I want to talk very briefly about one of my favorite albums of all time, sort of in prep for what we'll be publishing tomorrow. The album is Rainbows from Atoms and the band is Lungfish. It was released in the summer of 1993 on Dischord Records. And
I’ve always liked Philip K. Discs. Beyond being purveyors of fine high weirdness, they’ve also got a knack for extending their weirdness beyond sonics into the physical domain in unexpected ways. Case in point — go pick up one of their limited edition customized portable cassette players. It’ll
Charge of the Love Brigade | artist: Escape-ism — Sometimes the bad is so good it makes you feel like life is not fair. This is that real good bad. The good good bad. Outlaw rebel bad. And this outlaw rebel swaggers around knowing that he’s got a bigger rock-a-rolodex then
Interview with Eveale | Music on Ampwall and Bandcamp Tremelo guitar in the right speaker. Chug in the left. Blastbeats up the middle. Solid bass. Lots of blackened howls, but also something somewhat progressive. A hint of an allusion to more recent Mayhem and then we're on to something
Pavements (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | artist: Pavement — As is widely known, "Fillmore Jive" was the last song recorded in the 1990s. Not long after its completion, the entire Pavement professional musical ensemble perished in a freak flash flood. | How do you even begin rating something like this? 4
In the Company of Champions | artist: Magus Lord — First of all, I beg M. to get someone else to master the side projects. That out of my system, what to make of this? It starts up with an overloaded gothic thing that in all of its sonics and repetition and
"We've been living on a psychedelic substrate for 40 years with the set and setting of surveillance and control and no wonder we are having a bad trip." Just go listen to some Rushkoff.
Instant Holograms On Metal Film | artist: Stereolab — I always preferred reading music reviews about Stereolab's music to actually listening to the music itself. I saw them once in the early or maybe the mid 90s when they came through Washington, DC. I didn't know they would
Steel, Rust and Disgust | artist: Midnight — The flame-throwing beast that is Midnight reminds us of two things on this covers-heavy set: a) you do not rock as hard as Midnight b) you do not rock as hard as Cleveland. This album of (mostly) covers — and covers mostly of the Cleveland-centric
Are We All Angels | artist: Scowl | Yes, there will be comparisons to Hole and to Bleach’s fuzzier twists and turns. Yes, there will be “hardcore” boys trying to wring the knots out of their underpants. Yes, there will be complaints about selling out maddeningly typed into Reddit via $1,
Spectrum by Am I in Trouble? — This is the best progressive metal album (Death, Blackened, Trad or otherwise) by an American band since Wilderun’s 2019 masterpiece Veil of Imagination. And I say that realizing that this is exactly the kind of record that ties into knots the tongues of
The Mechanics of Mysticism | artist: Ether Diver — An ambitious bit of occasionally abstract electronica mashed up with bouncing rhythms, The Mechanics of Mysticism proposes to be the preliminary results of an effort "to catalog the techniques, tools and technology of direct experience of the divine". Like I said,
Review
Temporada de Homínidos EP | artist: Animals Revenge — Tight songwriting, driving d-beat, and lots of shouting made this an enormously exciting release. It is the soundtrack to getting chased by a bear. Crunchy guitars, over-driven bass, killer trash drums... and did I mention lots of shouting? Maybe there is a more
Review
The Teeth of Time | artist: Drouth — There is a wrenching tremolo pull that uproots an electric guitar chord at about the 5:10 mark of the track that opens this five song set by Drouth which sort of sums up the project. It is akin to a jaw being suddenly
Review
Wings Beneath Krynn's Moonlight | artist: Mythráen — I imagine there will be plenty of listeners who speak to the fantastical lyricism and moody rhythms of Mythráen's latest release. While, on the surface, the compositions fall into the general occupations of Dark Dungeon and Fantasy Synth music writ
Review
Burden | artist: Obsidian Urn — The big sludgey riffs hang around like overtaxed storm clouds casting slowly shifting shadows on whatever is below. The drums swing back and forth. There is space — as in a spatial physical place — imbued in these recordings. One feels as if in the midst of it
Review
Las cuerdas rebosan magia | artist: maximucho2 — You know the sound. The moderately fast, harmonically sloppy, repetitive (until a weird change happens — like sudden triumphant cartoon horns) sound. Distorted vocals through a practice amp. The trebly hot mess Grime Stone sound. Started out listening to this one and immediately found myself
Review
secret histories | artist: Henry Winter – I was hooked by the time the first song abruptly cut out. Sometimes what's not there (or what has ceased to be there) is exactly what is there. Mave Goren lives under the same moon as me. Under the moon where some people