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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Naked Giants – Sluff LP
Upon first glance at Naked Giants‘ New West Records debut album, Sluff, those who pick the album up might assume that they’re staring into a time warp. The awkward poses that the three-piece band’s members strike combined with their clothing and the garish color scheme as well as the decor in the image look like…
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Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – Dirt LP
In this age of post-modern songwriting and culturally blended musicianship, finding something which is truly striking and unique in its composition, performance and presentation is rare but, as Yamantaka // Sonic Titan proves on its third album Dirt, not impossible. This time out, the Canadian Noh-Wave behemoths offer listeners their first great breakthrough document of…
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Death – Give It Back 7-inch
You’ve got to respect Death [from Detroit] for the way they’ve chosen to conduct themselves over the years. Really think about it, reader; this is a band who, since changing their name and turning to punk rock in 1976 has only released six albums [Death started in 1973 as a funk band called Rock Fire Funk…
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Ben Miller Band – Choke Cherry Tree LP
The catch, when any band attempts to infuse a time-honored sound and style with new energy and fresh inspiration, is that they often lose sight of all the reasons why and how that form worked in the first place. While the heart and hopes might be sound enough, the results often feel as though someone…
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Caroline Rose – Loner LP
I have to confess that, as soon as I began listening to Loner – the new full-length album by Caroline Rose – I realized that everything I thought I knew and expected from the singer was incorrect. My first contact with Rose was with the song “Yip Yip Yow” from an NPR live performance, and…
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Lemuria – Recreational Hate LP
The coolest thing about the moment after a new album gets released, people begin to find it and it proves to really connect with them in a popular way is that time seems to stop for a minute and everything the band did prior to the release of that album becomes a footnote. From the…
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King Leg – Meet King Leg LP
The beauty of working in a pop culture-identified medium like pop music is that, while the music does initially have finite appeal as ‘new music,’ the basic structures and forms can easily be revisited, re-purposed and re-presented as often as new artists are willing to rediscover them. Any music can be reborn with the power…
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TLC – Ooooooohhh… On The TLC Tip (LP, reissue)
From a historical standpoint, it’s always remarkable to observe how and when a dynasty began. Take TLC, for example: to date, the group comes second only to The Supremes in regards to how far their influence reaches on both musical and cultural levels. That statement is made here with no hyperbole at all, it is…
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Lilly Hiatt – Trinity Lane LP
I must confess that I slept on Lilly Hiatt and her Trinity Lane LP when the album first arrived in my office. Regrettably, there was no good reason for it; given the timing of when it arrived, the album just kept getting shuffled under one thing after another. I did not give it the attention…
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Green Day – Revolution Radio (LP)
Some smart aleck is going to say that this review is a bit late in coming (yes, Revolution Radio was released fourteen months ago) but that’s part of the point here. Green Day‘s twelfth album was touted as a much-needed return to the band’s roots after almost a decade spent releasing concept albums and enormous album…