Category: Reviews
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Old 97’s – Graveyard Whistling
The Old 97’s have been touted as one of the alt-country greats for years now but, really, one of the things that has kept listeners coming back for a while now has been the band’s steadfast refusal to believe their own hype and just try to make an album which comes close to answering it.…
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Five Alarm Funk – Sweat
Without intending to come off as trite, there are occasions when it’s possible to mark certain similarities between a new album and music which has appeared elsewhere in music history, but those moments can still reverberate with excitement because no one saw that music or the connection to anything else coming – from anywhere, ever.…
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The Second Coming of Heavy Chapter 5 – Desert Suns/Chiefs split
I know I’ve reviewed the last couple of these Ripple Music compilations, and as long as they keep ‘em coming, I’ll keep listening. The fifth installment of The Second Coming of Heavy features a couple California outfits in Desert Suns and Chiefs, both from San Diego. As opposed to the third coming, which combined a…
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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Flying Microtonal Banana
Listening to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s ninth album, Flying Microtonal Banana, one is inspired to recall Karl Marx’s fairly damning summation of history’s propensity for repeating itself – “the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce.” In this case, there’s no denying that the fairly delightful rock n’ roll King…
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Saturn – Beyond Spectra
This latest release from Rise Above Records comes from Swedish band Saturn, an outfit that treads a similar path to Witchcraft and Graveyard. What, were you expecting goregrind? Beyond Spectra is the band’s second album, following their debut, Ascending, from 2014. The 46-minute effort begins on a retro-metal note, with “Orbital Command” sounding like vintage…
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Connoisseur – Over the Edge
This stoner-themed sludge/crust band from Oakland slammed its way into my heart on their debut album Stoner Justice, with tracks like “Circle of Heads,” “I Am the Weed” and “Full Blown Marijuana Addict.” Their sophomore effort sees more of the same, with 14 tracks in 24 minutes, including such gems as “Live to Smoke,” “Free…
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The Chemical Brothers – Surrender (2LP reissue)
Then as now, the conventional wisdom is that Dig Your Own Hole was the biggest of The Chemical Brothers‘ entries into the mainstream but, for this critic’s money, the greatest creative triumph of the group’s storied career is their third full-length, Surrender. With Surrender, the group had the mainstream’s attention and knew it, but rather than…
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The Obsessed – Sacred
Can this really be considered as a comeback? The Obsessed, much like fellow Maryland doom legends Pentagram, had a bit of a checkered past. In the 70’s and early 80’s, they were one of those bands where you kinda had to be there, and it wasn’t until people started bootlegging the shit outta their unreleased…
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Wounded Giant – Vae Victis
Wounded Giant hails from Seattle, so it’s perhaps no surprise that there’s a heavy dose of Melvins in their sound. Vae Victis is the band’s second full-length album, after 2013’s Lightning Medicine, but like many in the noise rock community, they’re released a few splits and EPs in between—including a live cassette tape. This album…
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Space Witch – Arcanum
I don’t say this very often, but Space Witch really sucked me in with the 16-minute opening track on this album. Personally, when I see a song that long from a band I’ve never heard before, right off the bat, I drop that promo out of my inbox like it’s life with bong in hand.…