Music Reviews: Rock

Mike Millard–disguised as a handicap–wheeled himself through the corridors of the mega arenas in Southern California during the 1970s, concealing his Nakamichi 550 cassette recorder and AKG 451E microphones. His intent in recording shows was only to trade for others, frowning upon the practice of his tapes being distributed and sold by bootleggers. Millard’s recordings set a new standard for generally good-sounding bootlegs during a time when they often sounded poor... Read More

Scott Walker’s career can be divided into two parts: before 1978’s Nite Flights, and after it. Before Nite Flights, Scott Walker was the Walker Brothers crooner who, after the group’s dissolution, moved onto solo material where he extensively covered Jacques Brel then started writing more of his own songs, as each solo record from 1967’s Scott through 1969’s Scott 4 became more musically sophisticated and lyrically complex. The entirely original Scott 4 is now regarded as one of the greatest records of all time (even if Scott 3 is my favorite), yet it hardly sold upon release and Phillips quickly deleted it from their catalog.

Kaiser Chiefs took the stage at Leeds Festival on August 30th, 2009, before embarking on a two-year hiatus. The indie rock quintet had remained together since 1997 under the name Runston Parva, later shortened to Parva, and spent a year recording an album for Mantra Recordings that went unreleased before the label folded. Not satisfied with their repertoire and direction, Parva was no more, and they forged a new beginning as Kaiser Chiefs in 2003. The stigmatization... Read More

With algorithms’ tendency to rinse-and-repeat ad nauseam and the crushing mediocrity of the current pop landscape, it’s no wonder our culture can’t get enough of nostalgia. All the biggest pop acts right now are referencing somebody or something, right up to the Coachella stage.

The surviving members of The Doors (Krieger and Densmore) and its management are masters of taking their legacy, a span of less than 10 active years, and milking it beyond reason for decades. As their core fanbase ages and withers into the sands of time, studio and live material continues to beireleased that one would’ve expected to already be out there. Record Store Day is the perfect venue for these ongoing excavations. Last year, engineer Bruce Botnick unearthed... Read More

ZZ Top's third, released July, 1973 was the group's breakthrough set, peaking at #8 on the crowded Billboard Top 200. "Boogie-Rock", flavored with Southern Memphisonian (is there such a word?) blues charm produced a unique blend of pulsating rhythmic drive and country charm . Perhaps that's why all these years later the album continues to find new audiences wanting to both "boogie down" and draw close to the southern ether. It's... Read More

Courtney Barnett is an Australian national treasure. The singer-songwriter’s musical style places the listener within her wandering stream of consciousness, unsheathing layers of raw vulnerability and playful wit. Her 10+ year career isn’t limited to several full-length studio efforts. It also includes a handful of EPs, an instrumental ambient film score, and a collaborative album with Philadelphia’s ‘constant hitmaker’ Kurt Vile. Creature of Habit isn’t only the... Read More

It’s always interesting to see how bands grow up, especially a band whose younger work is as juvenile as Blink-182’s. In this case, drummer Travis Barker is now dating a Kardashian, bassist/co-frontman Mark Hoppus seems to have a fairly normal existence podcasting and working on other bands’ records, and guitarist/other co-frontman Tom DeLonge co-founded To The Stars, a company dedicated to multimedia investigation and promotion of ufology, for which he has directed... Read More

From the moment Queen broke onto the music scene in the early 1970s, they were almost light-years ahead of their contemporaries. Their own brand of ‘regal rock’ was fearless, testing the boundaries of recording technology by layering harmonies and instrumentation. As if their self-titled debut from 1973 was a raucous slab that honed in on Queen’s initial hard rock foundation, the follow-up would become a major sonic leap. Queen II, released in March 1974, was as far... Read More

A buddy of mine sent me “Trinidad” when it leaked last summer. I should’ve loved it. There’s feedback, there are horns. And there’s this kid who sounds like a trombone waking up in the morning. Cameron Winter’s voice is a wiley, unpredictable instrument. Who – or what – is responsible for this? Having Television, Radiohead, and Ween on the same iPod as a thirteen-year-old? It’s either an instant turn-off or a temporary one. I tapped out after a minute-and-a-half.

Before getting to the music, here are the mysteries: the first is that though the insert shows the Ampex 499 master tape box in full sized glory with an orange sticker indicating it was baked on July 24th 2017 (as best as I can make the date out) and the 30IPS tapes are fully assembled side A and B reels, this reissue was cut from a high resolution digital file. Why? The Capitol "UDiscovermusic" website says that all records in the Vinylphyle series are cut... Read More

Ozzy Osbourne’s departure from Black Sabbath in 1979 was a catastrophic event for any metalhead. It was a long time coming, between his excessive drug/alcohol abuse and a growing disinterest in the group’s material. Ronnie James Dio, who had just fronted the first three albums of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, became the next and second-highest-regarded vocalist for the godfathers of metal. Whereas Osbourne simply followed the melody of Tony Iommi’s guitar riffs, Dio’s... Read More

Hailing from the Great White Northern city of Toronto, Rush was one of those bands that never grandfathered themselves into one specific style. Whether it was the ‘Canadian Zeppelin’ aesthetic of their early years, crafting side-long progressive epics well into the ‘70s, or streamlining into the ‘80s with more commercial approaches, the group grew alongside their devoted audience. By 1984, the indicators of Rush’s musical evolution became more radical. Synthesizers... Read More

You license a title at 45rpm (because that's what's offered) and then the licensor releases it at 33 1/3 around the same time. These things happen. And they happen with greater frequency now. Now that vinyl has become a "thing". There was a time that the labels really didn't care much about the format and freely licensed titles to the reissue labels like Classic Records, Acoustic Sounds and the others. And they let the tapes out of the vaults.... Read More

If you'd told me my original Artisan Sound mastered Pitman pressing was up on Discogs for around $700, I'd not believe you until I looked to confirm. But it is. Not that anyone will ever buy it for such a price, but still! After listening to the new KG mastered Rhino High Fidelity reissue, I have to ask "why"? Why would you pay that much for a record that sounds distant and from the wide open spaces when you could have this for $40 bucks and with... Read More

If you’ve bought a Morrissey ticket anytime since 2012, there’s statistically a 30% chance he will cancel the show, often with little notice. This could be for any number of reasons: he’s sick or exhausted, or the venue didn’t meet his list of demands (such as removing all meat products from the premises), or he somehow has financial difficulties getting there (even when the show has sold well), or he just doesn’t feel like performing and would rather sit at the hotel... Read More

Don’t ask how because I don’t know how. But the day after Christmas, I came into possession of a piece of the Grande Ballroom.I'm afraid to touch this thing, for fear it will crumble any more. Honestly, I’m afraid to look at it. It sounds like woo-woo nonsense, but it’s got such intense energy that when I opened the box, I sat on the floor and cried. It felt like opening a tomb. Wrapped in plastic and packing tape like the body of a Lynchian sacrificial lamb was... Read More

Emerging from the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, Silversun Pickups were the ultimate 1990s throwback, embodying a sound that’s best described as ‘Smashing Pumpkins meets My Bloody Valentine.’ The alternative rock revival of the mid-2000s was perfect timing for their inception, where playing “Lazy Eye” on Guitar Hero or noticing “Little Lover’s So Polite” on the soundtrack of Jennifer’s Body turned unsuspecting teenagers into curious fans (myself included).... Read More