Music
▼ National Reviews
Review: Antithought – Life’s Too Long
The simplistic, three-chord fist picking reflects the content of the lyrics. Fuckin’ faster than the S Line—I timed my showers with the album and probably saved quite a bit of water. Life’s Too Long is steeped in the D.C. street punk style with hairs of late ’90s punk and I look forward to their next release. … read more
Review: Asheru – Sleepless in Soweto
Asheru delivers his vision of global African unity in Sleepless in Soweto, and if it weren’t for the blending of rapid-fire rhymes combined with elements of Afro-beat and American hip-hop, I would have been bored by the amount of R&B present in this album. … read more
Review: Be Like Max – Just Tryin’ To Fit In…...
For me, when I thought of reckless, social commentary ska-punk, bands like Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish came to mind—now I can officially add Be Like Max to that list, though I had trouble getting into this album with its first two tracks. … read more
Review: Big Sexy Noise – Collision Course & Trust the...
Ultra fuzzed-out guitars, combined with weird-ass background effects fill up most, if not all of the space behind the lyrics. Lydia Lunch, an impressive vocalist, usually sounds incredibly creepy and will probably haunt my dreams for the remainder of my life. … read more
Review: Birds of Passage – This Kindly Slumber
On her latest album for Denovali, Merz steps in front of the microphone and behind the thousand blinking lights of pedals and sequencers to create an album full of elegiac drones and deconstructed neofolk tunes that form out of the ether like a heavy mist across a bog or clouds quietly forming on the horizon. … read more
Review: Blank Realm – Grassed Inn
On one end, there is the dance of the psychedelic and electronica with a splash of synth that makes up most of the tracks like “Violet Delivery” and “Reach You on the Phone.” On the other end, there is the steady, catchy beat of “Falling Down the Stairs” that evokes a nostalgia for Echo and the Bunnymen. … read more
Review: Bones – Sons of Sleaze
Sons of Sleaze is an appropriate title for this romper stomper of a record. It’s funny how it sounds sloppy as hell but it all congeals into a mess of a crusty death metal record. Its speed is built up on punk and hardcore anthems of old but has the grit of an OSDM record. … read more
Review: Jeremy Messersmith – Heart Murmurs
While most of the album explores the multi-faceted role that love plays in his life, he keeps the album light by humorously singing songs about one-night stands and “loving the fuck” out of someone like one would sing a lullaby to an infant. The only major qualm I have with the album is that, at times, it is incredibly clichéd, lyrically, and almost too easy to listen to. … read more
Review: Integrity – Systems Overload (A2/Orr Mix)
For as good as the original Systems Overload is, it’s firmly planted in 1995. The new mix is rawer and louder, and the instruments have more space. My only gripe is that everything is loud, making songs that should be more dynamic and punctuated lose potency as all dials are pegged at 11. … read more
Review: Enabler – Flies EP
Flies contains all the atmospheric weight, nuance and rage of a full-on heavy metal epic, manhandled into six cohesive cuts. The discordant strains of genre definers From Ashes Rise lie in the off-kilter melodies of “Shift” and “Flies,” but the band hits their stride when they slow the gallop and strut their thunderous grooves. … read more