The Uncouth / photo by Samantha Levi[/caption]
The past few months have yielded some especially strong local releases. The psychedelic rock of Lawrence Psychic Heat, AY-MusiK’s positive hip-hop, the Uncouth’s throwback oi — there’s something new for just about any taste. And five of the acts behind the best such recordings are playing in the area over the next week. Here’s what they have to say.Read all the reviews and interviews at the Pitch. Published 8/30/16
While the weather was turning downtown into a veritable series of waterfalls and small rivers last night, the inside of the Sprint Center was high ‘n’ dry. Sorry. But for the repeated flood warnings blowing up everyone’s phones, no one would have given a thought to the weather outside, because Def Leppard’s performance would’ve kept everyone fascinated, even if a tornado were attempting to destroy downtown. Despite some weird vocal quirks that saw the band sometimes sounding as if they were playing instrumentals, the English pop-metal band’s sound was robust and strong, thanks to a strong guitar work from Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell.Read the full review at the Pitch. Published 8/27/16
Knowing that Mondo’s Castlevania 10-inch vinyl release is just the first of five releases only makes it that much sweeter to put on the turntable. While hearing the theme music coming from a quality, non-bootleg release is amazing in and of itself, the work the label did on this release is just wonderful.Read the full review at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/25/16
Whereas every other d-beat record I’ve heard sounds like it was recorded inside a trash can, Ascend/Descend’s Murdock Street gains its power from the fact that this is hardcore recorded like high-end black metal: each aspect of the quartet stands out, shining brightly. The separation between everything on Murdock Street sounds streamlined, but by no means is that any kind of “not punk enough” slag on the Boston hardcore band. If anything, it makes everything that much more distinct.Read the full review at Modern Vinyl. Published 8/24/16
It's wonderful that we live in an age where a label can easily release all of the music for a television program, allowing we fans to dive in and really root around to see what we enjoy. Being able to curate our own soundtrack is a pretty wonderful concept, but we can only hope that, rather than going theHannibal route, and releasing pounds of LPs for the upcoming vinyl release, we might see Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein go the route of Silva Screen's Sherlock release and give us one Stranger Things LP which is cracking good front-to-back.Read the full review at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/22/16
When David J. Moore’s The Good, The Tough, and The Deadly:Action Movies & Stars 1960s-Present showed up, we could hear the sound of it dropping onto the stoop from the other side of the building. It’s a veritable tome -- much like Moore’s prior book, World Gone Wild: A Survivor’s Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Movies, this is the size and heft of a college textbook.Read the complete review at Starburst Magazine. Published 8/19/16
The idea of putting out a triple LP of bands playing live at Brooklyn’s Death By Audio is a pretty great one. But the truly historic thing about Start Your Own Fucking Show Space is it’s filled with performances recorded only during November of last year, their last month of existence. 1 Thankfully, the venue packed that last month with some astonishing performances. While definitely heavy on the lo-fi, fuzzy garage end of the rock ‘n’ roll spectrum — with the likes of Parquet Courts, Ty Segall, and Metz, there’s also furious avant-punk from Downtown Boys, Shellshag and Screaming Females, along with electronic experimentation from Dan Deacon.Read the complete review at Modern Vinyl. Published 8/19/16
We kick off our “Unaired” theme month with the previously lost pilot for Clerks, the sitcom (+ laugh track) adaptation of the Kevin Smith film. Jim Breuer makes a pre-SNL appearance, the writers can’t use Jay or Silent Bob and Keri Russell even makes an appearance as typical ’90s bimbo.Listen to the entire episode at Modern Vinyl.
Ever since the breakup of beloved pop-punk trio the Ergs in 2008, drummer and singer Mikey Erg (né Mike Yannich) has been busy…insanely busy. He’s played drums for nearly every pop-punk act on the East Coast, he’s toured constantly, and all the while he’s been the drummer for the LLC, the house band for Fusion’s The Chris Gethard Show. However, musical output focusing solely on Yannich’s distinctive songwriting has been frustratingly scarce. While he’s been making music pretty constantly, hearing that voice has been limited to less than a handful of singles and splits. That thankfully came to an end with the release of his debut solo LP, Tentative Decisions, on Don Giovanni at the end of June.Read the complete interview at Modern Vinyl. Published 8/17/16
It’s tempting to call the Sadies’ music Americana, but that label just doesn’t feel right. First, the Sadies are from Toronto. Second, the quartet’s music incorporates all things twang: country, surf, rock, rockabilly. The Sadies recently finished recording a yet-to-be-titled 11th album (more, if you count collaborations with Neko Case, John Doe, Jon Langford and Andre Williams), which is slated for a November release. The Pitch caught up with drummer Mike Belitsky about the band’s music as he was driving his son to his first Blue Jays game.Read the complete interview at the Pitch. Published 8/16/16