespa & Londonians 12” EP by Booze & Glory. Remember back in the early aughts when Fearless Records compiled a series of albums which found some genuinely great punk bands covering a multitude of different artists and genres – recasting them all in a punk context? Some of those covers were actually really, really cool (hearing AFI perform Guns N’ Roses’ “My Michelle” was pretty cool, as was Strike Anywhere’s cover...