A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Look Together” LP by Wild Moccasins. In the context of New West Records’ stable of artists, Wild Moccasins stand out as a truly unique entity. Most of the other artists signed to the label have their roots in musical forms and structures linked clearly to rock instrumentation and styling, but Wild Moccasins don’t so much rebel against that paradigm as simply ignore it and try making their own path, without apology....
Hot Snakes Jericho Sirens Listening to this album makes me sad. Let me explain. John Reis’ career is not one that’s always appreciated. I would know, because I’ve come to it late in the game, and it’s one I’m still trying to absorb and get comfortable with. The name Drive Like Jehu gets dropped a lot in musical circles, but honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is. I’ll blame it on the fact that I’m a philistine and...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into Arthur Buck’s self-titled debut album. Full honesty and disclosure: I’ve been a really big fan of R.E.M. for a really long time and approached Arthur Buck’s self-titled debut album with no small amount of trepidation. I didn’t want to risk sullying my memory of Peter Buck – but it turns out I needn’t have worried. In fact, by crossing Buck’s instantly recognizable guitar tone (which, let’s be honest, helped inspire almost an...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Just Business” LP by Bass Drum of Death. Even upon one’s first play through Bass Drum of Death’s fourth album, listeners will quickly be able to note that its title is a complete fucking misnomer. Nothing about this album is “Just Business”; it’s impossible to not take this music personally because it is that good and does mark a spectacular potential turning point for the band. Simply put, “Just Business” rocks...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Goodbye Sunshine Hello Nighttime LP by Family Of The Year. It’s funny how, as similar to one another as every Family Of The Year has been to date, Goodbye Sunshine Hello Nighttime feels like a significant departure and/or move forward for the band. That Goodbye Sunshine Hello Nighttime is the group’s first album for Reprise after enjoying a celebrated 2LP+1EP stretch at Nettwerk is irrelevant – Family Of The Year has...
Oh Sees ORC (Castle Face) Show me someone who doesn’t appreciate Thee Oh Sees and I’ll show you a damned fool. Same with all the other name incarnations of the band: The Oh Sees, Oh Sees, and OCS. It’s almost like band head honcho John Dwyer doesn’t want his steps to be traced back. Or maybe he’s divvying up the band’s output under slightly different namesakes so that listeners can distinguish them. OCS definitely was a different approach to the...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the The Old New Me / Times Like This 2LP reissue by Slim Dunlap. Of course, after the collapse, crash and burn of The Replacements in 1991, it was almost instantly hoped that somebody in the band would begin producing more music but nobody looked at Slim Dunlap to be the first one out of the gate. Dunlap was, after all, the replacement guitarist in The Replacements – that was the joke...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Flaming Lips’ Greatest Hits Volume 1 LP. As a general rule, I must confess that Best-Of compilations seldom thrill me. While the odd set does prove to be the rule’s exception (like Nirvana’s black album, the set that Morphine released several years ago, ChangesoneBowie, Hot Rocks and All For Nothing/Nothing For All turned out to all be great sets) and which does present the band in question at its best, most...
The funny thing about punk and hardcore bands has always seemed to be that, no matter how caustic they may have sounded when listeners first began paying attention, the desire to get louder/harder/more aggressive as soon as MORE people begin listening to them is nearly immediate. A perfect example of this tradition can be found in the recorded output of Vancouver’s rising stars NEEDS; upon first appearing with their self-titled album in 2015, the band shattered expectations by delivering a...
Someone somewhere may be surprised, in some way, that Deadpool 2 will be receiving a fancy, picture disc treatment when it gets released on vinyl on August 17, 2018, but others will argue that it’s really the only way this soundtrack could be presented effectively. After all, how could any self-respecting soundtrack for a comic book movie not have some pretty illustrations on it? Of course there are going to be pictures on the vinyl pressing of the soundtrack, but...