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Record Reviews1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 | 0-9| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M | | N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z| < Prev Section | Next Section >  RSS Feed
PLANKS:
Funeral Mouth: LP
Historically, the Germans have done chaotic, melodic hardcore on a level that other folks can only aspire to. A perusal of the Per Koro discography will quickly confirm this fact. And on their third LP, Mannheim’s Planks not only carry on the tradition of brilliant German hardcore, but continue to build on their incredibly solid foundation by incorporating more elements of modern black metal, atmospheric sludge, and somber instrumental passages that fuse perfectly to create what will no doubt be hailed a high point of the genre. Phenomenal.
–Dave Williams (Golden Antenna, goldenantenna.com)
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PLANO:
Brigadoon: CD
Weird soundtrack music for B-movie films that span the time of the ‘60s through the ‘80s.
–Donofthedead (Mint)
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PLASTER:
New World: CD
Marshall-saturated, grungy rock stuff from (according to the Day-Glo green sticker affixed to the front) members of Coffin Break, RC5, and Jet City Fix. More succinctly: think Soundgarden with huevos. Take that as you will.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Flotation, no address)
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PLASTIC CONSTELLATIONS, THE:
Mazatlan: CD
I realize that dissing this band is the equivalent, to some, of pissing napalm on one of Minnesota’s sacred indie cows, but this form of angular indie rock isn’t the one that does anything for me. The musical parts seem to change every half-second or so and there’s too much pointless noodling here (and frankly, the chops aren’t that technical); it’s basically the post-punk equivalent of prog rock. When combined with the vocals—which sometimes verge on rap and otherwise take their cues from all of post-core—there just isn’t much here for me to like. For fans of whatever post-core indie darling happens to be the rage right now.
–Puckett (2024 Records)
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PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE SOUND:
Shockwave Rider: 7"
I had some good expectations, since this outfit is fronted by the editor of Galactic Zoo Dossier. Unfortunately, this whole single is forgettable: noisy modern-day psychedelia with the vocals buried in the din. No hooks and absolutely nothing that stands out.
–Matt Average (HoZac, hozacrecords.com)
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PLASTIC CROSS:
Grayscale Rainbows: LP
Huh. One half of The Measure (SA) and a few other guys trying their hands at hardcore punk. If you can get past the album artwork, there’s some pretty good material here. (Craig Fu Yong, you are a pretty good vocalist and your lyrics aren’t half bad either—they’re actually really good—but this cover and such? Eeeek.) A little burly, a little frantic, a lot of songs—and a lot of thinking around corners and dodging the obvious. The dichotomy here: Grayscale Rainbows is full of traditional hardcore, but with an aversion to traditional verse-verse-chorus solutions; it’s hardcore full of little flourishes, little blips and bleeps that add depth and strength. Eighteen songs. I’m not much of a fan of hardcore these days, but Plastic Cross more than held my interest. Quality.
–Keith Rosson (Don Giovanni)
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PLASTIC FANTASTICS, THE:
Self-titled: CD
Sounds like about eighty percent Nine Inch Nails and twenty percent Wall of Voodoo. Those are amazing figures. Actually, i just made them up. BEST SONG: "God Damn Radio." BEST SONG TITLE: Either "God Damn Radio" or "Sorry I Killed You" FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: Mastered by John Golden! Oh my God! Oh my God!
–Rev. Norb (DNA Productions)
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PLASTIC IDOLS:
Singles, Demos and Live: CD
The chorus of “I.U.D.,” the lead-off track on this retrospective of one of Houston’s more notable punk bands, has haunted my for years since the supremely cool Scott Pellet (head honcho over at the Big Boys’ tribute site www.soundonsound.org) put it on a comp cassette of old Texas punk rock he’d made. The problem is I know it’s lifted from another song, one that has been on the tip of my tongue for years but just refuses to make itself known. No matter, I guess. What’s important here is that this is chock full of some very nice, very quirky (and let’s be honest, it would really be quirky if it weren’t quirky, considering where these kids were from) Texas punk. Songs about the aforementioned contraceptive device, the advantages of being uncircumcised, Siamese love, and yellow stains are the order of the day, and the music is a nice example of that sweet spot in punk’s history where attitude was more important than adhering to some rigid template. Nice history lesson here, one definitely worthy of attention.
