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...
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,...
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...
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...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Recreational Hate LP by Lemuria. The coolest thing about the moment after a new album gets released, people begin to find it and it proves to really connect with them in a popular way is that time seems to stop for a minute and everything the band did prior to the release of that album becomes a footnote. From the moment that record breaks the band into the popular consciousness, all...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Meet King Leg LP by King Leg. The beauty of working in a pop culture-identified medium like pop music is that, while the music does initially have finite appeal as ‘new music,’ the basic structures and forms can easily be revisited, re-purposed and re-presented as often as new artists are willing to rediscover them. Any music can be reborn with the power of belief Take King Leg’s new album, Meet King...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Trinity Lane LP by Lilly Hiatt. I must confess that I slept on Lilly Hiatt and her Trinity Lane LP when the album first arrived in my office. Regrettably, there was no good reason for it; given the timing of when it arrived, the album just kept getting shuffled under one thing after another. I did not give it the attention that it deserved, and it was only very recently –...