Category: Reviews
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Mammoth Grinder – Cosmic Crypt
2018 is shaping up to have some epic releases within the metal world. For some reason Mammoth Grinder wasn’t on my radar, but I’m glad I found it. Cosmic Crypt will be released on January 26th via Relapse Records; it’s the bands first release in five years, and it’s a good one. Going into the…
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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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Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue
Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals are back, and better than ever. Following up the group’s initial offering in 2013, Walk Through Exits Only, they prepare to release their second album on January 26th entitled Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue via Housecore Records. With a heavy new line up of musicians including Stephen Taylor…
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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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The Good The Bad and The Zugly – Misanthropical House
I’ll admit that the reason I listened to this Norwegian outfit was because of their name—Clint Eastwood is my spirit bear. But if you ever wished Kverlertak had somewhat intelligible English vocals, or that The Hellacopters had somewhat unintelligible sludge-metal vocals, then you’d probably dig this 31-minute debut. Opening track “H-Bomb” hits you like a…
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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…