live

Praise the powers that be, I think I finally understand Ty Segall. I’ve been listening to the man’s records for ten years and think I finally get him. Not that he was that much of a mystery to begin with. He’s a garage-god, yes. He’s hyper-prolific, sure. He’s handy with the axe, definitely. I think it can be said that his records are very good, but with the exception of Manipulator, I don’t think any have quite stuck with me....

Pearl JamLive on Two LegsRecord 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...

What a year it’s been for live shows and what a time to be alive. Many of us took up hobbies during COVID and mine was trying to fill some gaps in my musical knowledge. Boy, did Superchunk fill that gap. Very seldom does a perfect band come along: one with a rich back catalog and a whole approach to making music that seems perfectly catered to your sensibilities. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Superchunk until a few...

It’s safe to say that the Sleaford Mods are in a category all of their own, and this makes them hard to describe. I know descriptions don’t matter but with this band, it’s kind of fun. Sleaford Mods are a rap group (I think) made up of two British guys whose music sounds like a cockney guy speed-talking about working-class problems over simplistic, but grooving, beats. It’s kind of punk rock in the sense that it reinterprets and simplifies rap...

I’ve been a fan of Jon Snodgrass for over 20 years and have never seen him live. Embarrassing, I know. Especially considering how much I owe the man. Armchair Martian is such a no-brainer for anyone into pop punk, especially the Descendents/ALL/Fat Wreck variety, and I was hooked from the beginning (hey, when’s a new album coming out?), but I didn’t think country music could be cool until I heard his band Drag the River with ALL frontman Chad Price...

Photos by the unmatchable Brittany Rose...

Photos by Dan Benedetto @dbendo on...

Photos by Corwin Wickersham...

If you’re a punk rock fan and you don’t know the Spits, then I pity you. You need to get on that. You need to get on the mystery that is the Spits. Their entire existence is a big ol’ question mark. You want to define their music? It’s lo-fi garage punk rock, both futuristic but hopelessly old fashioned. Kind of like futuristic for the 50s. Imagine big robots which are actually just spray painted carboard boxes. And who are...

Rage Against the MachineThe Battle of Mexico CityRecord Store Day Release Let me start off this review by painting a picture of just how important Rage Against the Machine were to my development as a teenager. Growing up in Aruba in the 90s, completely isolated from the world, we craved outside culture. We didn’t have a good idea of what was going on in the cool parts of the world (like the USA), so we’d rely on word of mouth...