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Our latest album reviews, featuring the records we've most enjoyed (or not) over the past few weeks.

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Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)

Pussy Cactus

HE'S FAST
Independent (2014)

Connecticut musician Pussy Cactus is more than just another quirky and boisterous noise pop girl. With her new five-track EP entitled He’s Fast, Pussy Cactus shows that she can lyrically be very wise and philosophical.On her glum “I Call My Dick Cheney,” Cactus preaches to the human race that “we are all a baby/ we are all a teenager/ we are all an adult/ and we are all an old man at the same time.” The funkalicious “Sex Ed” stresses that parents speak with their children about sex safety and the danger of STDs - especially crabs (she calls it “the worst STD”).Pussy Cactus is highly similar to Meredith Graves, frontwoman of another “pussy” band: Syracuse lo-fi punk outfit Perfect Pussy. Like Graves, PC’s vocals are super discordant and angrily toned. Both musicians are also prudent and intuitive, which Graves proves with her intelligent essay on TheTalkhouse.com about gender values in contemporary music and PC with her intriguing lyrics. The main difference between the two, though, is that PC’s cadences aren’t as heavily muffled and obfuscated in the mix as Graves’.The material on He’s Fast impeccably embodies its creator’s name: its harsh and prickly like a cactus, but it has … Read more

Mad The Martian

Blast Off
MtM Records (2014)

All I keep hearing these days is that Rock is dead, the ever popular Gene Simmons schooled us with this … Read more

Masked Intruder

M.I.
Fat Wreck Chords (2014)

I haven’t met a person yet who doesn’t like Masked Intruder, and I prefer to keep it that way. However, … Read more

Buckcherry

Fuck EP
F-Bomb (2014)

As might be expected considering the word can be used in a variety of ways and can make up nearly … Read more

Flagpolers

Arse Ways EP
Self Released (2014)

Sometimes the RIYL doesn’t lie. When Vancouver punks Flagpolers list Tiltwheel as an influence, it comes across clearly on the … Read more

In The Whale

Nate & Eric
Self Released (2014)

In The Whale's Nate & Eric promises a look at the seedier side of Colorado. Combining two EPs written by … Read more

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One from the archives

Bob Mould Band

Live At ATP 2008
Granary Music (2010)

A new live record finds the artist covering all phases of his storied career with whiplash intensity. Husker Du, Sugar and his solo career material are all represented. Mould brings his usual passion and emotion to the proceedings. But the band’s performance here is just as crucial. Richard Morel’s keyboards add depth but don’t overtake the mix. Jason Narducy adds solid bass work and background vocals. Probably his best bassist since David Barbe shared the stage with him. The drums are handled by Jon Wurster (of Superchunk fame) who bashes away with precise chaos. A close to perfect live record, ATP 2008, strips Mould’s songs of their sometimes over-polished studio veneer and instead flips them upside down for us to hear in all their ragged glory. Read more

More album reviews

The Eye Of Time

Acoustic
Denovali (2014)

Marc Euvrie is certainly a unique specimen when it comes to musicianship. When the previous, self-titled, album of The Eye of Time came out, it was just an unbelievable record to handle. The sheer weight of the album, its experimental scope and its extreme outbreaks, definitely left their mark. But today, Euvrie returns with quite different concept in mind, and … Read more

Cross Examination

Dawn of the Dude EP
Organized Crime (2014)

Sometimes I just want to eat a bunch of pizza, drink a 30 pack of Special Export Light, smoke one million doobies, make out with chicks in a swimming pool, stay up all night tripping on mushrooms while watching hippies swirl glow sticks and eat fire, and then make out with more chicks in a tent as the sun comes … Read more

The Meatmen

Savage Sagas
Self-Destructo (2014)

Hailing from Lansing, Michigan, the Meatmen have been a punk rock band existing in some capacity for roughly 35 years. They took a break in 1996, but returned in 2008 and, break or no break, the band still boasts a staggering number of singles, EPs, live bootlegs and compilations under their belt. While there has been a few different iterations … Read more

The Dwarves

Invented Rock & Roll
Recess (2014)

