While the novelty of The Ramoms’ existence is impossible to ignore (at first glance, the band looks like an obvious answer to the question of what happens when Riot Grrls reach the age when they become soccer moms), it’s also impossible to deny the inherent possibility of a group of women reimagining Ramones music with a fresh approach that isn’t too far off of the original, but is different enough that it feels fresh and exciting. Simply stated, the Problem...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the A Broken Heart is an Open Heart LP/2CD set by Louise Lemon. As intellectually evasive as music genre names have the capacity to be (dig into music history, and you’ll realize how silly sub-genre names get – take post-hardcore or “screamo” for just two examples), there’s no question that Death Gospel (or Doom Gospel – depending upon the press release that one reads) chanteuse Louise Lemon has hit upon something truly...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Constellate LP by Tensei.Over the last few years, The Flaming Lips have really come a long way from being the LSD-dipped and surrealist punk band that they were when they emerged from the wilds of Oklahoma in 1983. Since then, the hard left musical turns that they were perceived to have taken have become streamlined and the group has developed a greater sonic palette with which they’ve been able to compose...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Holger Danske LP by The Old Firm Casuals. After a solid amount of time up on blocks (the band’s debut album was released in 2014 and, while there have been a couple of splits and a couple of EPs, demands for something more substantial have gone unanswered), a recent reissue campaign renewed interest in The Old Firm Casuals (a.k.a. Singer/guitarist Lars Frederiksen’s “other” band, beyond Rancid) and so they’ve answered that...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the White Stuff LP by Royal Trux. Listening to White Stuff (Royal Trux’ first album of new material since 2000’s Pound For Pound), I simply could not stop thinking about and drawing comparisons between it and Danny Boyle’s film T2 Trainspotting. In the film, all of the characters who survived the events which played out in Trainspotting have found life after heroin addiction and discovered new fascinations – be it crime, working...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Finally Free LP by Daniel Romano. After first appearing in front of a hardcore band about fourteen years ago, Daniel Romano has taken personal delight in jumping from music genre to music genre with an impunity which proved to be incredibly infectious. From hardcore to folk to country to rock and innumerable hybrids of all those sounds, Romano has proven to have a golden touch almost as pure as David Bowie’s...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Bela Sessions 12” reissue by Bauhaus. In order to really appreciate just exactly how radical Bauhaus was in the early stages of their career, one must recognize what they did seemingly as a matter of course – how different it was from everything else, and how boldly the band did it from day one. The group’s first release, the “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” single, is an ideal illustration of that difference; in...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Guide Me Back Home 3LP by City and Colour. I must confess that most regularly, live albums don’t thrill me. City and Colour albums do not often thrill me either, for that matter (long story short, while I was a big fan of Alexisonfire back in the day, I found the first two City and Colour albums staggeringly overwrought); I don’t know that I’d call my distaste for the band absolute...
Talib KweliRadio Silence In a way, Talib Kweli will never get his due, and that’s just fine. By that, I mean that he should be ten times more popular than he is right now. He’s got everything you’d want in good music: talent, execution, wit, intellect, and a message. But unfortunately, that’s not synonymous with mainstream rap. Nope. Mainstream rap is all about image, excess, money, and fame. Like MF Doom said, the reason he wears a mask is to...
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...