ADMIRAL SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVELL –
Check ‘Em Before You Wreck ‘Em
Uglier in a catsuit than the rest of
Rise Above’s roster, not metal but definitely heavy, downright nasty sounding.
Fun! (8)
BRODY DALLE – Diploid Love
A welcome return for our favorite
punk rock mom, but the occasional drum machine and mariachi brass take some of
the bite off. “Don’t Mess With Me” sounds just like her hubby jamming with NIN.
(7)
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – American Beauty
EP
He’s The Boss. Even when not in top
form he gets an easy seven. (7)
CARLENE CARTER – Carter Girl
Just like Rosanne Cash, Carlene made a
fantastic country album in 2014 so there’s definitely something to be said for
growing up in the Johnny Cash/June Carter household. BE WARNED: On a couple of
tracks she sounds exactly like Nashville’s answer to Vicky Leandros. (8)
CHUCK E. WEISS – Red Beans &
Weiss
You’ve got to like Chuck E. I mean, how can you not like him, he’s like Tom Waits’ wisecracking surrealist older
brother. If he was a movie he’d be “The Big Lebowski” as done by the Marx
Brothers. (7)
CIRCLE – Leviatan
Listening to this makes me want to
smash an acoustic guitar on someone’s head and then shove a dozen drum brushes
up his ass while screaming obscenities at him in a strange Scandinavian
language. (5)
FU MANCHU – Gigantoid
Last time I played anything like this
I was in a 90’s dorm room rolling a blunt, I accidentally spilled the dimebag
contents and then spent the next two years on my knees trying to
pick the damn stuff out of the carpet. (7)
FUTURE – Honest
Hyped-up hip-hop guy with plenty of
skills, famous guests, and that really annoying Kanye auto-tune voice thing.
(7)
GARBAGE & BRODY DALLE – Girls
Talk
Not only is Shirley Manson beginning
to look worryingly like Marilyn Manson, but the A side of this 7-inch is dark
and hard and grungy and almost industrial and kicks some serious ass too. (8)
JACK BRUCE – Silver Rails
Claims he was influenced by Earth on
this album, his voice suggests he just crawled out of it. He can still come up
with a decent blues tune though. (6)
PARKER MILLSAP – Parker Millsap
Sometimes sounds like a trailer-park
redneck Jeff Buckley. This is a good thing. Great, in fact. Fantastic. (9)
PLANET OF ZEUS – Vigilante
Last time I played anything like this
I was in a 90’s dorm room rolling a blunt… Oh wait, you’ve heard this one
before? (7)
RODNEY CROWELL – Tarpaper Sky
What I love about great country music: No gimmicks, just songs. Real ones. And no god-awful band names. I’ll take Rodney Crowell over indie rock hipster charlatans anyday. (8)
What I love about great country music: No gimmicks, just songs. Real ones. And no god-awful band names. I’ll take Rodney Crowell over indie rock hipster charlatans anyday. (8)
SWANS – To Be Kind
Definitely not for people with
Attention Deficit Disorder. Give me a couple of months to digest and I’ll get
back to you. (∞)
THE EXPLOSION – Red Tape EP
What else is there to say, this
3-song EP is 8 minutes of punk rock perfection. (10)
WOVENHAND – Refractory Obdurate
Maybe he’s a fun guy, I don’t know.
But he still sounds like he hasn’t had a laugh in the last thousand years. (7)
