Score: 8.5/10 For most of the last 20 years or so, the potential future of the Long Beach Dub Allstars seemed so grim and ill-fated that the announcement of this new album possessed a certain charm, I’d say, for sheer underdog status. Now, this is not to detract from the band’s former output, of which … Read more“DD Review: Long Beach Dub Allstars – Echo Mountain High.”
Score: 8/10 I’m kind of an expert on the Queens of the Stone Age and I’m kind of not, I have to admit. I mean, in a way, I know more about them than I’d like to. There’s the clattering din of that Nick Oliveri drama — the former bassist who apparently inspired the song … Read more“DD Review: Queens of the Stone Age – In Times New Roman….”
Score: 8.5/10 At some point Bandcamp needs to really institute the policy that applies to “usernames” — no two can be identical. Anyway, I’m left to gather by all the semi-conclusive evidence on Spotify and Bandy that this is indeed a self-titled debut, from a singer/songwriter in Nashville, who records on four-tracks, and the best … Read more“DD Review: John Davis – John Davis.”
Score: 8.5/10 Mike Gordon is the bassist in the jam band Phish and now bestows to us his sixth solo album, Flying Games. As we know, Phish does U.S. tours pretty much every summer. In addition, Gordon has released three albums with acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke. So nobody’s wondering what he’s been up to lately, … Read more“DD Review: Mike Gordon – Flying Games.”
Score: 8.5/10 I’d totally gone to the Guided by Voices Spotify page to listen to Alien Lanes and noticed they had another new album out. So they put out a new album approximately one time per instance in which I want to listen to them, which oddly kind of makes sense, in a way. Anyway, … Read more“DD Review: Guided by Voices – La La Land.”
Score: 4/10 The brand of big, bombastic, fully produced glam-rock to which Iggy Pop seems preternaturally attracted sort of requires an introduction. In interviews, Ig has been effusively derogative of “The ’60s” (in one interview positing one of his main accomplishments as “I helped kill of the sixties”), and has also taken it upon him … Read more“DD Review: Iggy Pop – EVERY LOSER.”
Score: 3/10 Louder than Sound describes Wilderness of Mirrors as “the perfect soundtrack for the end of the world,” which is ironic, seeing as Alex Maas seems to take every opportunity possible to get all lovey-dovey with the kind of nauseating lack of self-consciousness only a Southern good-ol’-boy could probably muster. They claim that the … Read more“DD Review: The Black Angels – Wilderness of Mirrors.”
Score: 10/10 Here comes that new Jack White album, like a gossamer in the corner of your eye you dread for its certainty to distract you from your surrogate dog-like idee fixee to which you otherwise would be clinging. Remember folks, he dated Renee Zelwegger. That oughta make you feel better. There’s also the fact … Read more“DD Review: Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive.”
Score: 8.5/10 This is kind of a case of cordiality born out of an axe to grind, I have to admit. I’d been on the covert mission of exposing Sub Pop as an artistically vacuous enterprise, completely ready to write them off (and do so of all recorded music, in the process), when I came … Read more“DD Review: Weird Nightmare – Weird Nightmare.”
Score: 3/10 LABYRINTHITIS certainly wakes on a pretty daze, I’ve gotta admit. The first track is this seven-minute, watery, translucent groove that seems just singularly tranquil and sublime, “It’s in Your Heart Now,” toting with it a multiplicity of synthesizer that gives the song a certain texture and musical depth. The problems start to arrive, … Read more“DD Review: Destroyer – LABYRINTHITIS.”