2,173 total search results — Page 101 of 109
Various Artists – Desert Sessions, Vol. 11 And 12
Review — November 18, 2019
It’s been 16 long years since Josh Homme sent out invitations to a group of musicians to join him out in the high desert for a few days.The last time it happened was in 2003 and a whole lot has happened for Homme in that time. Queens of the …
State Drugs – Takings and Leavings
Review — December 17, 2019
This LP sounds like something that teleported here from my moody early-2000’s CD rack, which they acknowledge with their self-description of “grown-up punk”. The distorted chord progressions recall Sugarcult and Samiam while the grainy country-tinged vocals bring Gaslight Anthem to mind. The lyrical themes of alcohol and heartache nod to …
Regarde – The Blue And You
Review — March 2, 2020
The mind is a wonderful thing. Memories can be triggered by different stimuli. If you have ever watched The Chef's Table (a series about the chefs and their motivations to do what they do best) you will have seen many chefs confess they make food that reminds them of the …
Mark Lanegan – Sing Backwards and Weep
Review — April 28, 2020
“If I was honest, there was nothing but shame in the way I lived my life. I was nothing if not an abject failure, a fucking shitbag liar, a junkie loser if ever there was one”.Sing Backwards and Weep, the memoir of musician Mark Lanegan is a raw, …
Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still
Review — May 11, 2020
Writing this review has been a long time in the making. Usually, sitting down and pressing play is enough to get some words flowing, however, Ulcerate are a unique experience and apparently so is the process of trying to explain why Stare Into Death and Be Still is so, so …
All Hits – Men And Their Work
Review — August 25, 2020
Back in the 1980s there were some intriguing new sounds developing. Post-punk was always arty and a bit noisier, but always so serious. New Wave was danceable and synthetic, but sometimes not serious enough. The commonality between the two, tonally, was an exploration of new soundscapes with inhuman tones: finding …
Ronen Givony – Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense
Review — November 3, 2020
Almost three decades after Pearl Jam’s career-changing album Ten catapulted them from an independent act with a knack for channelling their alchemy in fusing their angst and alienation with a love for hard rock of the seventies, British independent music and punk rock to a veritable mainstream act. While some …
Supreme Commander – Tooth and Nail
Review — November 3, 2020
Supreme Commander is a prototypical, overtly masculine, DC hardcore quartet. Points for extremely proficient galloping drums, and a Slayer-like metal break on “…Jonestown.” The singer mimics Dave Smalley of Dag Nasty, a 1980s DC hardcore group, past the point of remaining original. I love Dag Nasty’s 1986 album …
The Kinks – Part 1. Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround (Deluxe 2CD)
Review — January 25, 2021
Where do I being on reviewing a deluxe edition of a record that’s 50 years old? I’ll start by saying I’m never going to call a deluxe edition perfect -- because a lot of the records getting that treatment were damn near perfect to begin with. There’s definitely a place …
Alex Ross – Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music
Review — February 22, 2021
Richard Wagner and his oeuvre cast a big shadow in every sense of the word.In a time and age where the ostracism of cancel culture and systematic boycotts is prevalent, the question is if artists like Wagner, whose success was in large amounts due to the political relevance from …
Tessa Norton & Bob Stanley – Excavate! The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
Review — November 2, 2021
When it comes to what is referred to as “post-punk” and repetitive-driven guitar sounds accompanied by tense, circular bass lines and grimy, otherworldly vocals with the an enigma of a frontman meandering through tropes of British magic realism that seemed to be fuelled in equal parts by uppers and downers, …
Robby Krieger – Set the Night on Fire: Lying, Dying and Playing Guitar with The Doors
Review — November 16, 2021
Within the canon of American countercultural rock bands of the 1960s, there is hardly one that stands out more than The Doors - not merely because of their musical output but due to the controversy the trailblazing riddle hidden an enigma that was their frontman Jim Morrison embodied with his …
Patrick Mackie – Mozart in Motion - His Work and His World in Pieces
Review — January 24, 2022
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is widely portrayed as a self-contained musical genius, a prodigy that effortlessly managed to pump out an endless array of masterworks. What makes Patrick Mackie’s book on Mozart an intriguing piece of the literary canon of Mozart is that it offers insight on his worldly dealings, his …
Jennifer Otter-Bickerdike – You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone
Review — February 8, 2022
1966 saw the first incarnation of Velvet Underground serenaded by the deep alto wails of Nico and resulting in more of a performative shock value prank than a musical act. From the get go it was clear that what Nico brought to the table fundamentally altered the DNA of …
Various Artists – ...And Out Come The Lawsuits
Review — February 8, 2022
Rancid’s 1990s catalog is a unique beast. It’s Clash-influenced street punk. On paper it sounds highly derivative, but its heart always shined through making it stand out in a hard to quantify way. Tim Armstrong’s songwriting is the foundation, but it’s his one-of-a-kind drawl paired with Lars Frederiksen’s vocal …
The Ergs! – The Time And The Season EP
Review — March 22, 2022
If you’ve been waiting years to hear Mikey Erg ask, “Who’s your daddy,” well, you’re in luck. The band is back with their first new material since 2016 – having only released a 2016 EP since their initial 2008 breakup. This time it’s a four song EP titled Time and …
Paul Morley – From Manchester with Love: The Life and Opinions of Tony Wilson
Review — May 3, 2022
Tony Wilson was known for many things, e.g. being TV presenter, enfant terrible, entrepreneur, founder of the immensely successful Factory Records label and essentially an inspiring cultural catalyst and trailblazer at the centre of a myriad of creative networks, without whom genre-coining bands like Joy Division, Happy Mondays and …
Rip Room – Alight and Resound
Review — June 1, 2022
San Francisco trio Rip Room play a meandering art-punk style that’s forceful but equally unpredictable, largely built around bass licks and rhythm switches that give it an off-kilter dance vibe complemented by some angular guitar riffs that serve more as accent than lead. Musically I hear a good chunk of …
Siblings Of Samhain – Tales of Love, Death and the Macabre
Review — September 20, 2022
UK horrorpunks Siblings Of Samhain offer us up album number three just in time for the spooky season! Tales of Love, Death and the Macabre is 12 tracks of dark, creepy yet incredibly catchy punk rock dedicated to a plethora of gore-tastic blood soaked horror themes. From the first track …
