Category Archives: rock

Review: Big Audio Dynamite – This Is Big Audio Dynamite (Legacy Edition)

Released: April 27, 2010 Label: Legacy/Sony The downside of a “deluxe” re-issue of an album is that it forces the hand of completists, pushing the purchase of yet another version of an album they already likely have on more than one format. The upside is that it offers more bang for the buck of first time buyer and often puts… Read more »

Review: Girl in a Coma – Adventures in Coverland

Label: Blackheart Records Released: April 13, 20 and 27, 2010 An album of covers travels over sketchy ground any way you slice it. There are more opportunities to screw it up than to succeed. If you break down the elements of a good cover, things like knowing and loving the song, being true to it while simultaneously taking ownership of… Read more »

Review: Paul McCartney – Good Evening New York City

Label: Hear Music Released: November 17, 2009 In this decade, Paul McCartney has released as many live albums as he has studio albums. Even packaged with a DVD, Good Evening New York City, his third live release since 2002’s Back in the US, begs the question, “Why another live album?” It doesn’t take the album long to answer though. Despite… Read more »

Review: Creedence Clearwater Revival-The Singles Collection

Label: Concord Music Released: November 3, 2009 Of the 30 tracks that make up the two CDs of CCR’s The Singles Collection, over half are songs we all know like the back of our hands. However, unlike a traditional greatest hits collection, this one includes all the b-sides as well. Sure, some had two sides that were popular enough to… Read more »

Review: Mighty High – Drops a Deuce

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Label: self-released Released: October 12, 2009 True to the form they set with last year’s full-length, In Drug City, Mighty High’s new EP is nothing if not unabashedly fun. This 7″ EP features two songs that waste nothing (except perhaps brain cells). “Cable TV Eye” is full-on stoner paranoia propelled by riffs they learned from hard rock leaning punk bands… Read more »

Review: Grant Hart – Hot Wax

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Label: Released: October 6, 2009 The progression of an artist from a seminal band to a solo career usually tells us more about the artist now that they’re freed from the shackles of band unity (in whatever form it existed). What’s interesting about Grant Hart’s Hot Wax is that it tells us some things about him, but more of where… Read more »

Review: Flying Machines

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Label: Meteor 17 Released: September 22, 2009 Flying Machines recently won Converse’s “Get Out of the Garage” nationwide battle of the bands contest. Their music has been featured on TV’s Psych. They’re a band on the way up. So, what’s the hype? Well, their guitar driven pop rock (a la the Killers) fits in nicely with the current mood of… Read more »

Review: The Treat – Audio Verité/Deceptive Blends

Label: Rockular Recordings, Ltd. Released: June 15, 2009 One of the best things about the Treat’s last album, 2007’s Phonography, was its ability to really move around through rock’s past. It was the movement from influence to influence that gave the album a lot of its life and that’s why their new approach is a little bit disappointing. The double… Read more »

Review: Pictures of Then – Pictures of Then and the Wicked Sea

Label: self-released Released: August 4, 2009 If Jeff Lynne was more quirky than slick, he may have found himself in the neighborhood of Pictures of Then and the Wicked Sea. From the start, the band makes it clear that they have both bombastic, big guitars as well as carefully crafted hooks up their sleeve, yet they manage to be grounded… Read more »