Recent Articles

Best Seen, Not Heard
Mastodon Call Of The Mastodon (Relapse) Unreleased material from heavy metal giants that was probably better left unreleased.

Classic Blunders
Jaheim Ghetto Classics (Warner Bros.) Similar as they are, a death pairing would be Jaheim and Faith Evans: neither really knows what the hell is going on, but there’s a fine greatest hits set in the future.

I Wish I Was Big
Al Anderson After Hours (Legacy/) Normally four solo albums in 48 years would not a career make, unless what you do in the meantime adds up.

Your Name Wouldn’t Happen To Be ‘Dick’
Some By Sea On Fire! (Igloo) (SideCho) While a lame relic of the ’90s, “bro’s before ho’s” remains indispensible advice.

Tunng Lashing
Tunng Mother’s Daughter & Other Songs (Ace Fu) The prodigal sons materialize out of thin air, delivering on the promise of some neighboring mates who gave up.

Moon, Dead
The Killing Moon A Message Through Your Teeth (Fearless) No relation to the Echo & The Bunneyman song, nor the spirit of. The Killing Moon take a linear path through emo and scream, scream, scream.

Common? Hardly.
Common House of Blues, Chicago Tuesday, February 28, 2006 By now it’s no secret Common defies rap and hip-hop stereotypes. All one had to do was catch the latest stretch of his Be tour to realize the mic master doesn’t just have a leg up on the competition, but he’s entirely in a league of […]

Together Again
Fig Dish Schubas, Chicago Saturday, March 4, 2006 When we last heard from Fig Dish, they were two different bands called Caviar and Ness. Food association notwithstanding, the band were a late addition to the Chicago major-label surge in the mid 1990s, pimping their dense power pop at a time when (Everclear, Spacehog) it seemed […]

NOFX, The Lawrence Arms, The Loved Ones Preview
NOFX, The Lawrence Arms, The Loved Ones House Of Blues, Chicago Sunday, March 5, 2006 Math class time: take two bands, one described by their official Web site as possibly one of the last punk rock bands “keeping it real,” another described by numerous MySpacers with one four letter expletive in gerund form followed by […]

Impossible . . . At First
The Impossible Shapes, Dogme 95 Subterranean, Chicago Monday, March 6, 2006 I admit I wasn’t immediately sold on The Impossible Shapes‘ TUM. The record, which will be released on CD the day after the band’s Chicago gig and was released last year on vinyl through St. Ives, felt uneven upon the first few listens. While […]

Change In Your Pocket?
The folks at 88.7 WLUW ain’t beatin’ around the bush. The message is simple: Give ’em some money.

Love That Ian
Ian Love Ian Love (Limekiln) What about old punks makes us let them go soft on us? Forget John Doe gone country/roots. Think Bob Mould. Lou Barlow. Paul Weller. Locally, we have Hanalei and Owen, even occasional heartthrob Matt Skiba.

Stephen Fretwell CD Review
Stephen Fretwell Magpie (Fiction/Interscope) Delicate Brit singer-songwriter sounds more South Jersey than Southampton (or hometown Scunthorpe).

Tresspassers William CD Review
Tresspassers William Having (Nettwerk) SoCal gloompop outfit’s second album steps on your chest . . . two, three . . . releases.

Santana Minus Michelle Branch
Santana Santana III (Columbia/Legacy) Tidy two-disc pack adds three unissued studio recordings and full ’71 set from Fillmore West.
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