Local Review: Vile Blue Shades – Dark Wizard

Local Review: Vile Blue Shades – Dark Wizard
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Vile Blue Shades Dark Wizard Croakfrog Vile Blue Shades = Do Make Say Think + The Fall + Ralph Steadman Vile Blue Shades, who had a CD release at SLUG HQ during April Gallery Stroll, are in anti-heaven where The Swans float around with The Fall, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Junior Kimbrough, monk-like chanting and

Review: Cyness – Loony Planet/Industreality CD

Review: Cyness – Loony Planet/Industreality CD
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Cyness Loony Planet/Industreality CD Sound Pollution   I haven’t been into grindcore since the glory days of Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Assuck. I guess I got sick of the constant barrage of noise in my old age and started listening to much catchier music in the way of 80s hardcore punk. Now that 80s-style

Review: Massgrav – Napalm Ofver Stureplan CD

Review: Massgrav – Napalm Ofver Stureplan CD
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Massgrav Napalm Ofver Stureplan CD Sound Pollution   Now here’s a record that’s right up my fuckin’ alley. These fat Swedish drunks wear their influences proudly on their sleeves. They love the heavyweights of Swedish hardcore like Anti-Cimex, Moderat Likvidation, Mob 47 and Crudity, but so do I. Oh yeah, and lots of Discharge, too.

Review: Misery – Production Thru Destruction

Review: Misery – Production Thru Destruction
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Misery Production Thru Destruction Cah Records   Punks are always so much better than metalheads at playing metal. They know when not to play a useless solo, when not to play five minutes of blastbeats, and when not to use eight million riffs in one song. Misery know how to pour on the gloom and

Review: The Upwelling – Self-Titled

Review: The Upwelling – Self-Titled
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The songs on this 5 track EP are nice, they sore, they have a little rock in them and they have a mood that sometimes crosses Catherine Wheel with Elbow or Coldplay, but there just isn’t the payoff. … read more

Review: The Perishers – Let There Be Morning

Review: The Perishers – Let There Be Morning
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I’d actually love to see them dominate top 40 radio—it would be a vast improvement. It just wouldn’t be nearly as seductive as A Rush of Blood or O.K. Computer. … read more

Review: Thee Heavenly Music Association – Shaping the Invisible

Review: Thee Heavenly Music Association – Shaping the Invisible
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It is beautiful, moving but without the sonic bite of the original and as a result the emotional release never comes and you’re left with something twisting inside that wants to break out. … read more

Review: Great Lakes Myth Society – Self-Titled

Review: Great Lakes Myth Society – Self-Titled
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Great Lakes Myth Society Self-Titled Stop, Pop & Roll   You can hear a young Paul Simon here and there in the opening of “Red Jacket Miners” before it sways into “The Salt Trucks,” but that’s no sort of indication of what is to come. When the banjo rolls in on “Across the Bridge” you

Review: The Phantom Limbs – Random Hymns EP

Review: The Phantom Limbs – Random Hymns EP
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Random Hymns drops you down the rabbit hole and dares you to climb out. It isn’t pretty. It isn’t supposed to be. … read more

Review: Mad E.P. – Eating Movies

Review: Mad E.P. – Eating Movies
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Mad E.P. Eating Movies Ad Noiseam Street: Out Now   When I am 6 was the first work of art by Matthew Peters of Mad E.P. and now he gives us the follow-up full-length, Eating Movies. Mad E.P. is completely uninhibited to experiment with hip-hop, piano keys, answering machine messages, flutes, cellos, street sounds, fist