Speaking from my own experience, free jazz and “prog” are two categories of music which, if you’re looking to learn more about and you ask someone who claims to be into them where you should start, chances are, depending on…
Category: DIY
“I didn’t get where I am today by worryin’ about how I’d feel tomorrow.” – Ron White… Bagpipe Operation “Little Twitch” 7″ (City Center, US, 1992)
Not too long ago I saw someone whose taste in music I really respect talkin’ smack on an internet website about some tunes I’d previously waxed ecstatic about on this very blog and I was kinda taken aback at how…
“Labor Omnia Vincit (Labour Conquers All Things)” – Oklahoma’s State Motto… Steve Hayes “Made In Tulsa” LP, (Aaframbia, US, 1980)
When it comes to record collecting, I was pretty late to the game with 60’s-70’s psych/folk/garage and everything in between. Coming from a background where there was never a shortage of obscure punk waiting to be discovered, the thought of…
Roman Dirge vs Joe Coleman: Pick Your King…Incomplete Monday “I Am” LP (Silent Records, US, 1985)
When I was 13-14 in 1989-90 my personal definition of “punk” was very informed by the Sessions catalog and t-shirt ads in Thrasher and other skate magazines. As far as I was concerned punk meant you liked bands like the…
Dollar Bin Dandies Special Edition TRIPLE THREAT: the Prehensile Monkeytailed Skink 7″s.
I’ve always loved bands whose entire output consisted of nothing but 7″s. A posthumous anthology LP collecting said 7″s plus maybe a comp track or unreleased song or demo is not only fine, but encouraged. It’s no doubt difficult to…
Sing Us A Song, You’re the Piano Man from U.N.C.L.E. – First Church of Napoleon Solo “Debbydid” 7″ (UK, 1984)
When I was in high school around ”92-’93 I travelled to Boston with some older, cooler acquaintances to see some bands play at the Rat. I don’t remember who ws playing. I’m guessing Sick of it All or Sheer Terror?…
Writing About Hardcore Is Like Dancing About…Hardcore. Kor-Phu s/t LP (Roy Records, 1984)
Ah, 1984: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, “Thriller”, “Ghostbusters”, the debut of Apple’s Macintosh desktop computer. What a time to be into hardcore punk. So much to sneer at, so much to malign. If you were a punk-curious teenager living anywhere…
“My friends are important to me/I take friendship, seriously.” – Don Lennon
In 1996 I was living in Northampton, MA among the “Five Colleges”. I wasn’t a student, I actually worked two jobs full time: record store clerk by day, restaurant line cook by night, but I pretty much lived the life…
Dollar Bin Dandies: Art Thieves 7″ (HoZac, 2009)
I may have jinxed myself when I subscribed to the original Sub Pop Singles Club. I think the first record I got in the mail was the AmRep “Smells Like Smoked Sausages” 2×7″ comp or maybe the L7 single and…
“If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”- Theodore Roosevelt…Crippled Pilgrims “Head Down – Hand Out” LP (Fountain Of Youth Records, US, 1984)
When you’re following the timeline of any city/scene from the advent of 70’s punk, to the second wave of punk (ie the first wave of “posers”) to the nascent beginnings of “hardcore” and its iterations, somewhere along the line you’re…