Saros Acrid Plains: Somewhat interesting metal that combines thrash, black, and doom metal into an enjoyable sound. The lyrics can be lame, but the music is good enough to make you not care. This album sometimes get self-indulgent, but these moments are usually followed by something neat thus they are forgiven Rating: 11/15 dudes with [...]
Shrag-Shrag
Shrag Shrag: Decent indie rock album with a hint of X-Ray Specs. Good vocal delivery and lyrics, over simple, but catchy mildly distorted riffs. Topically the album tends to focus on being a scenester. Not bad for a first release. Rating: 10/15 45′s
N.A.S.A. – The Spirit of Apollo
N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo: Two DJs sample obscure South American records then reach into a hat and pull names out to form the guest stars. All the songs are solid and there some amazing pairings on here. Tom Waits and Kool Keith? Hell yeah! Dudes even dug out Fat Lip from whatever basement he [...]
Southeast Engine- From The Forest to The Sea
Southeast Engine From The Forest to The Sea: A musically solid and lyrically exceptional alt-country record. Some of the slower songs can drag a little, but all the up-tempo numbers are intense and rocking. Rating: 13/15 Appalachian trains
Thurston Moore- Trees Outside The Academy
Thurston Moore Trees Outside The Academy: More interesting and adventurous than recent Sonic Youth releases. Lots of strings and a few bad ass guitar solos provided by J Mascis. A solid Indie Rock album. Rating: 13/15 Sonic dads
Jesus Lizard-Goat
Jesus Lizard Goat: A solid rock album which borrows from post-punk. David Yow and crew manage to write innovative riffs while not giving up any attitude. One of the most tasteful trios in rock music, the backing band never overplays usually sticking to fairly simple riffs, allowing Yow space to do his trademark meth-addict style [...]
Earth – The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull
Earth The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull: Earth continue their transition from sounding like a broken refrigerator fed through a distortion pedal to a slow tempo post-gospel instrumental rock group. This is a really beautiful album to listen to while taking a walk, or lying at home with your head between the speakers. [...]
The Greatful Dead – Workingman’s Dead
The Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead: What do you get, when you trim all the pointless noodling out of a Dead set? Surprisingly, a collection of solid country rock songs. Theres a few stinkers, the opening track, Uncle Johns Band, and the lamentable Casey Jones come to mind, but New Interstate Boogie, Dire Wolf and Black [...]
