No

Stress Dolls Queen of No (Sun Pedal Recordings) Queen of No, the new Stress Dolls album, lives up to the band name. It is a journey through head Stress Doll Chelsea O’Donnell’s anxieties, ranging from health issues (she suffers from Crohn’s Disease), relationships, social media and more existential questions. Though the music is firmly based in pop-punk, a variety of styles illuminate the various themes which run through the album. In general, the more declarative songs — where she directly...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into No Joy / Sonic Boom’s self-titled 12” EP. Ever had one of those moments when you heard or read about a new musical project being entered by a couple of established musicians, got excited as your imagination began to run wild with the possibilities of what may come from the endeavor and then learned that you couldn’t have been more right when you got a taste of the music? It’s gratifying, isn’t...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “SEED” LP by Looming. It’s only upon starting to listen to “Seed” that one realizes a female singer fronting an emo band is such a rarity. Why is that? In many ways, it could be argued that the music is tailor-made for a female sensibility (women are in better touch with their emotions and can definitely articulate them better – comparatively, men are more than a little inept). Regardless, the whys...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Chew LP by Muskets. As bands like Able Baker Fox, Into It. Over It., Citizen and Tiger’s Jaw have appeared (or reappeared, in some cases), discussions around the re-emergence of emo have become a discussion point, but longtime fans have been very, very careful to get on board with it, to this point. A lot of that has to do with the fact that fans know this has been a thing...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Visions LP by Able Baker Fox. The first thing that Visions, Able Baker Fox’s first album in ten years, proves is that even if a type of music has fallen from popular fashion in recent years, it can still re-emerge sounding both fantastic and timely if there’s passion powering it. Right off, as soon as “Purple Mountains”kicks the doors open on the A-side of Visions, listeners who once felt a genuine...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the NØ FUTUR(E) 7” by Garbageface. For the release of his new album, Karol “Garbageface” Orzechowski has decided to challenge the usual methodology and manner in music is released. His way flies in the face of how music has been marketed ever since Napster turned the music business back into a singles-driven enterprise again; while everyone else is digitally distributing singles into the world and hoping they’ll entice those who find them...