Author: Bill Adams
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Tyler Bates – Deadpool 2 score (12″ picture disc)
Before even considering the music pressed into the twelve-inch score released in support of Deadpool 2, one has to respect the flamboyant nature of this album. First, in a time period marked by the decline of interest in soundtrack and score album releases (due in no small part to the fact that the cherry picking…
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Slim Dunlap – The New Old Me / Times Like This (2LP reissue)
Of course, after the collapse, crash and burn of The Replacements in 1991, it was almost instantly hoped that somebody in the band would begin producing more music but nobody looked at Slim Dunlap to be the first one out of the gate. Dunlap was, after all, the replacement guitarist in The Replacements – that…
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The Flaming Lips – Greatest Hits Volume 1 (LP)
As a general rule, I must confess that Best-Of compilations seldom thrill me. While the odd set does prove to be the rule’s exception (like Nirvana’s black album, the set that Morphine released several years ago, ChangesoneBowie, Hot Rocks and All For Nothing/Nothing For All turned out to all be great sets), most best-of comps…
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NEEDS – Limitations (LP)
The funny thing about punk and hardcore bands has always seemed to be that, no matter how caustic they may have sounded when listeners first began paying attention, the desire to get louder/harder/more aggressive as soon as MORE people begin listening to them is nearly immediate. A perfect example of this tradition can be found…
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Prodigy – Keep It Thoro (12″ picture disc single)
It’s kind of incredible to think about just how much the “single” has changed as a format over the years. When singles first gained popularity, their construct was simple: a hit song was collected from a long-playing record, then paired with a song of complementary length and then pressed one-per-side onto a seven-inch record. Simple,…
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Booze & Glory – London Skinhead Crew (12″ die-cut single)
Rare is the single which features the better of two tracks on its B-side, but such is undeniably the case when it comes to Booze & Glory‘s “London Skinhead Crew” 12-inch single. This time out, the London-based punk band unlaces its collective boots a bit and presents a reggae-infused impression of their excellent call-to-arms anthem, “London…
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Old Firm Casuals – s/t EP (12” picture disc reissue)
By the time Lars Frederiksen unveiled Old Firm Casuals in 2010, the singer/guitarist was already very well exposed in the punk rock community. He had already cut his teeth with U.K. Subs in 1991, gained pop (and pop-punk) stardom with Rancid beginning in 1993 and “gone solo” with The Bastards in addition to taking a…
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Andrew WK – You’re Not Alone 2LP
An epiphany: since first appearing on the pop music radar in 2001 with the release of his debut album, I Get Wet, Andrew Wilkes-Krier has chased the idea and image of a perfect party as well as producing a genuinely kinetic soundtrack for such an event with little thematic deviation (obvious exception being the piano-focused,…
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Gang Of Youths – Go Farther In Lightness (2LP)
For the nearly half-century since the genre’s inception now, one of the few steadfast foundations upon which punk rock has stood has been nihilism. Consistently, the spirit of punk has been one of “Fuck it all – strip the music down to the barest essentials and get emotionally dark and bleak – at least that…
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Ford Madox Ford – This American Blues LP
Remember a couple of decades ago when, against some fairly long odds, The Blasters managed to cross-wire punk rock and Americana/roots music? The results were pretty cool – the group actually did manage to break onto the popular radar for a minute (with some help from Quentin Tarantino and the soundtrack from From Dusk Til…