Category: Reviews
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The Slackers – “Windowland” / “I Almost Lost You” 12” digitally-printed single
The Slackers “Windowland” / “I Almost Lost You” (12” Digitally-Printed single) (Pirates Press Records) It can be fun to write a short review once in a while and, when one addresses The Slackers’ newest single, “Windowland,” it’s impossible to not be brief. Clocking in at less than ten minutes total, the two songs on the…
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Grade 2 – Graveyard Island: Acoustic Sessions 12” EP
Grade 2 Graveyard Island: Acoustic Sessions 12” EP (Epitaph/Pirates Press Records) As someone wise once said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans,” and no punk band is making the best of a bad situation more than Grade 2 has, lately. The band had to put the promotional efforts behind their Epitaph debut…
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Lars Frederiksen – To Victory 12” EP
Lars Frederiksen To Victory 12” EP (Pirates Press Records) After a career spent tirelessly writing, recording and performing music with a celebrated list of bands on an incredible number of releases (to date, that list includes no fewer than forty-five releases recorded with bands including Rancid, Stomper 98, Old Firm Casuals, The transplants, The Bastards…
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T. Hardy Morris – The Digital Age Of Rome LP
T. Hardy Morris The Digital Age of Rome LP (New West Records) It’s weird to think how tumultuous a year 2020 was, and how that tumult was reflected in the music which was released at the time. Even if a band didn’t actually have a political streak in their hair or bone in their body,…
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HRH ABC Fest 2021, Great Yarmouth, UK
This is what happens when two HRH festivals – HRH AOR and HRH Blues vs. C.R.O.W.S. get combined into one. A massive three day event spreading across the three stages of Vauxhall Holiday Park with over 50 bands playing. HRH ABC was taking place on November 11th-13th in Great Yarmouth, UK at the Vauxhall Holiday Park. Day 1 Line Up:…
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HRH Punk Fest, Sheffield, UK 2021
After a successful start in 2019, the 2nd edition of the HRH Punk Fest was taking place on the 2nd and 3rd of October at the O2 Academy Sheffield – Birmingham, UK. Day 1 Line Up: Stage 1 Stage 2 Medusa MC16 Hung Like Hamratty The Outcasts The Members 999 UK Subs Barking Poets Litterbug…
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Mastiff – Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth LP
Mastiff Leave Me The Ashes of the Earth LP (Entertainment One Music) There has always been something which felt a little off about really aggressive metal (or Doom, or Sludge, or maybe Metalcore – pick your favorite undervalued sub-genre) – as greasy, heavy or dirty as it might get, there’s always an inherent clarity about…
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Plizzken – …And Their Paradise Is Full Of Snakes LP
Plizzken …And Their Paradise Is Full Of Snakes LP (Pirates Press Records) The fact of the matter is that, in punk circles, no one wants to be a “middle of the road” kind of band. Why? Well, as Dwight Eisenhower once said, “The middle of the road is all the usable surface. The extremes, right…
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Bridear – October 7th, 2021 – Birmingham, UK
It is not very often we see a Japanese band playing in Birmingham; therefore I did not want to miss the chance to catch Bridear – an all female heavy metal band performing live at the Castle & Falcon. Setting sights on the global stage, Bridear began hitting the road at the end of September to tour Europe…
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Neil Young – Young Shakespeare LP
Neil Young Young Shakespeare LP (Reprise Records/Warner Brothers) One of the more interesting things that has happened since the CoVid pandemic basically put the entire North American live music schedule up on blocks for a while has been the outflow of live releases which have appeared – a cultural moment at which Neil Young has…