Author: Bill Adams
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Anti-Flag – American Spring
Remember what punk rock looked like in 2001? The landscape was very different from how it is now, that’s for sure; back then, melody, speed and punk sensibilities all went hand-in-hand, and the one thing that most everyone could agree on was that metalheads didn’t fit in. Now – as Epitaph seems to be making…
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Rise Against + Will Potter – The Eco-Terrorist In Me 7”
At first, it might be easy for the format fetishist who is searching for the great “find” or “must-have” on Record Store Day to overlook Rise Against‘s contribution to the festivities. On the surface, it doesn’t really stand out at all; the band put a song from the album that they released last year (The…
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Round Eye – s/t
Wow. A band grabbing listeners and shaking them by the head just to see the confused look on their faces isn’t a particularly common occurrence anymore (the Mothers Of Invention used to do it, Butthole Surfers were really good at it, Flaming Lips have had some great moments in the mindfuck field too), but no…
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Scott Weiland and The Wildabouts – Blaster
Love him or hate him, no one can claim that Scott Weiland isn’t adaptable. Since first appearing on the alt-rock radar with Stone Temple Pilots in 1993, the singer has changed his artistic focus with the same kind of regularity that most people have in changing their socks; he rolled through a series of compositional…
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The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
Book review The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll (Penguin) I remember the first time I read The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. I was in eighth grade and a girl in my home room handed me her copy to borrow. I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, at first – I didn’t know anything about it,…
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Jamstik (gear review)
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must confess that I began my review of the Zivix Jamstik harboring a great deal of trepidation. A lot of that sprang from what I projected that the limitations of the device would be; Jamstik is a MIDI-driven (that’s Musical Instrument Digital Interface, for those who are completely…
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The Bar Stool Preachers – One Fool Down 7” single
When’s the last time you listened to some punk rock, reader? That’s P-U-N-K R-O-C-K; the snotty stuff made in the face of mediocrity. The stuff that a band wrote because they had nothing left to lose because they’d been kicked around and told they were no good but still refused to remain down after having…
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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015
When The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion made its lustrous return with Meat + Bone in 2012 (after revisiting their catalogue with Shout Factory), fans were thrilled to discover that the band’s first desire was to just play straight and simply; there were no frills or fantastic embellishments on the band’s ninth album as there had…
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Cancer Bats – Searching For Zero
Two Hellbounders weigh in on the latest from Toronto’s Cancer Bats… I’ll freely admit that when I first started listening to Searching for Zero, the latest from the hard-touring Cancer Bats I was a little let down. Then again, anything they commit to tape will pale in comparison to their incendiary live performances. But as…
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King Buzzo – This Machine Kills Artists (vinyl)
On the most superficial level, making an album like This Machine Kills Artists should be the definition of simplicity. How could it not be? The arrangements for the songs have already been written and the design has been set so, simply, stripping away the trappings installed by a record producer as well as the other…