punk

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 12” picture-disc reissue of Old Firm Casuals’ self-titled debut EP. By the time Lars Frederiksen unveiled Old Firm Casuals in 2010, the singer/guitarist was already very well exposed in the punk rock community. He had already cut his teeth with U.K. Subs in 1991, gained pop (and pop-punk) stardom with Rancid beginning in 1993 and “gone solo” with The Bastards in addition to taking a seat in the producer’s chair at...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Sluff LP by Naked Giants. Upon first glance at Naked Giants’ New West Records debut album, Sluff, those who pick the record up might assume that they’re staring into a time warp; the awkward poses that the three-piece band’s members strike combined with their clothing and the garish color scheme as well as the decor in the image look like something which might have originated in the Eighties. Conversely, the melange...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Art Bergmann’s The Apostate LP. In Canada, there is simply no musician more criminally underrated and under-appreciated than Art Bergmann. Since first appearing on the Vancouver punk and indie rock scenes in the Eighties, Bergmann has regularly had to fight to get popular notice not because the guitarist needed time to mature artistically, but because he has always been in the wrong place at the wrong time; always on the cusp of...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Choke Cherry Tree LP by Ben Miller Band. The catch, when any band attempts to infuse a time-honored sound and style with new energy and fresh inspiration, is that they often lose sight of all the reasons why and how that form worked in the first place. While the heart and hopes might sound enough, the results often feel as though someone has tried to weld the fins from a ’57...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the new Hellcat Records/Pirates Press reissue of the Viking LP by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. If the idea that a classic album is defined as one which holds personal meaning for a listener can be taken as factual, then I can say confidently that Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards’ sophomore album, Viking, is one of the most important albums of my life; for me, it is a personal classic. I remember,...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Endless LP by The Struggle. At this point in music history, surf rock’s impact on punk has really been downplayed with more attention put toward the more obvious, poppy turns that the music has taken – especially of late. That’s the first thing The Struggle fixes on their new album, Endless; from front to back, The Struggle mixes melodic hardcore similar to that of the Dropkick Murphys’ earliest recordings with the...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 12” Razor Stomp EP by Suede Razors. It might sound weird to say, but it’s about time Suede Razors got around to releasing more than just two songs at a time. To date, Bay area bovver band Suede Razors have managed to build a shockingly devoted following on the srength of a succession of seven-inch singles (see “Boys Night Out” and “Here She Comes” – both of which are backed by...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Tackle Box LP by Hamell On Trial. It might sound a little ridiculous, but the truth is that some musicians need to have something which genuinely pisses them off – something they find truly abhorrent – before them in order to produce their best work. Take Ed Hamell, for example; Hamell has been a politically-minded songwriter since he first appeared in 1996 but his best music has always appeared when either...

Round Eye Monster Vision (Sudden Death Records) Even on first examination of Monster Vision, it’s perfectly clear how poised to totally reinvigorate punk rock Round Eye really are now. The band’s 2015-issued debut album hit those who heard it like a force of nature and won converts to the band’s banner effortlessly, but their sophomore effort is something else; Monster Vision manages to retain the fury and mania of its predecessor, but also illustrates that the group isn’t just a...

Editor’s note: There’s spectacular power in a simple list. It’s just so potentially affecting; there’s no pomp, no ceremony, no nonsense — all the power is just what’s there. That sense of power is what leapt to mind when Ground Control’s own Aging Punk Murray Thomas presented his list of the best albums released in 2016 to me as nothing more than a list of ten titles and about a sentence in the way of description for each. It was...