Dr. Dog : Live At A Flamingo Hotel

I’ve never really been much into live albums. For some reason they just don’t do much for me. They never seem to truly capture the magic of that moment. You know the moment I’m referring to. It’s that moment when you’re in a sweaty room or overcrowded theater and as sweat is dripping down your […]

Alex Calder : Strange Dreams

Listening to Alex Calder’s Strange Dreams I had the strongest feeling of deja vu I’ve ever had. It was as if I’d heard the album before. Hell, it was as if I’d written about it in fact. But how could that be? How could I have written a review for an album I’d never heard […]

Viet Cong : Viet Cong

“Newspaper Spoons” opens like a distant canon firing into the abyss. An overblown kick drum beats like a death knell before Matt Flegel sings “Writhing violence essentially without distortion, Wired silent, vanishing into the boredom”. It’s a hell of a way to open a debut album, but that’s just the kind of album Viet Cong […]

Panda Bear :: Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

“Sequential Circuits” is really the best way Noah Lennox could bring us into the world of his newest musical hallucination called Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper. With its percolating synths, fluid gurgles, and Lennox’ own angelic harmonies floating above the song like paisley-colored clouds the song is a perfect mix of both Panda Bear’s […]

A Belgian Placebo

It’s not often that Record Store Day gives me a true musical gift. Sure, there’s usually some cool colored vinyl from the Flaming Lips, a rare live release, or some reissues you didn’t know you needed till you see it on that RSD release sheet. But for the most part I’m not discovering anything new […]

Favorite Albums of 2014

It’s been a long time coming(nearly a year by my count) since we’ve done a favorite album of the year list. Upon looking back on the year I’m pretty astounded by how many great records came out. When I first started thinking about it, I was struggling to remember more than a handful of albums. […]

“It’s More Fun To Compute”: Kraftwerk’s Computer Odyssey

In honor of Kraftwerk’s snubbing by those Rock and Roll Hall of Lamers, I thought I’d say a few words about my favorite album by some of my favorite Krautrockers, Computer World. I love it. It’s great. Okay, I’ll say a few more words. The first record I ever bought of Kraftwerk’s was Trans Europe […]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2015 Inductees : A Short Rant

You know, there are so many other things to be upset about rather than the new inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Taliban slaughtering nearly 140 students in Pakistan; the militarization of our local police forces in the US and subsequent pointless murders committed by these thugs in blue; the ever […]

Herbie Hancock and the Warner Years

I’ve been listening to Herbie Hancock for nearly ten years now. I started out with his seminal funk/fusion masterpiece Headhunters. I’d just gotten out of an 8 hour Hazmat training session in South Bend and my mind was fried. I stopped at a Borders book store before heading home to grab a coffee and just […]

Music For The New Year: Albums To Look Forward To In 2015

I know, I know. This should be my favorite albums of 2014, not albums I’m looking forward to in 2015. As much as I love the favorite lists, and as satisfying as it is once I’m done with making my own and sharing it with the world, I have to admit it’s quite a daunting […]