A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2016 reissue of the BLACKsummers’night LP by Maxwell. On a superficial level, leaping around an artist’s catalogue can be confusing in a variety of ways; there can be a disconnect in the continuity of the artist’s development and that may mess with the perceptions of their catalogue as a whole. Such a phenomenon is absolutely true of Maxwell’s songbook – when the singer’s started with Urban Hang Suite in 1996, his...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the deluxe 2LP reissue of Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite by Maxwell. It’s incredible how wide the stream of creativity was in the mainstream music scene of 1996. While rock had finally started to get itself worked out following the death of Kurt Cobain (there were a few good rock records that year – Ministry released Filth Pig, Lou Reed put out Set The Twilight Reeling, The Wallflowers released Bringing Down The Horse...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the High Hopes LP by Like A Motorcycle. There are few scenes that appear in motion pictures which are more worrisome than those where light explodes on the screen and, after the camera’s focus adjusts, viewers realize they’re staring up from the floor of the trunk of a car. The reason that image is disarming is because the trunk is a small space – it is incredibly confined and exists as a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Shift and Shadow 12” EP by XIXA. XIXA released its debut full-length album earlier this year (discussion of that release will be coming in the very, very near future) but, now that it’s out and it has had the chance to really establish itself with the indie rock community, some listeners will be wondering what might have come before the “grand introduction” that Bloodline represented. As it turns out, XIXA’a output...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into David Bowie’s Let’s Dance LP. To begin with, I have to confess that I disliked Let’s Dance from the time I first heard it until early 2016 – right around the time I first saw the Five Years documentary. In Five Years, both Let’s Dance and the album’s producer, Nile Rodgers, played significant roles and seeing that presentation was what convinced me to revisit the album. Because of that film and the...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into a vinyl copy of Diamond Dogs by David Bowie. While it might not sound like the greatest endorsement of an album’s quality or of the creative foresight possessed by an artist on the surface, the adage that Diamond Dogs exemplifies first is “Just because an idea doesn’t work out in its intended manner does not mean it should be thrown away and forgotten.” The manner in which David Bowie’s eighth album lives that...
Savages Adore Life I have to say that I am impressed with Savages. Sure, when they appeared on Stephen Colbert I was a little blown away, but the fact that they chose to play Adore was even more surprising. Savages aren’t exactly easy listening, you know what I mean? And hot off the heels of their debut Silence Yourself, this band has established themselves as an intense and for lack of a better word, a very “dramatic” band. Have...
OBN III’s Worth a Lot of Money My relationship with the OBNII’s is complicated. I saw them open for Ex-Cult in Boston several years ago, and I’ll be damned if they didn’t steal the show. With a sound that I can only describe as Led Zeppelin-fueled garage rock, the OBNII’s looked and sounded like a bunch of homeless hooligans with nothing to lose. In other words, I had to get their albums immediately. Unfortunately, such a wild sound proved a...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Basses Loaded LP by (The) Melvins. It’s mind-boggling how such a prolific band can be so under-appreciated. Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame has said that the Melvins are the only band left standing from the grunge-rock cacophony of the Nineties (take that, Pearl Jam), and even the new kids like Mastodon have gone on the record as saying they’re one of the greatest bands on earth. Of course, the Melvins don’t...
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of the Twin Peaks Original Soundtrack. The current rage of soundtracks on vinyl has definitely contributed to the fun of collecting vinyl. Although there are a lot of companies putting out extraordinary releases, the king of the crop currently has to be the good folks over at Mondo. The attention to detail is simply top notch, with releases that serve to charm in both sound and visuals; absolutely kickass...