–Jimmy Alvarado (hotboxreview@hotmail.com)
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PLASTIC STARS:
Sheena Gets Around b/w Shut Up: 7"
In case you’re wondering whether the concept of bands with names like Plastic/Neon/Napalm Hearts/Stars/Moons/Clovers doing songs with titles like “Sheena Gets Around” has any legs, i will duly report that the answer is still apparently “yes.” Sounds kinda like 20/20, but with punkish energy and impatience, and borrowing Helen Love’s keyboard (likely due to the punkish impatience). “Sheena Gets Around” seemed like it was over by the time i had gotten back comfy on the couch, but there were boobs on the innersleeve so perhaps i wasn’t paying proper attention. BEST SONG: “Sheena Gets Around” BEST SONG TITLE: “Sheena Gets Around” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: Run-off groove numbers seem to indicate that this record was manufactured at United Record Pressing, but when i hold it up to the light, it isn’t all brown and see-thru. What gives?
–Rev. Norb (No Front Teeth)
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PLATE-O-SHRIMP:
The Brunch of the Living Dead: CD
I liked the two fast songs here, “Boss of Me” and “D-R-U-N-K,” but the rest came off as not-particularly-exciting mid-tempo rock/punk.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Plate-O-Shrimp)
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PLATE-O-SHRIMP/THE UNSTUCK:
Split: 7”
Plate-o-Shrimp: Their website describes them as “high-energy punk-style/power-pop rock,” and I guess that’s accurate, based on what’s here. The one original and cover of DOA’s “Fuck You” here ain’t bad, but not quite memorable, either. The Unstuck: Punk rock, poppy in an un-bad way, catchy in a head-bobbing way. The Unstuck win this round.
–Jimmy Alvarado (www.plate-o-shrimp.com)
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PLATEAUS:
Do It for You: 7”
Unabashed Velvets worship abounds throughout this. Not a bad thing, if done well, and while their lyrics don’t appear at first blush to have the same focus on the seedier side of life, they do make good use of repetitive riffs and stomping rhythms that are more “Waiting for the Man” than “Venus in Furs.” Is it genre defining? Probably not, but I’ll take a couple of these over one more NOFX clone any goddamned time.
–Jimmy Alvarado (HoZac)
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PLATES:
The Garth Butcher: 7” EP
Plates, by way of Buffalo, NY provide us with three songs on this here 7” titled The Garth Butcher EP (in an earlier incarnation, the band apparently went by the moniker Garth Butcher, named after a retired professional hockey player), released on Feral Kid Records. Side one’s track, “Sentimental Jenny Jones Fodder Has Been Around for Fucking Ever,” has a taut, tense feel to it, observing the quiet/loud sensibilities of big fuzz forebears Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth, though here like a heavier bit of shoegaze, not quite as heavy as say, Tad or the Melvins but fuzzy, heavy shoegaze nonetheless. Second side takes a dip, in my opinion. “Pop Country Blowjobs” with its hollow drumming and “It’s all Billy Joel to me, motherfucker” chorus could have probably been left off of the record and no one would have missed it. Things pick up a little with the next song, “Romanian Rich,” which, despite its bleating vocals, brings to mind Poison Idea, ‘80s hardcore where the rock and roll is still evident. I’d like to hear more “Sentimental Jenny Jones…” and less punk-by-numbers, and I think Plates has it in them to do it.
–Jeff (Feral Kid)
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PLATES:
Taking Pictures of Poor People: 7” EP
A-Side: L7-style hypnotic sludge riffin’ with a dude who sounds like he listened to a lot of Second Wind. B-side has two more tracks that are nary a whit faster, but definitely heavier.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Feral Kid)
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PLATES:
Self-titled: LP
A band that’s not easy to pin down stylistically (which is a great thing). A lot of noise and weird sounds bubbling up in the songs, and despite all that, the songs are catchy. The riffs are solid and have this winding and meandering way at times; others that are a little more direct (“Sociology 101”). Then sometimes they throw in some sounds from left field, putting a different feel in the music. Mix up garage rock, psych, hardcore punk, and you get something along the lines of Plates, though they’re not that narrowly defined. A song like “Arrows” hearken back to early to mid-‘80s hardcore, where the song goes back and forth between mid to fast pacing and builds and builds as the song winds on. “Local Legend” has a manic energy. It’s fast and speedy, then slow and lumbering with an almost “blehhh” vibe akin to a string of overcast days. Their cover of Gun Club’s “Sex Beat” is so-so, but the rest on here are worth your time and attention, especially the awesome “Day Planner,” which has a psych vibe crossed with a mid-tempo hardcore temp and execution. Hearing bands like this, where they’re taking a few genres and mashing them up into something new and different, make me wonder what sort of new sounds and styles await us on the other side.
