Review: Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “BPB Mix Tape Vol. 5”
Any musician who’s released 25 studio LPs (did I count that right?) must bear a treasure trove of outtakes and demos, amirite? But Will Oldham always has been more than…
ALBUM REVIEW: CHRIS STAMEY, “New Songs For The 20th Century”
For someone who has carved out his niche creating pop music with melodically angular twists, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that for his newest release, Chris Stamey would devise…
Review: Mike Patton and Jean-Claude Vannier – “Corpse Flower”
I first heard vocal shape-shifter Mike Patton’s collaborate with John Erik Kaada, the Norwegian composer, back in 2004. It was, even in the light of a performer known for not…
Singles Bar: Weezer, “The End Of The Game”
The supposed simple charms of "The End Of The Game" just don't hang in there.
Review: Kal Marks – “Let The Shit House Burn Down”
Now, I’m not always prone to deflect a kind remark when something better comes along, but, listen listen, follow my logic here. At the end of the month, Exploding In…
Review: Taylor Swift, “Lover”
She may never be America's Sweetheart, but Lover at least signals a desire to move away from tabloid sensationalism into other areas.
Review: Tool, “Fear Inoculum”
The new Tool album is good, but is it thirteen years good?
Review: Trvss – “Absence”
Holy shit, man. How a rock band sounds so vicious, yet so calculated and razor-sharp precise on a record, never mind a debut LP, is beyond me. In short: the…
ALBUM REVIEW: Old Crow Medicine Show, Live at the Ryman
If ever there was an act best served live, it’s Old Crow Medicine Show. This Harrisonburg, VA six-piece which mixes bluegrass, alt.country and various other Americana stiles together, is fully…
Review: The Turbosonics – “Bedrock Stomp” b/w “Journey to the Center of the Sun”
The Turbosonics, one of Pittsburgh’s more reliable surf bands, always has been a bit of a cultural throwback for me, and I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense. Yes,…
Review: The Lampshades – “Forget Me Not” b/w “Sadly True”
As posthumous releases go, the new 7-inch from Pittsburgh-by-way-of-Altoona’s The Lampshades, out today, is the exception to the rule in this fatalistic sub-genre: an afterthought of sorts that is actually…
Review: The Successful Failures, “Saratoga”
The terms “honest” and “true” are most often prescribed to the following: When the situation and/or products are clearly neither, but the marketing team wants you to believe otherwise Foods…