A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Certified edition of Oooooooohhh… On The TLC Tip by TLC. From a historical standpoint, it’s always remarkable to observe how and when a dynasty began. Take TLC, for example; to date, the group comes second only to The Supremes in regards to how far their influence reaches on both musical and cultural levels. That statement is made here with no hyperbole at all, it is just a FACT. The group’s sophomore...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the TX Jelly LP by The Texas Gentlemen. It might not be so easy for readers to remember now, but TX Jelly – the debut LP by Texas Gentlemen – actually springs from a tradition which once favored allowing an album to build and develop organically as musicians made it in the studio. Back before punk rock and all its myriad sub- and side-genres instilled a sense of brevity, “get in, get...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Water Records vinyl reissue of the Album – Generic Flipper LP. In music, as is the case in chemistry, the most important element is the one that ultimately provides the catalyst which sets everything else in motion. In chemistry, for example, the right combination of sulfer, charcoal and saltpeter can still remain perfectly inert but, when a spark gets added to that mix, the results are explosive; the aforementioned chemical compound...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Flesh & Bone” 7” single by Dan Rico. On first play through Dan Rico’s “Flesh & Bone” 7” single, many listeners will likely be struck and dazzled by what they hear. They’ll be excited by the tone and tenor of both “Flesh & Bone” and its B-side, “Gold Volvo,” because both tracks sound tightly and classically composed, in the finest tradition of the best power pop records. That is indeed a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Stuyedeyed/Birds split 7” single, released on Greenway Records. It’s always kind of incredible how great a gamble a split 7” single release can be for the artists involved. Over the years, lots of bands have made great ones, yes, but there have been an equal or greater number of weak or soft efforts which feel lopsided because either one band or one song is far superior to the other. It’s a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Self-Contained LP by The Containers. Having grown up and come of age in the Eighties and Nineties (here to fore known as the golden age of tape trading and indie rock), I confess with a little embarrassment and chagrin that I had never heard of The Containers prior to Manufactured Recordings’ vinyl reissue of Self-Contained arriving on my desk, and I have to say that I have no idea how such...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Revolution Radio LP by Green Day. Some smart aleck is going to say that this review is a bit late in coming (yes, Revolution Radio was released fourteen months ago) but that’s part of the point here; Green Day’s twelfth album was touted as a much-needed return to the band’s roots after almost a decade spent releasing concept albums and enormous album trilogies (plus a fourth CD/DVD conglomerate for good measure)....
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the new Hellcat Records/Pirates Press reissue of the Viking LP by Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards. If the idea that a classic album is defined as one which holds personal meaning for a listener can be taken as factual, then I can say confidently that Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards’ sophomore album, Viking, is one of the most important albums of my life; for me, it is a personal classic. I remember,...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Aluminium LP by Vulture Whale. Sometimes there’s just no way to mistake where a band comes from. In any given case, it might be the singer’s accent or tonality that does it or sometimes it’s just a particular vale or sound inserted somewhere among the instrumental performances, but it’s unmistakably there and listeners know it as soon as they hear it – no matter how potentially intangible it might be. On...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Medicine Mountain LP by Chomper. Every once in a while, a band somehow manages to come along and throw a multitude of easily recognizable sounds into the generic melting pot and then pour out something which is recognizable for those traits as well as coming off as perfectly unique and all the band’s own. That’s precisely what happens on Medicine Mountain, Chomper’s debut album; in just eight tracks, the band (which...