This is easily Iced Earth’s best collection of tunes since 1998. If you jumped off the bandwagon like I did, now’s the time to get back on.
The music-loving experts at Drag City have reissued the first two records by Portuguese guitarra maestro Carlos Paredes, and these two records are an interesting introduction to the late guitar innovator.
Concealer is one of those exercises in minimalist aesthetics that betrays a deeper well of talent, an understanding of the process of subtraction and the importance of what’s left out.
Like Deerhunter’s debut for 4AD last year, this is my favorite in Atlas Sound’s respective catalog.
Take this for what it is: a great band dialing it in to fulfill a commitment. But with some great tracks in spite of themselves.
This DVD is an essential for any Jesus Lizard fan as well as a primer for those who were always curious about the band but too afraid to ask.
All this would be enough, but as a bonus we get the first official version of The Faith’s 1981 demo.
Comparisons to another band be damned, Albuquerque’s Coma Recovery has produced a very fine collection of heavy instrumental rock music.
Greg Boerner is a natural troubadour with acoustic folk/blues chops and personality to spare. Of his four releases, his newest album Prophetstown comes closest to witnessing the artist in the wild.
Prolific Swede indie-popper Johan Angergård’s project Pallers have produced a debut of wonderfully dour 80s new wave.
This independent project shows a maturity of craft and is worth a listen for fans of female singer-songwriters ranging from Carole King to Alison Krauss. The talent on display here is worth sharing beyond its hometown roots.
Where does one even begin trying to offer a glimpse of the huge, planet-destroying force that is the band Natsumen. An Orchestra of joy. A free rock orgasm of sheer playing prowess and compulsive sound masses and melodic breakdown. This band hypnotizes, overwhelms and scintillates. That, added to their own self-descriptor, “Progressive HardCore JAZZ Aggressive Improvisation ROCK band.” and we’re getting close.
A heavy duty rock n’ roll cyclone of an album, full of piss & vinegar that carries the Cramps, Stooges and MC5 genome with authority.
Sludge riffing combined with atmospheric foreboding makes this an interesting debut EP.
From Fukuoka Japan, Hyacca are an incredibly exciting band. Their most recent effort Hanazono is a perfect high-kick of ripped rnr and driving psych-punk. There is, like many recent bands emerging from the Japanese underground, a whirlwind blend of genres at play that end up transcending the idioms into something sublime, earnest and tight as shit.
With all that said, what about the music on here? Well, it’s amazing.
Intense post punk return, not to be missed…
Motown giants The Temptations celebrate an astonishing fifty years of pop music history with The Singles Collection. This set is a treasure trove for fans unfamiliar with the Temptations’ early work and the many quality singles that dotted the group’s trajectory from hit to hit.
The band’s name and debut album’s title may make you think that the music within is dark, folky, and somewhat wet. Guess what—it is!
Public Disgrace compiles three intense live recordings from a stellar lineup.
Evil Farm Children have made a beauty of a 7” that plays well with anything Norton. Throw in a rad black & white hand-drawn sleeve and this is exactly the kind of candy that rock and rollas like me love to get wired on.
Candian-based Tim Hecker concludes his year by releasing an album of stark, basic sketches of songs used as the basis for the album he released at the beginning of the year. Surprisingly essential.
Mostly gone is the flamboyance that is sure to piss off more than a few diehards. The raw, dangerous, funk element is missing. But with The Great Escape Artist, Jane’s Addiction proved that they can age gracefully and still be relevant.
Canadian-based The Darcys issue the first in a trilogy of vinyl-only releases; the novelty does not detract in any way from the quality.
On what is perhaps their first “official,” i.e., non-CDr or cassette, release, Viodre have assembled a collage of negativity that is at once disturbing, meditative and demanding, an unapologetic aural assault akin to those nightmares that just won’t let you wake up.
Oh, OK, I understand why this Athens, Georgia band has been piling on the accolades.
The Besnard Lakes impress yet again, this time with a gorgeous, dreamy 4-song 12” single.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s ninth album is full of unsettling beauty and unabashed emotion. It is not for the faint of heart.
This is one of those bittersweet moments where I get to chastise Jerry Only for another lackluster effort but, at the same time, I am panning a Misfits album.
When I started listening to this album, I couldn’t stop playing it. Weeks later, I STILL can’t stop playing it. It’s that good.
Austin’s Golden Bear has been quietly releasing sterling guitar pop records for several years now, with nary a ripple on the radar of the hipster faithful.
Enigmatic producer and musician Richard Swift offers up another confounding record.
A beguiling collection of pop music, for those darker moments of your life.
LA’s premiere noise supergroup pick up where Frustration Music left off, continuing the saga of lost, forlorn emotion channeled through electronics and distortion.
Holy impressive soft-rock super-group, Batman!
Swedish electronica duo Niki and the Dove tease the listener with a seven-song EP of utterly compelling, beguiling experimental pop music.
This is absolutely one of the most painful slabs of vinyl I’ve ever endured.
Awkward I is the moniker of a Djurre de Haan , a young songsmith from Amsterdam who’s mined a fresh new talent to emerge clutching a ream of engaging and mature tunes in his newest offering Everything On Wheels.
I think my ass bones are just healing from bailing flat out in the moshpit at Scarlet Beast ‘s last show. That’s because I’m getting old, tabarnac… but I’m still moshin’ at least!
This dangerous slab of flesh-covered vinyl is a visceral, punch-packed screamer of a tour through a morphing blend of dancepunk, noise-rock and a haze of shoegaze.
What a compelling thing this life is…
Perhaps the best thing about of these songs is how much they could pass for tracks on a Killed By Death comp.
Being mostly a comparison of the two versions of “Stephen.”
Once a side project for The Felice Brothers’ Simon Felice, this collection compiles selections from the band’s two European releases, highlighting the band’s overall talents and strengths.
The German Apparat’s entry in !K7’s DJ-Kicks series is a mellower affair than previous offerings, focusing more on sonic textures, atmospheres and patterns than floor-thumping house or techno music.
The In Heaven we have, not the one we dreamed, ends up more likely than Screamadelica to head for inner space, more eager to come down than to come together.
Sure, there’s nothing really new or original about these two songs, but that doesn’t mean they’re not any good.
In fact, one could argue that he just keeps getting better and better.
