Music
-
While we’d be the first to admit that our reviews are a little over the top at times, no hyperbole is possible in describing how great Wire’s debut 1977 album, Pink Flag, is. One of the...read more
-
In 2002, friends Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster had just completed their debut album, Hutch & Kathy (think low-fi folk pop), when Harris went through what must have been one hell of a breakup. B...read more
-
Fucked Up fans who’ve been there since the beginning: Will you be our friend? And, oh yeah, you know those piles of singles the band’s been releasing since the early side of the last de...read more
-
The very name Ted Leo is legend here in New York City, based as much on his brilliant outdoor jacked-generator performance during the big blackout of 2003 as on his countless high-octane live gigs ...read more
-
Titus Andronicus have dedicated their sophomore release to the Civil War—the USS Monitor was a Union battleship—and enlisted friends (including members of Vivian Girls, Deer Tick, The Hold Steady, ...read more
-
Give The Thermals four chords and a theme and they'll deliver an album of smart, spunky power-pop anthems that will bounce around in your head for days. Their fifth record, Personal Life, tackles t...read more
-
The old Wire fire burns hotly on the motorik punk assault of
"Two Minutes," while "A Flat Tent" and "Smash" find
drummer Robert Gotobed bashing energetically as well. But by and large, this is
Wire...read more
-
You want a band you can hang your hopes on, a band that'll never let you down, a band whose logo is worth scrawling on your arm, jacket, notebook, skateboard? Dutch punk legends the Ex are that ban...read more
-
For Deerhoof, it's not too grand a title: This 16-year-old band, amazingly sounding as fresh and unpredictable as the day they were born, might make you think they're 12 different groups on 12 diff...read more
-
For those of us who don't live in Memphis, this is a very necessary reissue: the first album by then-teenage Jay Reatard and his band Reatards, with two subsequent cassette releases tacked on to ma...read more
-
One of the most remarkably thought-out and heartful rock records of the year will probably be skipped over by a lot of people for either the band's name or its frontman's perpetually shouted vocals...read more
-
It kind of takes a lot these days to make the splash that Iceage has this year (or would "this month" be more appropriate?), but all of these things can help: being young, being handsome, being Dan...read more
-
Rock fans, you cannot front on Jeff the Brotherhood. Yes, these two dudes are brothers (not "bros"); no, neither of them are named Jeff. But as rock duos are concerned, you'd be hard-pressed to fin...read more
-
Perhaps you’ve heard of this album. Like, thousands of times. So why are we here to tell you that this 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of Nirvana’s Nevermind is worth owning? For one thing, the son...read more
-
Owners of the best first song on any rock record released this year -- you can take that to the bank -- NYC quartet the Men made a significant splash in 2011 with their first widely distributed alb...read more
-
Um...whoa. What would you expect from this record's title? A bunch of good-to-great rock songs, sure, okay. So why does this assembled batch of singles come off like one of the best rock albums of ...read more
-
The Ramones provided the blueprint and Leave Home duplicated it with lesser results, but the Ramones' third album, Rocket to Russia, perfected it. Rocket to Russia boasts a cleaner production than ...read more
-
The loud-and-fast, campy-and-catchy formula began to wear a little thin by the time of the Ramones' fourth album, Road to Ruin. Following the exact same blueprint as its three predecessors, Road to...read more
-
Road to Ruin found the Ramones
stretching their signature sound to its limits; even though there were
several fine moments, nearly all of them arrived when the group broke
free from the suddenly...read more
-
Of course the Ramones' second album, Leave Home,
is simply more of the same -- 14 songs, including one oldie
("California Sun"), delivered at breakneck speed and concluding in under
a half...read more
-
One word never associated with hardcore punk is “classy,”
but you could definitely apply that adjective to Ceremony’s new record, Zoo. Although all of the signifiers of
post-hardcore are there fo...read more
-
Jack White hasn't made a timid move in his life (as far as we know it), so it was hard to keep our expectations in check for his first bona fide solo album. We shouldn't have bothered trying -- Blu...read more
-
So you say you’ve never heard of Moss Icon? That’s
okay -- until I got their recent release, which is a Complete Discography of their output, I hadn’t
either. Now having heard this killer band's en...read more
Tags:
anthemic
,
art-rock
,
awesome
,
classic
,
dark
,
exuberant
,
fuzz
,
garage
,
grunge
,
hardcore
,
indie
,
new york
,
pop
,
post-punk
,
psychedelic
,
punk
,
quirky
,
reissue
,
rock
,
roots
