King

BeatKodak Center, Rochester NYOctober 19, 2024I saw King Crimson in 1981 on the Discipline tour and, to this day, it ranks as the best concert I have ever seen. (Followed by a close second place of Crimson in 2021.) So I was eager to see this version of that tour and snatched up tickets as fast as I could, when they became available. If you’re not familiar, Beat consists of Adrian Belew (guitar and lead vocals) and Tony Levin (bass)...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Porterhouse vinyl reissue of the Saturation LP by Urge Overkill. Quick history lesson: By 1992, Urge Overkill had already established itself both in the fairly unforgiving Chicago music scene and on the North American college radio circuit with the help of albums like Americruiser and The Supersonic Storybook. Not only that, the band had cut a fairly striking and peerless image; unlike so many other alt-rock groups who preferred to mix,...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Meet King Leg LP by King Leg. The beauty of working in a pop culture-identified medium like pop music is that, while the music does initially have finite appeal as ‘new music,’ the basic structures and forms can easily be revisited, re-purposed and re-presented as often as new artists are willing to rediscover them. Any music can be reborn with the power of belief Take King Leg’s new album, Meet King...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Locust Abortion Technician EP by the Butthole Surfers. At first glance, it’s hard not to smirk a little at the design, intention and construct of the Locust Abortion Technician EP. It’s a very unmistakably “Surfers” release; the group has chosen to break their decade-long silence with a celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of their Locust Abortion Technician album and, to mark the occasion, they’ve reissued (roughly) thirty percent of the album...

Toasting the XX Factor – The Aging Punk Looks At How More Women Are Taking Up The Axe To Save Rock N’ Roll. I recently went to a show featuring one of my favorite local bands. There were three bands on the bill in total; I walked into the bar in the middle of the first band’s set. I was disappointed to see that it consisted of all guys. Not that I have anything against male musicians, but right now...

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Flying Microtonal Banana (ATO/Cadence) Listening to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s ninth album, Flying Microtonal Banana, one is inspired to recall Karl Marx’s fairly damning summation of history’s propensity for repeating itself – “the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. In this case, there’s no denying that the fairly delightful rock n’ roll King Gizzard is peddling is the farcical incarnation of the psychedelic rock which first materialized in...

The single most important construct to the fabric of humanity and the condition of it is the establishment of motivation. ‘Motive’ is the cornerstone for crime, punishment, change, virtue, vice and myriad other human endeavours but, most importantly, defining motives and qualifying motivation means articulating cause for the purpose of allowing others to understand outcomes and effects. Without that understanding—that relatable human element that everyone can find within themselves—people get very nervous. That was the instinct the...