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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Booze & Glory – Carry On
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the diecut Carry On single by Booze & Glory The catch about the genre that’s affectionately known as “street punk” is that those who make the music often do not make it for very long. The reason for that is simple: street punk is impoverished by nature…
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Ancient Shapes – Ancient Shapes LP
While Daniel Romano has found great success exposing his Country & Western inspirations over the last few years (both 2011’s Sleep Beneath The Willows and 2013’s Come Cry With Me got longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize in those respective years), it’s refreshing and relieving to hear that the singer has elected to turn up…
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Harrington Saints – Pride & Tradition (reissue)
Now that the band has reached out a bit and found some fresh and receptive ears (the Fish & Chips EP which came out last year helped toward that end) it’s no surprise that Harrington Saints‘ next step was to reissue their Pride & Tradition album to help reel in the new recruits who are…
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Jimi Hendrix Experience – Smash Hits LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the reissued Smash Hits LP by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I’m well-acquainted with Smash Hits by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was the first Hendrix album I ever purchased, to be honest; as a kid of (shall we…
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Joe Strummer – Gangsterville 12-inch single
With the benefit of hindsight, the first thing listeners will notice about this single’s title track is how well it dovetails with the final days of The Clash, and where they were when the wheels finally fell off with Combat Rock in 1982 [this critic does not recognize Cut The Crap as a real…
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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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Mastodon – White Walker (12” picture disc)
When fans first hear the “White Walker” 12-inch picture disc, the first thought which will pass through their minds (ALL of their minds) will likely be, “Wow – this doesn’t sound like Mastodon at all.” There’s no arguing that; “White Walker” has none of the metallic crunch that albums like Leviathan, Crack The Skye or…
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David Bowie – Blackstar LP
It’s amazing how outside factors can affect the qualities of the music on an album and change its focus. Any number of stimuli could play an active role in the change – the medium through which the music is presented (be it vinyl record, compact disc, cassette or mp3 – whatever), the players who contributed…
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The Psychedelic Sound of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators LP
It’s unlikely that anyone would disagree that The 13th Floor Elevators are a really important band in the evolution of rock. Most would cite the band’s debut album as all the proof anyone could need to make the point: “What is it which makes The Psychedelic Sound of The Thirteenth Floor Elevators a classic album?”…
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David Bowie – Earthling LP
Leave it to David Bowie to wrap a perfectly tongue-in-cheek idea in populist medium and make a celebration of it. That is, of course, precisely what the singer has done in licensing Earthling for a fresh vinyl pressing now, almost twenty years after the album was originally released. Confused reader? Let me clarify it for…