WHO: Paint it Black WHAT: Famine WHY: Did YOU know Paint it Black was going to release new music? I didn’t. They said that no good hardcore band has released more than 3 good albums, which is why the band’s last full length was released in 2008, but Famine with its speed, heavy riffs, breakdowns, smart lyrics, and hooks just proves that this band is still relevant and needs to get back in the studio to produce another full length....
Bob Dylan The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments — Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) 4LP Box Set Bob Dylan cannot be stopped and will not stop. And really, why should he? He has been making relevant music for 60 years now and has successfully made several comebacks. All he knows is making music. The man is going to keep going until he drops dead on stage. We all have to deal with that. Of course, anyone familiar or interested...
Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki Look, I love Miyazaki, OK? Who doesn’t? I know he’s as “basic” as they get for anime exposure, but if he’s what people default to, God bless ‘em. Anything he does is miles above any movie in creativity. Also, the man seems like he’ll never stop working. Pity the people who work with him. He sounds like he’s an absolute nightmare of a boss. I remember seeing Shuna’s Journey at my local comic book store...
Pearl Jam Give Way Record 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...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Dwarves’ Concept Album LP. To say that The Dwarves have been around and weathered a lot of pop cultural storms is an understatement. Since forming in Chicago in the mid-Eighties, The Dwarves have reinvented the concept of the revolving door; they’ve gone through band members (dozens of them – but guitarist Pete “HeWhoCannotBeNamed” Vietnamecheque and singer Paul “Blag Dahlia” Cafaro are the group’s core members), record labels (at least five) and...
Bam! What a year, am I right? It certainly has been one for me. Let’s not get into it, but I’m just glad to be here, you know? Happy to be bringing you cutting edge content. Looking at those other sites’ best-of lists makes me realize there’s no accounting for good taste. Some of these recommendations look like they’ve been put together by AI. But not here, dear readers. We’re flesh and bone. We hurt and we bleed, and we...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Tropical Breakdown LP by Pierre Omer’s Swing Revue. Ever since Swing Kids came out in 1993 featuring a cast of very talented dancers, hipsters have wanted to revive swing music and dancing and make it their own. The reasoning for that desire is really easy to understand; the music is wildly infectious even without the benefit of distortion pedals, and the gymnasts who dance to it in the movies make it...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Mutant Mayhem I used to be obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid. Probably to an unhealthy degree. I remember picking up the Shell Shocked VHS (or was it Beta?) from the video rental place when I was a kid, and being completely mesmerized. Of course, I became a fan of the franchise ever since. I watched the TV show in English and Spanish. I collected the toys and I still remember the first...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories 3LP set by Ice-T. It’s hard to know what to make of The Legend of Ice-T: Crime Stories exactly, in part because what the album wants to be isn’t particularly clear. A very solid argument could be made for the possibility that, in fact, this 3LP set is supposed to be the soundtrack to either a stage production or a film. From the moment it...
Blue Beetle Let’s just get to it, OK? Because, this one is a straight up bummer. I’m saying this because I just came off watching the Flash and being absolutely blown away by how competent and engaging it was. It wasn’t the greatest movie by any means, but the fact that it could take an old story (listen, all superhero stories are old stories) and throw in so many fresh ideas really should be a testament to the genre. There’s...