Tag: grunge
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Alice In Chains – Get Born Again 2×7″ (RSD 2017)
Record Store Day 2017: Exclusive Double 7-inch Set Over the last few years in particular, Record Store Day has really seemed to cater to a “collectible” market over a market wherein fan interest is the focus. That has proven to be a little frustrating. Because of it, record stores get glutted by people one day a…
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Lung Flower – Effigy
Once more, an independent band puts higher profile bands to shame. Lung Flower play seriously heavy groove metal in the vein of Pantera and Black Label Society. The packaging and art for this CD shows a commendable commitment to the physical product of music, and for that they should be applauded. The production is clear…
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Dead – We Won’t Let You Sleep
Aussie noise-rockers Dead first crossed the pond in 2013, when their Idiots album was picked up domestically by Portland’s Eolian Empire. They played a buncha dates in the States (albeit none in Canada) afterwards, and have since put out a few splits, EPs and such, as noise-rock bands tend to do. The duo recorded this…
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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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Dealer – Billionaire Boys Club
Take me to your Dealer! This Oakland trio was formerly known as Sexless, are good bros of The Shrine, and totally take the piss outta the Bay Area tech scene with the title of their debut LP. Musically, they range from later Kyuss to Black Flag to Unsane, knocking out 10 tracks in 36 minutes.…
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Mike Doughty – Haughty Melodic (reissue)
I must preface this review by saying that I have been a Mike Doughty fan for an incredibly long time. I first became a fan when I discovered Soul Coughing; at that time, I had grown tired of grunge’s (by then) floundering, poor self-image (the genre as a whole really had difficulty regaining its strength…
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Hater – s/t LP (reissue)
I must confess that I had never heard of Hater before Ben Shepherd put out In Deep Owl a couple of years ago. I was really, really taken with that album and had been thrilled at the prospect of taking an interview with him when the opportunity came up; in fact, I jumped at it.…
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Devil to Pay – A Bend in Space and Time
Album number five from these Indiana stalwarts sees the band keeping with the cosmic themes of its predecessor, Fate is Your Muse. But this time, the lyrics seem more grounded in reality, including the Lemmy tribute track “Your Inner Lemmy” where Devil to Pay certainly channel one Mr. Kilmeister. This record starts off on a faster…
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Sierra – 72
Really interesting backstory to this record. Kitchener trio Sierra has put out a 22-minute, one-song concept album about a murder that happened in their backyard in the early 70’s, and the dude who was wrongfully accused. (Turns out he’s one of their bros, or something.) 72 starts off with some slow-rolling stoner grooves, setting a…
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El Caco – 7
Get yer mind outta the gutter—this band’s name is Spanish for thief. That said, El Caco ain’t from Mexico, Spain or some other Latin American outpost… but rather from Norway, where they’ve been a household name since 1998(!)—as its moniker would suggest, this is actually their seventh album. Mind you, there are eight songs on here,…