I won’t say anything as hyperbolic as that the Dwarves invented rock ‘n’ roll, but I’ll still give them another borderline statement that fits on a press sheet: the 2014 Dwarves are a supergroup—not a supergroup side project of glossy mag pin-ups, but a supergroup that is honestly comprised of, well, Dwarves. While always performing as a 3-5 piece band … Read more

The Chantey Hook

Underground
Razorcake (2014)

The Chantey Hook have been around for a few years now, but have only released a handful of songs to the masses. Their most recent addition to the small catalog are two tracks from their new Underground 7-inch. The A-Side features the title track. The song's a great Jersey punk-rock anthem that holds its own against this year's best punk-rock … Read more

Supercrush

Lifted b/w Melt Into You (Drift Away)
Grave Mistake (2014)

Surpercrush is the newish Vancouver, British Columbia-based band from Mark Palm, a dude most known for playing in a long ancestry of punk/HC and metal bands and as being the primary songwriter for San Francisco, CA’s bliss-pop snorefest Modern Charms. Hey Mark, Bob Mould called and he wants his Sugar back. No, seriously, this is alright. I mean I fucking … Read more

Nadja and Uochi Toki

Cystema Solari
Corpoc (2014)

Despite the fact that Canadian/German drone group Nadja has a long history of collaborating with various artists from around the globe, their 2014 collaboration with Italian hip hop duo Uochi Toki may be one of the partnerships that seems the most unlikely. I first became aware of Nadja back in 2009 with the release of Pyramids with Nadja, a lush, … Read more

Joyce Manor

Never Hungover Again
Epitaph (2014)

This one took a while to stand out, which I didn’t expect given the accolades Joyce Manor has been ringing up with their three releases. Never Hungover Again is my first listen to the band and I can’t say I understand the hype. While they do their style well, it doesn’t jump ahead of the pack, with the predominant power … Read more

Billy The Kid

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades
Xtra Mile (2014)

This is the first time I saw Billy the Kid: It's Mid-July and the air conditioner at Toronto Lee's Palace is broken. The show is sold -out and I'm leaning on the stage with the capacity crowd behind me. We're sweaty and dehydrated. The air is getting hard to breathe, but nobody's complaining. Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls are … Read more

Ex Friends

Rules for Making Up Words
Paper + Plastick (2014)

Ex Friends are a group of Philly area punks, recognized from their work in other bands. The band features Joel Tannenbaum (Plow United), JP Flexner (flyer artist), Audrey Crash, and Jayme Guokas. On their debut full-length, Rules for Making Up Words, they don’t let those previous associations get in the way, though; they embrace them. The project sounds like the … Read more

The Great Old Ones

Tekeli-Li
Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions (2014)

The incredible nature of The Great Old Ones majestic, sweeping and downright epic black metal was devastatingly apparent on their debut Al Azif - a record that saw them take flight into the musical world and in turn become one of the most talked about bands of 2012. The French quintet are an unassuming group though, and while they were … Read more

DJ Shadow

The Liquid Amber EP
Liquid Amber (2014)

Universally regarded as one of the most important figures in the world of instrumental hip hop and turntablism after having gained massive recognition for 1995’s Entroducing....., DJ Shadow (a.k.a. Josh Davis) seems in recent years to have been operating more in the, well, shadows of an electronic music scene that’s increasingly been focused on the newest and shiniest acts. Released … Read more

Padkarosda

Szabadulásom Művészete
Wake Up And Live (2014)

Padkarosda is a three piece punk band from Hungary. Szabadulásom Művészete (translated as Art Of My Liberation) is their second full-length release. Recorded in Budapest in June of 2013, Oakland, CA-based Wake Up And Live Records picked it up for US release this year. It comes on cassette with a pro-printed foldout J-card, complete with song lyrics, band photo, and … Read more

Christos Fanaras

Impermanence
Adaadat (2014)

It’s difficult to find a decent single-track LP these days. A classic is Sleep’s Dopesmoker (disregarding the album’s live bonus material). The title track is a 63 minute-long sludgy opus about Jesus getting stoned in the desert. It’s definitely one of my favorite albums of all time, too. Another brilliant one-track album is The Great Barrier Reefer by Bongripper, a … Read more

Reviews by score
Browse our album reviews according to score: Highest (9.5/10 or more) or Lowest (2/10 or less)