Category: Reviews – Audio

Glorious metal in all its earthly forms, compressed onto shiny plastic discs or into digital files. Which ones will become the soundtrack to your life?

  • Teke::Teke – Shirushi LP

    Teke::Teke – Shirushi LP

    Teke Teke Shirushi LP (Killrockstars) Without question, Teke::Teke is a creature completely in its own quadrant of the pop diaspora. Does that mean that everything about their new album, Shirushi, stands completely separate from everything else in pop? Certainly not – there’s no question that it’s possible to pick out sounds and ideas which could…

  • Spencer Burton – Coyote LP

    Spencer Burton – Coyote LP

    Spencer Burton Coyote LP (Still Records) The problem that many musicians (particularly those associated with music genres which are usually aligned with “youth” as a concept – like pop, rock and punk) run into as time passes is that, at most, they age awkwardly – if they figure out how to age at all. That…

  • Steve Earle and the Dukes – JT LP

    Steve Earle and the Dukes – JT LP

    Steve Earle and The Dukes JT LP (New West Records) The fact is that no parent ever assumes they’ll outlive their children. There’s a security in that knowledge; at a certain point, parents realize that it’s unlikely they’ll accomplish all the things that they hoped to do in their lifetimes (either for themselves or for…

  • The Avalanches – Since I Left You (4LP Deluxe reissue)

    The Avalanches – Since I Left You (4LP Deluxe reissue)

    The Avalanches Since I Left You 4LP (20th Anniversary reissue) (Astralwerks/Universal Music) While I have serious reservations about a reissue which features enough remixes to occupy half of the medium into which the title is pressed (the 4LP reissue of Since I Left You presents the album pressed into two LPs, and features enough remixes…

  • Neil Young – Way Down In The Rust Bucket [Deluxe box set]

    Neil Young – Way Down In The Rust Bucket [Deluxe box set]

    It’s hard to express how satisfying the experience of witnessing a “whole show” can be, in reference to said show being on a recorded medium. Really, how many pieces are necessary? Well, in the case of the Deluxe Edition 4LP/2CD/1DVD box set which chronicles the show that Neil Young performed with Crazy Horse in Santa…

  • Longstocking – Singles & Demos 1994 – 1998

    Longstocking – Singles & Demos 1994 – 1998

    After the release of Once Upon A Time Called Now, the lion’s share of Longstocking’s story had been told. The band had walked the trail in much the same way other groups had; they had released a couple of singles prior to their only full-length album, and the band broke up before the end of…

  • The Dirty Nil – Fuck Art

    The Dirty Nil – Fuck Art

    The Dirty Nil Fuck Art (Dine Alone Records) Rare is the band which knows precisely who they are and actually celebrates that identity rather than asking listeners to excuse it. There’s a certain spark in the music made by bands like that – Alice Cooper Group had it, as did Dead Kennedys, Eagles of Death…

  • Paul Leary – Born Stupid

    Paul Leary – Born Stupid

    When guitarist Paul Leary suddenly reappeared contributing guitar performances to The Melvins’ twentieth album, Hold It In, as well as contributing some songwriting to the project about six years ago, it felt like a shocking development. Not that Leary had vanished or retired or anything, the guitarist was simply busy doing other things; he developed…

  • AC/DC – PWR/UP LP

    AC/DC – PWR/UP LP

    AC/DC has tried a few different things and taken a few different turns to try and grow up (or age up? Or act their age?) in the last thirty-eight years with limited success at most. Every time the band has tried to move forward from the callous one-liners and double entendres which first helped to…

  • Boots ‘n Booze (comic book w/ 7” single)

    Boots ‘n Booze (comic book w/ 7” single)

    Whether it was intentional or not (and, given the multi-media-angled nature of this release, which combines a comic book with a 7” single, it may indeed be intentional), Pirates Press and the Swingin’ Utters have actually done something pretty surprising with Boots ‘n Booze; while other bands (like NOFX, Butthole Surfers, The Replacements, Rancid and…