ARTIST: Young Empires – with free mp3 download for ‘Uncover Your Eyes’ from The Gates by Young Empires DATE: 09-18-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: The Gates LABEL: Pirates Blend/Sony Music It’s difficult to qualify an album as simultaneously smooth and defiant, but that’s the only way to accurately define Young Empires’ debut full-length album. On first listen, no one will argue that The Gates isn’t smooth; from the second “Mercy” bursts out to open the album, listeners are...

ARTIST: Motörhead – DATE: 09-17-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Bad Magic LABEL: UDR It’s hard to tell what happened to Motörhead between the release of Aftershock and the recording of Bad Magic, but there’s no missing the change in the band’s demeanor as this album plays. It’s possible that the new energy so apparent in Motörhead’s twenty-second album comes from the new company that Motörhead majordomo Lemmy Kilmister has been keeping lately (like Dave Grohl and Queens of...

TITLE: I Wanna Be Literated! 089 A critical evaluation of Alex + Ada Volume 2 by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn DATE: 09-16-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s that Alex + Ada has a lot of potential. Touching on subjects like sentience, robotics, ethics and morals, the developments and ideas discussed in this book are most certainly thought-provoking and are worthwhile if we want to learn more about ourselves as a society and as...

ARTIST: VENUE: Paradise – Boston, MA – 10/02/15 DATE: 10-06-15 REVIEW BY: Ollie Ottoman PHOTO: Ollie Ottoman Having moved away from the Philadelphia area to Boston four years ago, nothing brings a brighter smile to my face than seeing some great Philly band right here in beantown. I can’t help but feel proud about Kurt Vile not because he’s a true Philly artist (dude hasn’t been tempted to move to the more affluent music towns like LA, NYC or Nashville),...

ARTIST: James Leg – DATE: 09-13-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Below The Belt LABEL: Alive! Records It might be hard to believe or remember now, but the piano was once the go-to, working class compositional implement – not the classy, poppy flavor-addition it often is now in the twenty-first century. In fact, it has really only been within the last eighty-five years or so that the instrument wasn’t everywhere; at one time – in addition to being the...

ARTIST: Fidlar – DATE: 09-13-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Too LABEL: Mom + Pop/Dine Alone   It isn’t intended to sound condescending when I say that Fidlar has secured their seat at the head of the table where all of the unapologetic goofs in rock dine (they kicked the chair out from under Bunchofuckinggoofs) with their sophomore (and a little more sophomoric) effort. Too is the perfect kind of follow-up for a band like this; it’s loud (the...

ARTIST: The Fratellis – with free mp3 download for ‘Me and The Devil’ from Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied by The Fratellis DATE: 09-13-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Eyes Wide, Tongue Tied LABEL: Cooking Vinyl/Pheromone What’s a band to do when they discover that the “coolness” quotient of the musical trend they rode in on has faded, but they’re not feeling done quite yet? Well, if you’re in The Fratellis, you look for redemption with the help of some...

TITLE: The Classics 018 A deeper look at the grooves pressed into a 1978-issued copy of Van Halen’s self-titled debut album. DATE: 08-30-15 WRITER: Bill Adams The thing about albums which are truly progressive (to be clear, I’m referring to albums which break new ground – not necessarily prog rock albums) is that their impact on pop music as a whole takes a bit of time to really register; sure, there’s a chance that they might break through, win fans...

ARTIST: Dr. Dre – DATE: 08-25-15 REVIEW BY: Bill Adams ALBUM: Compton LABEL: Aftermath/Universal Music It’s not easy to know how to feel about Compton, Dr. Dre’s first new album since 2001 came out in 1999. On one hand the excitement that even the mention of a new Dre album generates makes it deserving of attention but, now well over a decade since the emcee really did anything important anywhere other than behind the mixing board, it’s hard to...

ARTIST: Ground Control’s Back To School Guide (Part Two) Time is growing short, here is Ground Control’s last cram for the stuff you might need to make life livable after you go back to school. DATE: 08-22-15 WRITER: Ollie Ottoman   Mininch Toolpen If you can see a certain trend in our back to school guide, it’s that practical and space saving are incredibly important to us. Living in a dorm can be the most fulfilling experience of your life,...