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Label: White Elephant Records
Released: September 29, 2008
Even those who love prog rock often understand that its shortcoming stems from putting the head before the heart. While no genre in rock can compete with prog’s technical prowess, it’s still often dismissed as self-indulgent and lite where the true spirit of rock n roll is the [...]
Label: Teenage Heart Records
Released: August 11, 2008
Perhaps nowhere did the earliest marriages of punk and metal produce better material than in Boston. The early 80s found the likes of Gang Green and the FUs infusing their street punk with more than just a hint of metal. A lot of this was forgotten later [...]
Label: Alaska Records/No Breaks
Released: July 2008
If one word could describe this 7″, it would be visceral. Nothing seems calculated or planned. Benard blasts through two songs of dissonance, frantic rhythms and pure passion in just under five and a half minutes. In that short time, they leave everything out there, their hearts [...]
Label: Fontana International
Released: November 11, 2008
There aren’t many albums as low-key as Sunday at Devil Dirt. Every movement of the album is so subtle that it’s difficult to discern. The first two tracks, “Seafaring Song and “The Raven,” seem more like movie soundtrack material than the road into a dynamic album, but they [...]
Label: Warner Brothers
Released: November 18, 2008
Rod Stewart may have the perfect rock voice. It’s raw and honest and warm and he expresses emotion with ease. Its rough edges are its primary strength. The first handful of tracks on this collection, rock songs tied tightly to their folk, boogie and blues roots, are [...]
Label: Alive Naturalsound
Released: July 8, 2008
It would be easy to get tired of hearing the 70s rehashed over and over if there weren’t a few bands really doing something special with it. Buffalo Killers is just one of those bands. Though not quite as raw as their debut, Let It Ride turns up [...]
Baseball Project – Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying QuailsJust on the surface, this great album about baseball is worth hearing, but what it tells us on a deeper level is its (and baseball’s) case for greatness.
Bigelf – Cheat the GallowsAll that’s grand gets both celebrated and criticized on this amazingly present retro album.
De Novo [...]
Label: Image Entertainment
Released: November 18, 2008
I’ve always known that the Beatles are rock’s greatest band. There’s no denying it. But I do have to wonder why I question that every time I listen to the Who. I think it’s because the Beatles made rock music what it is, but the Who actually [...]
Label: Coming Home Media
Released: November 11, 2008
In June of 2007, the reunited Smashing Pumpkins (or Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlain and some new members) decided to forgo a US tour and instead do two residencies, one in Asheville, NC and the other at the vaunted Fillmore in San Francisco. This was, as Jimmy Chamberlain said [...]
Label: Afan Music
Released: December 9, 2008
Amadan incorporate bits of the Clash, Billy Bragg, John Fogerty and the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, but what I suspect they’re really going for is the Pogues mix of traditional Irish folk and biting punk rock swagger. They don’t nail the latter, but their success in other areas makes them [...]
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I am no longer writing. You're still welcome to contact me HERE, but odds are I won't be able to review your material as much as I'd love to hear it. I have had reviews and articles published in AMP and Glide magazines as well as FensePost.
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