Author: Bill Adams
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Walrus – Family Hangover LP
When one considers the debut LP from Walrus, Family Hangover, the first stumbling block which comes up is where the music came from. As one listens, it quickly becomes easy to pick out little bits of ideas which were obviously originally the work of artists who initially inspired the band and, because those stylistic breadcrumbs…
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Reducers SF – Essentials (4-LP set)
Looking back, it’s pretty incredible how fertile punk’s creative soil was in the Nineties. Sure – everyone knows the mid-Nineties as being the period which broke punk into the mainstream pop punk and made bands like Lagwagon, Propagandhi, Green Day, NOFX, Offspring (I’ve written this list out several times before) and innumerable others household names…
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Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables LP
How does one qualify an album which is almost universally considered a lynchpin release for the musical genre it occupies and has incited a seemingly endless stream of arguments and upheaval on personal, political and social levels IN ADDITION TO causing a host of legal battles among the men responsible for creating and releasing it?…
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Dirty Fences – Goodbye Love LP
After taking four years to let their sound season with the help of regular touring and new releases, there’s no question listening to Goodbye Love that Dirty Fences have arrived and are ready to take over the world. It’s really easy to chart the band’s development between their debut album, Too High To Kross, and their…
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JD McPherson – Undivided Heart & Soul LP
The beauty of JD McPherson‘s new album is that calling it a “classic” or “fantastic new album” is definitely apt and accurate, but neither phrase affords the album the distinction it deserves. From note one, Undivided Heart & Soul employs a directory of time-honored songwriting and performance staples which have historically spun yards of platinum…
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Round Eye – Monstervision LP
Since first appearing as the “band on the other side of a split album with Libyan Hit Squad” a couple of years ago [the idea was for Full Circle to be a sort of bridge between projects for LHS/Round Eye singer Chachy Englund – one band was ending, the other one starting], Round Eye has…
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Tough Age – Unclean (7-inch)
After hearing all three songs of Tough Age‘s new Unclean 7-inch, listeners may find that they need to take a moment and collect themselves – I certainly did. I needed to take a step back because I had no particular desire to just spill ink and compliments all over a page. True, all three songs…
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Preservation Hall Jazz Band – So It Is LP
I have to confess that, after having listened to music on a daily basis (first as a fan, then as a critic and a fan), I have grown cynical and hypercritical toward jazz. The reason for that is pretty simple: I believe that jazz was once a cutting edge form which pushed the possibilities of…
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Chomper – Medicine Mountain LP
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 simultaneously recognizable and perfectly unique. That’s precisely what happens on Medicine Mountain, Chomper’s debut album. In just eight tracks, the band (which comprises members of Guided…
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The Struggle – Endless LP
At this point in music history, surf rock’s impact on punk has really been downplayed with more attention put toward the more obvious, poppy turns that the music has taken – especially of late. That’s the first thing The Struggle fixes on their new album, Endless. From front to back, The Struggle mixes melodic hardcore…