The Boomtown Rats – The Fine Art of Surfacing (Mercury, 1979)
Say what you will about Saint Bob and his often-flamboyant style of charity, his band never gave any quarter.
Forgetters – S/T 7” (Too Small To Fail, 2010)
Blake Scwarzenbach finally keeps a new band afloat, one that stretches a line between between Jawbreaker and Jets To Brazil.
Jackson C. Frank – S/T (Columbia, 1965)
Bob Dylan x Paul Simon ÷ Phil Ochs = Jackson C. Frank, a sixties one-album wonder with one of the more brutal life stories in music history.
The Speeds – City For Sale (Kool Kat Musik, 2010)
It’s only smart, catchy rock n’ roll, so what’s not to like?
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine – The Audacity of Hype (Alternative Tentacles, 2009)
The first Jello project in years to hook the man up to a band able to push that quivery voice of suspicion of his into writing songs as memorable as, “I Won’t Give Up”.
Bruce Springsteen – The River (CBS, 1980)
The album where Bruce added The Clash and The Raspberries to his already voluminous list of influences.
You know where to go…
The Gas – Emotional Warfare (Polydor, 1982)
If Graham Parker had led The Ruts back in ’79 it mighta come off sounding like this long forgotten band.
The Lillingtons – The Late, Late Show (Red Scare, 2006)
At some point Wyomingite Kody Templeman switched inspiration from “boy-never-meets-girl” material to B-move TV re-runs and pulled off one of the great, if unheralded, turnarounds in punk rock history.
Sleigh Bells – Treats (N.E.E.T., 2010)
When you heard hipsters raving about an indie-rock band from Brooklyn named Sleigh Bells (Sleigh Bells?) did you throw up in your mouth just a little? Well, if so, then you need to actually hear the clanging distorto-pop this duo produces.
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyd (Viking, 2005)
