Dine Alone

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Undefeated LP by Frank Turner. After releasing nine albums in seventeen years (and that’s just the studio albums – there are more comps and live albums that have appeared, as well), many fans may have a bit of difficulty getting excited about a new Frank Turner album. Granted, the singer has never made any gross missteps along the way in his catalogue, but it could easily be argued that fans feel...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Flatliners’ New Ruin LP. In the twenty-year duration of The Flatliners’ career to date, it’s actually pretty remarkable to observe the turns that the band’s music has taken. After beginning with some respectable (if not terribly memorable) ska-core in 2005 and then taking a couple of years to develop (see how it works with 2007’s The Great Awake), The Flatliners really hit the big time hard with 2010’s classic Cavalcade and...

Spencer Burton Coyote (Still Records/Dine Alone) I confess that I was not paying complete attention to the music initially, the first time I threw Coyote on to review it. I figured it would be easy; I put it on and started washing dishes – but I didn’t actually get any dishes washed. In fact, before the second song on the album, “Memories We Won’t Soon Forget” had finished playing, I had stopped moving completely – even that early, all I...

The Dirty Nil Fuck Art (Dine Alone Records) Rare is the band which knows precisely who they are and actually celebrates that identity rather than asking listeners to excuse it. There’s a certain spark in the music made by bands like that – Alice Cooper Group had it, as did Dead Kennedys, Eagles of Death Metal and Green Day – and The Dirty Nil steps up boldly to prove that they’ve got it with their third album, Fuck Art. Of...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Guide Me Back Home 3LP by City and Colour. I must confess that most regularly, live albums don’t thrill me. City and Colour albums do not often thrill me either, for that matter (long story short, while I was a big fan of Alexisonfire back in the day, I found the first two City and Colour albums staggeringly overwrought); I don’t know that I’d call my distaste for the band absolute...