Records

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Seance! With Zabrecky glow-in-the-dark 12” single by Zabrecky. On the surface, noting that the Seance! With Zabrecky 12” single is a novelty record just goes without saying. Sure – people still indulge in trying to make contact with the deceased, on occasion, and some people even claim to have been successful; but really, it always boils down to how far one is willing to play along with the shtick; as the...

The Christian Family The Raw and Primitive Sound of… (Voodoo Rhythm Records) While it would be easy enough to spill plenty of ink on the fact that The Christian Family is pretty evidently a kindred spirit to such popular “dirty shirt rock n’ roll” bands as The White Stripes, Boss Hog, Royal Trux, The Black Keys and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, actually making such comparisons is entirely too convenient and doesn’t actually do anyone any favors. Stripped even more...

Jon Spencer & The HITmakers Spencer Gets It Lit (In The Red Records) As he has been famous for doing since he first founded the Blues Explosion in 1991, Jon Spencer has succeeded in confounding his fans by including a couple of songs which didn’t appear on the vinyl release of his newest album, Spencer Gets It Lit, on its CD counterpart.Fans may be less than surprised at Spencer’s choice (the guitarist has a long history of augmenting the track...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Drag Me LP by S-E-R-V-I-C-E. While fans already had a pretty good idea where Jon Spencer would end up following the dissolution of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in 2016 (other than making appearances in the multitude of projects to which the guitarist had offered both his name and talent over the years, he also has a newly minted solo career to develop), the question of where drummer Russell Simins may...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Spencer Gets It Lit LP by Jon Spencer & the HITmakers. After breaking and then building upon the first new and surprisingly fertile ground that the guitarist had touched in years with Spencer Sings The Hits! in 2018, Jon Spencer has continued on the same creative terrain with Spencer Gets It Lit. For any other musician, such a statement could sound unsurprising and/or unexciting but – with a well-established history of...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Animal 12” EP by Suzi Moon. Important point: there are three songs on Suzi Moon’s Animal 12” EP. All three songs appear on both sides of said single so, where most vinyl releases are characterized by the movement from front to back, this single seeks to reprise its progression from one side to the next. That statement is not made as an indictment – it is made as an observation as...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the reissue of The Lorrainas’ Party ‘Til It’s Dark LP. Sure, this vinyl reissue of Party ‘Til It’s Dark – The Lorrainas’ first and only full-length studio album – may seek to re-introduce material which is now seventeen years old, but anyone who hears it will excitedly admit that the music sounds one hundred per cent fresh; after the rush of endorphins which come with the music initially begin to fade. The...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Vespa & Londonians 12” EP by Booze & Glory. Remember back in the early aughts when Fearless Records compiled a series of albums which found some genuinely great punk bands covering a multitude of different artists and genres – recasting them all in a punk context? Some of those covers were actually really, really cool (hearing AFI perform Guns N’ Roses’ “My Michelle” was pretty cool, as was Strike Anywhere’s cover...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Grade 2’s Graveyard Island: Acoustic Sessions 12” EP. As someone wise once said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans,” and no punk band is making the best of a bad situation more than Grade 2 has, lately. The band had to put the promotional efforts behind their Epitaph debut album, 2019’s Graveyard Island, on hold when the CoVid-19 pandemic caused all touring routes to shut down indefinitely a couple...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Windowland” / “I Almost Lost You” 12” Digitally-Printed single by The Slackers. It can be fun to write a short review once in a while and, when one addresses The Slackers’ newest single, “Windowland,” it’s impossible to not be brief. Clocking in at less than ten minutes total, the two songs on the single (“I Almost Lost You” is the second cut in the running but, because both songs appear on...