A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Suffrage LP by Fucked and Bound. Full disclosure: on my first play through Suffrage, I accidentally had my turntable set to the incorrect speed. Because of that, my first judgement was that the band’s sound was thick, dark, sludgy and imposing – but it definitely piqued my interest and curiosity. I was fascinated by the hulking, demonic voice which dominated the song (“Similar to that of Roger Miret,” I thought) and...
Edge Of Tomorrow – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP By Christophe Beck It might be time for us to rehabilitate Tom Cruise. He’s long reigned supreme as America’s favorite weirdo actor celebrity, and it’s his own fault. Who could forget that appearance on Oprah years ago when we all realized just how strange of a bubble the man lives in. That just opened up a pandora’s box of oddness that directly relates to the shady organizations the man associates himself...
The Monsieurs Deux I could go on and talk about the Monsieurs in a historical and topographical context: who their members are, what led them to the Monsieurs or how much they’re contributing to the music scene in Boston. But, I’m not going to do that here. I just want to talk about how much Deux rocks. Because this album is a stand-alone firecracker and should be respected as such. If you didn’t already know, the Monsieurs play loud, snotty,...
Circle Jerks Wonderful I’m ready to make some enemies on this column and I think I can start a significant amount of shit by saying that the Circle Jerks were a better band than Black Flag. I’ve tried for years to find some sort of solidarity along these lines and have come up empty handed every time. It’s not that I don’t like Black Flag – I like them just fine – but there’s something about Circle Jerks...
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...
10 Cloverfield Lane – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2XLP By Bear McCreary I’d be lying if I said the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead wasn’t reason I was initially interested in 10 Cloverfield Lane. Since breaking onto the scene with Deathproof and Scott Pilgrim, Winstead has developed an interesting career for herself as a “scream queen” of sorts. Whether this is on purpose or not, I wouldn’t know. But I didn’t quite believe that reputation until I saw 10 Cloverfield (Ln)....
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Dirt LP by Yamantaka // Sonic Titan. In this age of post-modern songwriting and culturally blended musicianship, finding something which is truly striking and unique in its composition, performance and presentation is rare but, as Yamantaka // Sonic Titan proves on its third album Dirt, not impossible. This time out, the Canadian Noh-Wave behemoths offer offer listeners their first great breakthrough document of both sound and style; over the course 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 Loner LP by Caroline Rose. I have to confess that, as soon as I began listening to Loner – the new full-length album by Caroline Rose – I realized that everything I thought I knew and expected from the singer was incorrect. My first contact with Rose was with the song “Yip Yip Yow” from an NPR live performance, and that was enough to get me looking around for other music...
The Melvins A Walk With Love & Death What can be said about a band like the Melvins at this point? With a catalog that’s as strange as it is expansive, plunging into this band’s music can seem like a daunting task. But, the more you do, the more you come to appreciate the Melvins’ greatness. You either get it or you don’t. As Krist Novoselic himself said (I believe), they’re the only band of their era still out...