I write stuff and you read it.
I wrote about the debut LP from Teenage Wrist over at Best Fit. It’s easily my favorite album of 2018 so far. If you like Siamese Dream, check this out.
A behind-the-scenes note on this piece. I set up two rules for myself: 1.) No mentioning other bands in describing what TW does, and 2.) No song titles.
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*catches breath*
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Spectrum Culture (also) did a 100 Best Songs of the 2000s series this past fall. Find my contributions below.
#99 – Junior Senior | “Move Your Feet”
#63 – At the Drive-In | “One Armed Scissor”
#55 – Brand New | “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows”
#33 – Kelly Clarkson | “Since U Been Gone”
Last summer, Spectrum Culture did a 100 Best Songs of the ’90s list. I wrote some entries, which you can find below.
#93 – Smashing Pumpkins | “Mayonaise”
#90 – Britney Spears | “…Baby One More Time”
#70 – Foo Fighters | “Everlong”
#60 – Nine Inch Nails | “Hurt”
#45 – Guns N’ Roses | “November Rain”
#33 – Nirvana | “All Apologies”
#13 – R.E.M. | “Losing My Religion”
#6 – Depeche Mode | “Enjoy the Silence”
Over at SC, I wrote about the great new record from Good Tiger, the non-metal band on Metal Blade Records.
Think Protest the Hero if they were a straightforward rock band and you’re in the area.
I run with the beat like a stallion until I ain’t got no voice – call me a horse rapper.
Over at Best Fit, I did a short piece on Brian Fallon’s second solo LP, Sleepwalkers.
If you like Fallon’s classic rock worship, you’ll like pretty much anything he’s ever done, including this new record.
Here, he throws in a few new flavors to his Springsteen-isms. It’s not a great album, but at least give the fun lead single “Forget Me Not” a try. That, or you could just check out his slightly superior first album, Painkillers.
I wrote about the new Mammoth Grinder album, Cosmic Crypt, over at Spectrum Culture.
Solid bit of punky death metal from the drummer of Power Trip. Nothing special and nothing new from the band. It’s a half hour of evil fun, and that’s all it tries to be.
Over at Spectrum Culture, I went long on a forgotten nu-metal band and its only record: The Union Underground’s An Education in Rebellion.
I basically argue that the album is self-aware, and that the profanity-laden toilet it swims in is actually a meta-commentary on nu-metal as a whole.
The worst kind of pop record: one that spends its entire runtime insisting on its greatness instead of actually proving it. Yeah, FOB can still write a killer hook, but it’s buried under Top 40 production with an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink mentality. (That they included the album’s title and one song title in all caps suggests partial self-awareness.) Sure, guitars make an occasional appearance, but their function is less songwriting tool than reminder of their existence. At one point Stump asks, “Are you smelling that shit?” Great question, but you should be looking in the mirror when you pose it.