Category: Reviews – Vinyl

Metal still sounds best on large, round pieces of pressed vinyl. The smell, the artwork – and it gets played through a needle.

  • The Lorrainas – Party ‘Til It’s Dark [Reissue] LP

    The Lorrainas – Party ‘Til It’s Dark [Reissue] LP

    The Lorrainas Party ‘Til It’s Dark LP (Reissue) (Surfin’ Ki’ Records/Mom’s Basement Records) Sure, this vinyl reissue of Party ‘Til It’s Dark – The Lorrainas’ first and only full-length studio album – may seek to re-introduce material which is now seventeen years old, but anyone who hears it will excitedly admit that the music sounds…

  • The Vapids – Charm School Dropouts [Reissue] LP

    The Vapids – Charm School Dropouts [Reissue] LP

    The Vapids Charm School Dropouts LP (reissue) (Surfin’ Ki’ Records) For almost three decades now, The Vapids have been one of the hardest working bands in Canada. Since the day they started in 1993, The Vapids have never stopped working; the band has toured regularly as well as doing one-off shows from their home base…

  • Rise Against – Nowhere Generation LP

    Rise Against – Nowhere Generation LP

    Rise Against Nowhere Generation LP + 7” (Loma Vista Records/Universal Music Group) It feels difficult to believe that, with Nowhere Generation, Rise Against has been making records for twenty years. Now, that isn’t to say any band making music together uninterrupted for twenty years is unheard of, just that it’s uncommon for a punk band…

  • The Monsters – You’re Class, I’m Trash LP

    The Monsters – You’re Class, I’m Trash LP

    The Monsters You’re Class, I’m Trash LP (Voodoo Rhythm Records) Arguably the greatest compliment one can pay to a punk record is not to call it “good” or “great” or anything like that (because such terms can be – and have been – dismissed as a matter of opinion or as a matter of perception),…

  • Various Artists – Voodoo Rhythm Records Label Compilation Vol. 5

    Various Artists – Voodoo Rhythm Records Label Compilation Vol. 5

    Various Artists Voodoo Rhythm Records Label Compilation Vol. 5 LP (Voodoo Rhythm Records) I confess that label compilations have never been my favorite thing. Not that I’m definitively against the form (I have heard some good comps over the years, and labels like Sub Pop, Killrockstars, Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords and Pirates Press have a…

  • Acid – Acid Box [3LP]

    Acid – Acid Box [3LP]

    Acid Acid Box (3LP box set) (Narnack Records) There’s no question that bands have come up with some pretty unusual items to include with their albums and/or box sets in the twenty-first century, but Acid – the band formed by Jeff Hassay and Imaad Wasif (Wasif – the guitarist who filled in for James Iha…

  • Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc. [2LP]

    Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc. [2LP]

    Black Label Society Doom Crew Inc. (2LP) (eOne) Funny thing about the bands and/or projects launched by guitarists, they tend to focus heavily on guitar. It is not uncommon, for example, for songs on such albums to feature extended examinations of the guitar as the central thematic and sonic element of every composition; the instrument…

  • Long Range Hustle – I Am Alive But Only If You Say I Am LP

    Long Range Hustle – I Am Alive But Only If You Say I Am LP

    Long Range Hustle I’m Alive, But Only If You Say I Am LP (Sans Shoes/Anti-Fragile) While the nature of the album’s title seems inherently soft, on its face (most bands want to exclaim, “We are here,” but the title of Long Range Hustle’s sophomore full-length album seems to ask for the validation that most other…

  • TK and The Holy Know-Nothings – The Incredible Heat Machine LP

    TK and The Holy Know-Nothings – The Incredible Heat Machine LP

    TK and The Holy Know-Nothings The Incredible Heat Machine LP (Mama Bird Recording Company) It isn’t always easy for this writer to get into country music (there often has to be a “alt-country” plank in the floor to make it easier to enter on), but it didn’t take me long to find my way to…

  • Booze & Glory – Vespa & Londonians 12” EP

    Booze & Glory – Vespa & Londonians 12” EP

    Booze & Glory Vespa & Londonians (12”EP) (Pirates Press Records) Remember back in the early aughts when Fearless Records compiled a series of albums which found some genuinely great punk bands covering a multitude of different artists and genres – recasting them all in a punk context? Some of those covers were actually really, really…