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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NEEDLES//PINS – Good Night, Tomorrow LP
Such occurrences are rare but sometimes, all the tumblers just happen to align. A band doesn’t just produce the best damned music of their career, it also happens to get released in just the right place at the right time (and enough people just happen to be looking and listening just the right way) that…
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The Whistles And The Bells – Modern Plagues LP
If we can all agree that many of the best, most interesting albums are those which convey a particular image of its maker, then there’s little doubt of Modern Plagues‘ quality. From the very outset of The Whistles And The Bells‘ sophomore album, listeners are presented with the image of auteur Bryan Simpson toiling gladly…
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Suede Razors – Razor Stomp 12-inch EP
It might sound weird to say, but it’s about time Suede Razors got around to releasing more than just two songs at a time. To date, Bay area bovver band Suede Razors have managed to build a shockingly devoted following on the strength of a succession of seven-inch singles (see “Boys Night Out” and “Here…
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Jen Gloeckner – Vine LP
Anyone who has ever gone to therapy knows that it can take years to accurately qualify, articulate and compartmentalize feelings like anger, resentment, isolation, love, affection, confusion and emotional unease and then begin to deal with them in a healthy manner. It’s all a process and, in that regard, Jen Gloeckner has arrived miles ahead…
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Walrus – Family Hangover LP
When one considers the debut LP from Walrus, Family Hangover, the first stumbling block which comes up is where the music came from. As one listens, it quickly becomes easy to pick out little bits of ideas which were obviously originally the work of artists who initially inspired the band and, because those stylistic breadcrumbs…
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Reducers SF – Essentials (4-LP set)
Looking back, it’s pretty incredible how fertile punk’s creative soil was in the Nineties. Sure – everyone knows the mid-Nineties as being the period which broke punk into the mainstream pop punk and made bands like Lagwagon, Propagandhi, Green Day, NOFX, Offspring (I’ve written this list out several times before) and innumerable others household names…
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Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables LP
How does one qualify an album which is almost universally considered a lynchpin release for the musical genre it occupies and has incited a seemingly endless stream of arguments and upheaval on personal, political and social levels IN ADDITION TO causing a host of legal battles among the men responsible for creating and releasing it?…
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Dirty Fences – Goodbye Love LP
After taking four years to let their sound season with the help of regular touring and new releases, there’s no question listening to Goodbye Love that Dirty Fences have arrived and are ready to take over the world. It’s really easy to chart the band’s development between their debut album, Too High To Kross, and their…
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JD McPherson – Undivided Heart & Soul LP
The beauty of JD McPherson‘s new album is that calling it a “classic” or “fantastic new album” is definitely apt and accurate, but neither phrase affords the album the distinction it deserves. From note one, Undivided Heart & Soul employs a directory of time-honored songwriting and performance staples which have historically spun yards of platinum…
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Round Eye – Monstervision LP
Since first appearing as the “band on the other side of a split album with Libyan Hit Squad” a couple of years ago [the idea was for Full Circle to be a sort of bridge between projects for LHS/Round Eye singer Chachy Englund – one band was ending, the other one starting], Round Eye has…