–Matt Average (Big Neck, bigneckrecords.com)
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PLAYERS CLUB:
Coextinction: CD
I think that when one picks up a CD by a group that calls themselves the Players Club, it’s perfectly valid to expect rap music and not post-Helmet/Unsane sludge metal. Shit, now I gotta put my Kangol and Adidas away, cuz these guys be bringin’ the wrong noise.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Arclight)
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PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER:
Throw a Beat: CDEP
Arty skronk rock. Songs are short, vocals are screamed; you know the drill.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Pluto)
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PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER:
Throw a Beat: CDEP
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I fucking get it already. You scream a lot, play angular guitar lines and throw in some choogling keyboard lines for good measure. Slow it down a little and it sounds like electro-clash to me—the Numbers, maybe? Erase Errata? I’m sure there must be some bastardized new wave of no-wave connection that I’m missing, but this just sounds like jumping on the bandwagon of a trend that’s already over and wasn’t hugely interesting to begin with.
–Puckett (Pluto)
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PLEASE MR. GRAVEDIGGER:
Here’s to the Life of the Party: CD
The singer of this band seems to have some sort of glandular dysfunction which causes his mouth to produce too much saliva, which in turn comes flying out of his mouth into the microphone as he screams his atonal lyrics. It’s kind of like that drunk guy you stood next to in that club the other day, who was trying to shout something in your ear, but all you got out of it was a wet ear. It’s too bad, ‘cause the rest of the band has got some really interesting stuff going on, including an occasional farfisa organ bleeding through the fuzzed-out guitars and the pounding drums and bass. I gotta think one of the other guys in this band could do the singing, they’d each get a larger cut, and they’d be a decent hardcore band.
–brian (Pluto)
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PLEASURE FOREVER:
Alter: CD
If Tom Waits were thirty years
younger and had a hard-on for college rock, I bet his band would sound
just like this.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Sub Pop)
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PLEASURE FOREVER:
Self-titled: CD
Pleasure Forever offer for their debut full length a first-hand listen to a world steeped in lives gone wrong and scenes of sinister occult. Like Nick Cave’s often violently demented lyrics, the songs on this record are equal parts urban tragedy and circus sideshow morality play. Instrumentally they offer a simple piano, guitar, and drum three piece, but with each player’s wide range of quietly atmospheric jazz to grinding rock, Pleasure Forever manages to defy categorization. I think within that quality lies their greatest power over the listener. Often on this record they musically turn on a dime. They hold the listener suspended over the railing with one thick forearm, only to pull them back onto solid footing with a smirk. I left this record feeling a fondness for their bitterly dark mood and the almost vaudevillian originality of their sound.
–Guest Contributor (GSL)
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PLEASURE FOREVER:
Self-titled: CD
Andrew Rothbard. Josh Hughes. David Clifford. Two-thirds of this San Francisco-based trio initially impacted independent music as The VSS in 1995. With one full-length ("Nervous Circuits") and a handful of singles, split albums, etc., The VSS were part of an early wave of keyboard-heavy art rock. Theirs was music for kids who liked Joy Division and Gang of Four, but never really went goth. After an abrupt split in 1997, The VSS reformed as Slaves, an equally dark experience in rock music. Which bring us to Pleasure Forever, the trio's most recent moniker, and its self-titled, Sub Pop debut. From the heavy swirl of keyboards that mark "Goodnight," Pleasure Forever opens like some Baz Luhrmann fantasy of 1920's Berlin invaded by the Birthday Party with Ray Manzarak on keyboards. As the album progresses, Pleasure Forever's post-punk cabaret swells to fierce proportions, marked by the industrial-tinged chant of "rise, rise, rise" on "Meet Me in Eternity," before moving towards a more guitar-driven path. With the album's eight minute, forty-two second climax, "Magnus Opus," Pleasure Forever channels the spirits of rock music's darkest spirits from Black Sabbath to Bauhaus without ever really sounding like anyone other than Pleasure Forever.
–Liz O. (Sub Pop)
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PLEASURE KILLS, THE:
Self-titled: 7”
I guess retro-power pop is the flavor du jour. These kids are quite proficient at it, which is a definite plus, with either tune here conceivably being a minor hit back when power pop wasn’t retro.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Polypore)
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PLEASURE KILLS, THE:
Bring Me a Match: CD
This has a little more punk in the guitars than I remember the ones on their 7” having, but their new wave/power pop vibe is still more Madame Wong’s than the Hong Kong Café.
–Jimmy Alvarado (Polypore, no address)
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PLEASURE LEFTISTS:
Self-titled: 12”EP
Driving, spacious post punk. Imagine Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures LP on, say, 38rpm with more guitar effects, and a singer that sounds like a Siouxsie Sioux 45 played at, say, 38rpm. Six quick songs that don’t hang around moping, but bring you to a couple of surfy places to prove that they don’t take themselves too seriously. Good live show, too.
–CT Terry (Fan Death)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 | 0-9| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M | | N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z| < Prev Section | Next Section > | |
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