A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols LP by the Sex Pistols. The problematic thing about albums which come to be regarded as “culturally significant” is that, after it has been released and that cultural significance presents itself on a larger scale, everyone whats to get their hands on it and tool around with it in order to put their fingerprints on it and make it their own – in...
Oh SeesFace Stabber I’ve always admitted Thee Oh Sees (now just “Oh Sees”), first for their talent, then for their consistent output of good music, then for their work ethic, then for all three. One never knows what a new year will bring, musically, but one can always count on a new John Dwyer project. Honestly, with such a massive output of stellar material, it’s hard for me to admit that this band and frontman John Dwyer are still a...
Elliott SmithXO(Bong Load 25th Anniversary)photo: turntablelab.com I thought I had closed the book on Elliott Smith in my life. He was thrust upon me by an ex girlfriend who was from Oregon. As you can imagine, you can’t be in high school in Oregon in the 90s and not be consumed by Elliott Smith’s music. And when you date someone like that, some of that stuff is going to rub off on you. I absorbed his last album From a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Drowns’ Under Tension LP. While we could easily start this review of The Drowns’ debut album discussing the disparity between looks (the album cover – which is terrible) and content (the music on the album), let’s just start with this endorsement: no matter how much praise Under Tension receives, it deserves more. There are plenty of flaws in the packaging, but the music is absolutely peerless in its quality. From beginning...
Nas Illmatic (Get on Down Records) photo: @frangarg There’s this Key and Peele sketch called Bling Benzy and Da Struggle which perfectly personifies the state of mainstream rap music. In the sketch, the “old” and “new” sound of rap music are represented: the struggle of the old rap, delivered calmly but confidently over a jazz melody deals with social inequalities, the new rap delivered loudly with a screeching voice is about getting titties in your mouth. Neither is right or...
A deeper look at the grroves pressed into the hot pink, limited edition pressing of Father of All Motherfuckers by Green Day. After a span of sixteen years spent examining a series of high-concept creative endeavors (American Idiot started the trend in 2004 and catapulted Green Day onto an echelon of rock stardom that no one imagined possible for the band before, followed by another concept album in the form of 21 st Century Breakdown and a three-album vanity project,...
The Muffs No Holiday Right now I can’t think of a sadder story and a bigger regret in my life than the Muffs. That’s a lot for one sentence, I know, but thinking about this band is a lot for me. Musically, you’d be doing yourself a favor by checking them out. Start with Blonder and Blonder, both a nod to Bob Dylan (I think) and a perfect representation of their music. It’s punk rock, but not too offensive, but...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Green Fuzz” 10” single by Naked Giants. After releasing their debut album, Sluff, in 2018, even the softest, newest and least tested critics figured they had Naked Giants’ career path pegged and charted. They figured that a future full of odd, poppy, rocky and fairly danceable music was in the cards for this band, until such time as tastes shifted and then the group would just implode under the weight of...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Twin LP by Sound Of Ceres. It may sound odd (or even erroneous) to claim that an album as methodically-paced and dreamy in demeanor as Sound Of Ceres’ sophomore album is comes off as being both exciting and fascinating, but there’s honestly no other good way to characterize it. As a whole, listeners will find it easy to sink into and get lost within the lush and beautiful sounds which emanate...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Teacher’s Pet 7” single by Ramoms. When Ramoms’ first single (Problem Child) came out last year, I think that I came out both positively and honestly in my review of it, but I also think that I may have inadvertently understated the quality of what I heard. Yes, there was a great, straight out cover of a Ramones song present (“Rockaway Beach”), a great rewrite of a classic Ramones cut (“Blitzkrieg...