review

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into EP by Dad Brains. Now over forty years since it first appeared, it was inevitable that punk rock was probably going to take on something that resembled a fatherly voice, somehow. How could it not? With Green Day having made concept records already and both Fat Mike Burkett and Mike Watt having produced punk rock opera albums, punk and its pillars have already begun taking on “grown up projects” (or at least...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Mass Apathy” 12” single by NOi!SE. It might not sound like the single most glowing endorsement of a single on the surface, but the first thing that NOi!SE’s new, milled “Mass Apathy” single illustrates is that it’s never wise to underestimate a novelty, or write one off. The bullet casing silhouettes which encircle the exterior rim of this one-sided single (the B-side features a silkscreen but no music) look neat and...

The Fifth Risk Michael Lewis I love it when Michael Lewis does what Michael Lewis does best. And that’s breaking down a complex issue into easy to understand chunks. What’s more, he’s able to do it with topics that sound boring as hell. Who would have thought Sabermetrics and baseball lineups could ever be told in such an interesting story as Moneyball? Same goes for Glass Boys and its analysis of the stock market. I’ll go on a limb and...

BlackkKlansman I have one question for Spike Lee: how dumb does he think his audience is? I had high hopes for Blackkklansman. I heard good things from friends and the internet. Both touting it as entertaining and impressive. After all, when has the internet ever been wrong or hyperbolic? However, after finally watching it I realize that the internet is dumb. And maybe my friends are dumb too. Certainly, Spike lee thinks his audience is dumb and...

Hereditary In a way, I feel bad for the movie Hereditary. Partly because it’ll never get the feedback it deserves for its creators to really make a great follow-up, but also because this is a perfect example of a movie killing itself through its own advertisement. Before it was even released, Hereditary was presented as the new scariest movie of all time, the new Exorcist, and how watching it will basically ruin your life because it’s so scary. And...

Hits and Misses: Stories by Simon Rich A little insider info for you, dear reader, but sometimes we get unsolicited stuff from publishers. Sometimes, they’re not really our cup of tea. Instead of reviewing something we’re not too hot about, we skip it. Other times, we get a book completely out of left field that we absolutely love. That book is Simon Rich’s Hits and Misses. We had no idea who Simon Rich was and the joke’s on us, considering...

Jon Spencer Spencer Sings The Hits (In The Red Records) In Jon Spencer’s debut solo album, Spencer Sings The Hits, fans will find a genuine and true revelation about both the singer and his music. Here, they’ll finally get a sense of what portion of the music to which he has contributed over the years (with the Blues Explosion, Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash, Spencer Dickinson and so on) is actually his; it will suddenly become easy to see...

Beach House 7 Photo: turntablelab.com Of all the ridiculous musical genres and subgenres, the one I’ve grown most pleased with is dream-pop. A long time ago, Mike Watt told me that musical genres are just something someone at a record label came up with to make their job easier. I haven’t quite found it to be that, exactly. Genres are important for listeners because it helps us find what we’re looking for. That said, there have been some subgenres so...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Things Change LP by American Aquarium. Usually when I’m reviewing vinyl records, I try to present my thoughts in a linear manner – from front to back, A-side through B-. In my mind, it just makes sense; unlike on CDs (where it’s really easy to jump around from song to song as a listener likes), records play best song-by-song and bands usually go out of their way to take that into...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Karma For Cheap LP by Aaron Lee Tasjan. The single greatest problem from which Karma For Cheap (and it’s auteur, Aaron Lee Tasjan, by extension) suffers is that it’s just too polished and the the seams on it are too air-tight. For that reason, it’s difficult for listeners to not meet the music with more than a little bit of suspicion. This is precisely the same problem from which artists like...