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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Tough Age – Unclean (7-inch)
After hearing all three songs of Tough Age‘s new Unclean 7-inch, listeners may find that they need to take a moment and collect themselves – I certainly did. I needed to take a step back because I had no particular desire to just spill ink and compliments all over a page. True, all three songs…
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Preservation Hall Jazz Band – So It Is LP
I have to confess that, after having listened to music on a daily basis (first as a fan, then as a critic and a fan), I have grown cynical and hypercritical toward jazz. The reason for that is pretty simple: I believe that jazz was once a cutting edge form which pushed the possibilities of…
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Come to Grief / Fistula split & -(16)- / Fistula split
Cleveland’s Fistula might not be a household name to more casual fans of sludge metal. But they’ve been spreading their brand of caustic misery since the late 90’s, and suffice to say, they’ve made a few friends along the way. These two splits, released simultaneously on the band’s own Patac Records, see them share the…
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Chomper – Medicine Mountain LP
Every once in a while, a band somehow manages to come along and throw a multitude of easily recognizable sounds into the generic melting pot and then pour out something which is simultaneously recognizable and perfectly unique. That’s precisely what happens on Medicine Mountain, Chomper’s debut album. In just eight tracks, the band (which comprises members of Guided…
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The Struggle – Endless LP
At this point in music history, surf rock’s impact on punk has really been downplayed with more attention put toward the more obvious, poppy turns that the music has taken – especially of late. That’s the first thing The Struggle fixes on their new album, Endless. From front to back, The Struggle mixes melodic hardcore…
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Muskets – Chew LP
As bands like Able Baker Fox, Into It. Over It., Citizen and Tiger’s Jaw have emerged (or reappeared, in some cases), the resurgence of emo has become a discussion point, but longtime fans have been very, very careful about getting on board with it to this point. A lot of that has to do with…
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Able Baker Fox – Visions LP
The first thing that Visions, Able Baker Fox’s first album in ten years, proves is that even if a type of music has fallen from popular fashion in recent years, it can still re-emerge sounding both fantastic and timely if there’s passion powering it. Right off, as soon as “Purple Mountains” kicks the doors open…
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The Complicators – Wake Up (7-inch single)
Now that punk rock has gone around the block a few times and collected little generic influences like a lint brush, it’s understandable how some fans may be hard-pressed to recognize it anymore. That’s why a release like The Complicators‘ “Wake Up” 7-inch is so refreshing though. It grunts, it grinds and it stomps but,…
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JoeCephus & the George Jonestown Massacre – Five Minutes To Live 12-inch EP
It might not sound like it makes sense on the surface, but a convincing case could be made for the most genuine tribute albums being those which rely on deep cuts from the celebrated artist’s catalogue. How else would the songs get collected together that way if not because the artists involved weren’t undying fans…
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Hamell On Trial – Tackle Box LP
It might sound a little ridiculous, but the truth is that some musicians need to have something which genuinely pisses them off before them – something they find truly abhorrent – in order to produce their best work. Take Ed Hamell, for example: Hamell has been a politically-minded songwriter since he first appeared in 1996…