San Francisco Bay Area’s First To Leave are continuing to generate a buzz since the October 9th release of “Forging a Future.” The record has received rave reveiws from Punknews.org, Wonka Vision, Redefine Magazine, and Neufutur to name a few. The record will also be featured in the January 2008 issue of Alternative Press. To follow this success, the band will be traveling to Japan to perform with Lifetime. Just…
Kelly King – Live The Dream / 2007 TresKneeHows / 15 Tracks / http://www.kellykingsings.com / Kelly King provides a brand of pop music during “Tame Me†that does not really put anything forth that has not been done before in the genre. What is interesting about the track is the chorus, which will put individuals onto the dance floor in masses. The track rapidly slides back into its original state…
Described by Time Magazine as “the album of the 20th century,” Bob Marley’s masterpiece EXODUS celebrates its 30th anniversary and will be commemorated across all media platforms with the release of an special edition CD and DVD/CD combo, available now, as well as the release of a new hardback book and a theatrical tour of cinema screenings of LIVE AT THE RAINBOW in key college markets and major cities across…
Alarm #13 – Full Size/108 Pages[Burnt Zine] $5 / No Trade / Full-Size / 108 Pages / info@alarmpress.com / http://www.alarmpress.com / Alarm Press, PO Box 200069 / Boston, MA 02120 For a magazine that is so glossy (with a color insert in the middle of the zine), there is absolutely nothing in the content department. Seriously, there are three opinion pieces, about 10 interviews with bands and individuals, 1 short…
2007 Performance By Meat Loaf Spans All Three Albums, Including The Hits ‘I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),’ ‘Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad’ And ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’ For the first time, 30 years after the debut of BAT OUT OF HELL — one of the most popular albums in history — all three of the albums in the series come to life with…
Amy Grant – Greatest Hits / 2007 Sparrow / 19 Tracks / http://www.amygrant.com / http://www.sparrowrecords.com / I know that for a while back during my senior year of high school and the summer before the first year of my undergraduate college career, I liked a lot of Christian music. I still never went (and really never have been) to church, but I liked the sound of sounds in that style…
Nothing that makes this world a better place lasts for only three minutes. Nothing of relevance embraces you and abruptly leaves afterwards. Music does not need to be divided into five minute long chapters, verse-chorus-verse. Music needs room not rules, it needs freedom not boundaries – Long Distance Calling make sure to do exactly that.
Agitprop Vol. 2 / :20 / 28M / agitpropzine@hotmail.com / This zine is a very informative look at resisting the system, and it covers much of the “Health and Safety at Militant Actions†booklet, often down to the “Tâ€. I’m not sure which came first, but the “copyleft†present in the zine really makes the question a moot one. Some of the stories are funny, like “Brussel Sprouts and the…
Out on Friendly Fire Recordings January 22nd, 2008. Sharing two members with the ever-popular Shout Out Out Out Out and hailing from Edmonton, Alberta this heavily 60’s influenced psych-pop band will be releasing their debut January 22nd, 2008 through Friendly Fire in the US and Pop Echo Records in Canada. The Whitsundays certainly have a knack for writing yellowed, reverb-wrapped pop music, borrowing from the grand tradition of English psychedelia,…
Matt White – Best Days / 2007 Geffen / 11 Tracks / http://www.mattwhitemusic.com / http://www.geffen.com / Matt White is one of the few artists that we have reviewed that does not have anything in the way of a Wikipedia. This is odd, considering that the vast majority of individuals that have achieved prominence in music have one. This is not to say that White isn’t famous; a quick perusal of…
Kindercore Records is pleased to announce its first official music release after rising from the dead earlier this year. King of Prussia’s debut mini-LP, Save the Scene, will be released on January 29, 2008. It’s the kind of erudite, sparkling pop music that would do the label’s sterling back catalog (Of Montreal, I Am The World Trade Center) proud.
Afunctional #1 / June / Half-Sized / 20 Pages / afunctionul@hotmail.com / http://afunctional.tripod.com / 2 East Franklin Ave. #11 , Minneapolis MN, 5504 / This zine is a real-life representation of all those “independent†publication that magazines like Artnews fondly recall, although no one has ever heard of them. I hadn’t heard of Afunctional until AMC 2003, where Gerald Prokop was tabling. This issue is very carefully done, with a…
Though she is now known as the long-lost British folkie who was championed by and ultimately recorded with Devendra Banhart and his psych-folk cohorts, Vashti Bunyan was once set on a course for a far different life. Set up with the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards – penned “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind” as a debut single, she was given a healthy push toward pop stardom, but failed to generate…
All My Loving / 2007 MVD / 52 Minutes / http://www.mvdb2b.com / The title for All My Loving corresponds to a Beatles song of the same name. That fact is obvious for those individuals that grew up with The Beatles, but for someone that never was a huge fan of them such as myself, the fact was new to me. This movie is not new in any sense of the…
Given the current climate of the hip-hop world — where the most ear-bendingly innovative production often serves as aural sweetener for the by-rote thug lyricism of so much mainstream rap — the notion of “indie” hip-hop (at least as a signifier of boundary-pushing music) probably seems quaint at best and woefully outdated at worst. The Baltimore, MD (via D.C.)-based Food For Animals are all-too-aware of this conundrum, but rather than…
First off, this zine is fabulous. I don’t know exactly how old Ashley is, but I have pinned her down into being older than 15. This is another of the zines that I really like because it is written from a totally different perspective than about 90% of the zines being written out there today. This is not a zine that focuses on all what is politically correct, or whatever…
Ontario’s hardcore brutes Cursed have completed their third full-length, as expected, simply entitled III. Things are coming together on it now for mid-February release via Goodfellow Records, with Reflections Records handling the album in Europe. The crew will tackle Canada with High on Fire and Cancer Bats in March, head back to Europe in May and will follow with US dates which are in the works now. With 11 Tracks…
Liquid Jungle – Tiny Heaven / 2007 Self / 14 Tracks / http://www.liquidjungleband.com / This Atlanta, Georgia band has been around for quite a few years. It is not that much of a surprise that Liquid Jungle’s work on “Tiny Heaven†is smooth, polished, and shows that a tremendous amount of effort has been placed into the creation of the disc. “In Disguise†is the first track of “Tiny Heavenâ€,…
Long Beach’s native godfather Snoop Dogg has long been a hip hop favorite on both coasts and everywhere in between. The rap superstar and multi-platinum artist is set to release his ninth solo LP, “Ego Trippin,” in March 2008 through Doggystyle/Geffen. The premiere single, produced by Shawty Redd, titled “Sensual Seduction,” is an ode to the early eighties and will surprise and entertain fans both old and new. The catchy…
ABC No Rio – Enter The Nineties: Poets, Punks, Politics / Free (Any Donation is good) / 1:15 / 44M / vikkiml@yahoo.com / Vikki c/o ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002 This issue of the ABC No Rio zine (I hesitate to call it “Tell Me About The First Time†as the tone is much different between that series an this one, even though both were…