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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Maxwell – Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite 2LP
It’s incredible how wide the stream of creativity was in the mainstream music scene of 1996. While rock had finally started to get itself worked out following the death of Kurt Cobain (there were a few good rock records that year – Ministry released Filth Pig, Lou Reed put out Set The Twilight Reeling, The…
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Erroll Garner – Ready Take One
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Ready Take One LP by Erroll Garner. What do critics really know about jazz? Such was the first question I found myself asking as I wound my way through Popmatters and Jazzwax looking at longer-lead reviews of Ready Take One. Complaints about Martha Glaser’s production styling…
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Baby In Vain – For The Kids EP
Some self-important critic somewhere will review Baby In Vain‘s first EP and say they saw it coming. Over the last couple of years, bands like Dilly Dally, Like A Motorcycle and Ex Hex have all come along and resurfaced the road which once traced the way between hardcore, metal and grunge and also renewed interest…
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NOFX – First Ditch Effort
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the First Ditch Effort LP by NOFX. While the last few years may not have looked like the busiest for NOFX on the surface (yes, as every fan knows, four years lapsed between Self-Entitled and First Ditch Effort – the longest gap between new full-length albums in…
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The Pixies – Head Carrier
In music history, there have only been a few bands who have been able to make a truly great “petty rock” or “revenge rock” record (some might say Pink Floyd have done it, it could be debated if Smashing Pumpkins did it) but the Pixies have definitely added their name to that tradition with their…
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Run-DMC – “Christmas In Hollis” (12” Picture Disc Single)
I must confess that I have never been a fan of Christmas carols and Christmas songs. While I understand the idea of having a song in one’s heart around the holiday season, I’ve always thought that the idea of professional musicians recording albums of the same standards with their own small creative stamp on them…
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RUN-DMC – Raising Hell LP
Legacy Celebrates 30th anniversary reissue LP Without attempting to get too colorful or indulgent about it, Run-D.M.C.’s third album, Raising Hell, is one of the most important and influential albums to come out of the second half of the twentieth century. That fact is beyond dispute; it was Raising Hell which really got producer Rick…
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Cat-Iron – Sings Blues and Hymns LP
In my life, I have had three perception-altering experiences with the blues. The first was when I heard Howlin’ Wolf; when I first heard the guttural moan and growl which came off songs like “Smokestack Lightning,” it rattled me to the core and hooked me with the inherent danger of it. The second time the…
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Boston – self-titled LP (40th anniversary reissue)
How does one attempt to celebrate the release of an album like Boston? To date, the record has sold twenty-five million copies worldwide. The breakthrough single from the album, “More Than A Feeling,” has attained a status which makes it rank among some of the most instantly recognizable songs of all time; the average Joe…
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Roadside Bombs – War On Love 7”
It might not be for everyone but, for me, some of the coolest things to hear are those which crosswire a few different sounds and styles which feel as though they should stand at odds with one another. A perfect example of such an unusual stylistic counterpoint can be found on Roadside Bombs‘ new single, “War…