Review: Rosetta Stone – Adrenaline Deluxe

Review: Rosetta Stone – Adrenaline Deluxe
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Rosetta Stone Adrenaline Deluxe Cleopatra In the late 80s, goth had become a bombastic beast that for better or worse was bent on imploding. It had grown from the small seedy clubs of London into the ugly stepchild the UK press tried to edit out of the family photos. No surprise then, that by the

Review: Lost Soul – Chaostream

Review: Lost Soul – Chaostream
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Lost Soul Chaostream Earache Records   By the horns of Satan, I had to listen to this album twice just to make sure it was as insanely kick ass as I first thought it was! INDEED it was! When you hear Lost Soul, you will KNOW that you have been brutalized and punished to the

Review: Bloodbath – Nightmares Made Flesh

Review: Bloodbath – Nightmares Made Flesh
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Bloodbath Nightmares Made Flesh Century Media Records   Sweden is home to a lot of totally shitty bands these days. Bloodbath is not one of them. This band has actually existed for almost six years now. Don’t let the founding members’ more accessible full-time gigs (Edge of Sanity, Opeth) fool you—Bloodbath is a serious nod

Review: Impaled – Death After Life

Review: Impaled – Death After Life
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Impaled Death After Life Century Media Records   As I scraped shredded meat off of the scalpels and saws on my block, I noticed the pus oozing from the new Impaled disc. Pathological waste in the form of oozing riffage at once encrusted my eardrums. It was at this point that I deduced the flesh-shredding

Local Review: The Body – Call Off the Search

Local Review: The Body – Call Off the Search
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The Body Call Off the Search Self-Released The Body = Aesop Rock + Atmosphere + the Roots Funky sometimes slipping into raga full-instrumental backtracks flow behind flows laid by emcees LoKaL and MiMiC rounding out over an hour of recorded sweet hip-hop smoothness. The first half of tracks find the lyrics a bit lazy, crutching

Local Review: The Brobecks – Happiest Nuclear Winter

Local Review: The Brobecks – Happiest Nuclear Winter
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The Brobecks Happiest Nuclear Winter Self-Released The Brobecks = Weezer + They Might be Giants + Flaming Lips + Alkaline Trio This album isn’t over-cute, it’s just cute drawn out. Happiest Nuclear Winter struts clever through 12 tracks of electro-pop subtle-saccharine with bummed-out lyrics and occasional near-jazz piano ditties. Sad, socially conscious, mostly strange and

Local Review: Facts – The F Files: Mixtape Vol. 1

Local Review: Facts – The F Files: Mixtape Vol. 1
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Facts The F Files: Mixtape Vol. 1 Lace Em Up Facts = Bubba Sparxx + The Agents Facts puts lyrics together as precisely as a watchmaker, and his beats and samples stick to you like flypaper slathered with honey. His remix of “Walks of Life” is 10 times better than the original, and his shout-outs

Local Review: Jesse Michael Garcia – A Man Of Action

Local Review: Jesse Michael Garcia – A Man Of Action
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Jesse Michael Garcia A Man of Action Jesse Michael Garcia = Christian Johanssen + Mr. Rogers Jesse Michael Garcia. A man of action. An earnest man. A man who likes to write music, play guitar and sing. A man who wants a contract when he plays the Urban Lounge. Try to understand; he’s been burned

Local Review: The Legendary Porch Pounders – A Little Gift: Authorized Bootleg

Local Review: The Legendary Porch Pounders – A Little Gift:...
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The Legendary Porch Pounders A Little Gift: Authorized Bootleg Self-Released LPP = Muddy Waters + Bob Dylan I swore off drinking yesterday, but halfway through the emotionally exhausting second track, “Up for Days,” I had one leg swung back up on the wagon. Dan Weldon’s lyrics are more folk-poetic than would traditionally accompany many of

Local Review: Magstatic – She’s Just a Buzz

Local Review: Magstatic – She’s Just a Buzz
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Magstatic She’s Just a Buzz Pop Sweatshop Magstatic = Failure + Sugar + Pinback Plump, solid pop-hooks are as satisfying to the palatte as malt balls; sometimes energetically upbeat (“Downtown Girlfriend,” “My Little Runaway”), sometimes smoldering crystal-cool (“Run to You,” “Bitchin’ House”). It’s all radio-friendly and better than anything playing on the radio, if you