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.
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The Slackers/Sic & Mad – “Love I Bring” b/w “My Cat is on Prozac” split 7”
The Slackers/Sic & Mad “Love I Bring” b/w “My Cat is on Prozac” split 7” (Pirates Press Records) There’s little doubt that this review will sound dismissive – such is the most common byproduct of a release which isn’t very good. Now, it’s true that the governing wisdom in the music industry has always been…
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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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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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Neighborhood Brats – Confines Of Life LP
Neighborhood Brats Confines Of Life (LP) (Dirt Cult Records) I confess that I spent most of my first play through Confines Of Life, Neighborhood Brats’ third full-length album (and my first exposure to the band), just trying to figure out where to start with it. Somehow, it just wasn’t easy to effectively catch or contain…
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NEEDLES//PINS – s/t LP
NEEDLES//PINS s/t LP (Dirt Cult Records) There is something particularly special about self-titled albums – the unspoken rule is that, when a band puts its name on an album like that, it is intended to exemplify just exactly who that group is at its core. A self-titled album is a statement of a band’s personality…
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Round Eye – Culture Shock Treatment LP
Round Eye Culture Shock Treatment LP (Sudden Death Records) It may have taken a while for the band to finally get all the paperwork signed and all of their distribution ducks in a row (technically, Culture Shock Treatment was completed in 2020 and Paper + Plastick Records released it digitally late last year – but…