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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
POPSTERS, THE:
The Scene: 7” 45
The band’s one-sheet (“one-sheets are retarded and we don’t like them, but you know, whatever…”) inexplicably classifies the band as “Ramones-descended pop punk,” but the guitar rhythms and song structures are almost completely a-Ramonal, leading me to wonder if the dude who wrote the one-sheet (or, for that matter, the band) has even heard the Ramones in the first place. I mean, the only band i can think of from that entire era that The Popsters might reasonably lay claim to being “descended” from would be the Professionals, and even that reference is more circumstantial than anything. Contains a cover of Tom Petty’s “American Girl” that serves the noble enough purpose of putting a version of that song into the record collections of people like me who always kinda liked that song, but didn’t like it enough to actually go out and buy a Tom Petty record (though the song stops short of being even vaguely exceptional owing to the fact that the drummer stops keeping time once he starts playing fills), and ends with a hookless, five-minute patience tester that one would tend to file under “What Exactly WERE You Thinking?” were one a meticulous bookkeeper. In summation, i like their name, but i think their records should be pinker. BEST SONG: “American Girl” BEST SONG TITLE: Wow, still “American Girl” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: I honestly cannot figure out if the band is from Carbondale, Illinois or Italy.
–Rev. Norb (It’s Alive)
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POPSTERS, THE:
Two Minutes b/w Runaway: 7"
Yet another classic pop punk slab o’ wax from the infamous Kazakhstanian pop punk guru! No… not Borat… that’s an English comedian making an ass out of himself…I’m talking about the infamous Adam Alive from California! Side A of this 7” showcases the Popster’s songwriting ability: great guitar solos and sing-along lyrics to die for. Side B is a cover of Dee Dee Ramone’s song “Runaway,” and it’s done well. The recording quality and musicianship win on this 7”. I know it’s only two songs, but get it if you dig this kind of stuff. The pre-burned super slick CD-R of the 7” is another bonus, and your mp3 players and car stereos and CD Walkmen will be feeling as important as that record player. Everyone wins!
–Mr. Z (It’s Alive)
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POPSTERS, THE:
Our Bites Bring You Back: CD
Pop punk from Italy that is all too familiar. Reminds me of some of The Ergs songs but without the love and girl themes. I think there is also something in there reminiscent of The Queers, too. I can’t quite place my finger on it, but this band is worth checking out.
–Corinne (Cheapskate)
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POPULAR MECHANICS:
Time and a Half: CD
Smart, loud guitar pop with a ‘70s influence mixed in that I can’t quite put my finger on. Cover graphics are swell in a Soviet art kinda way.
–Jimmy Alvarado (pancakeproductions.net)
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POPULAR SHAPES:
Bikini Style: CD
Loosely, very loosely, the
Popular Shapes are in the same camp as The Lost Sounds, the A-Frames,
and Le Shock (RIP). Hyper-angular, almost robotic voiced, whelped guitars,
Wire-loving, Gang of Four-idolizing, Stick Men With Rayguns-admiring
punk for animated mannequins. There’s nothing wrong with them, and
I find myself really enjoying parts of songs, but like a spice that
slips off the side of your tongue instead of blooming right in the middle,
I can’t hold my arms up in the touchdown position when listening to
the Popular Shapes. What’s weirder is that, on repeated listens, I’m
both liking it more and liking it less. Huh. If you don’t squint at
adventure and don’t need straight-ahead melodies holding your hand
all the way through a song, I say give ‘em a chance. I’ll sit here
and see if it grows on me.
–Todd Taylor (On/On Switch)
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POPULAR SHAPES:
Bikini Style: CD
I love The Fall. I love Wire. And I love The Popular Shapes. When I see The Popular Shapes live, I scream with delight and they have motivated me to leave the house more times than I would want to count. I secretly question the taste of my friends who don’t like them. Bikini Style captures the live excitement and adds to it, creating a record that might even make some non-fans into converts. I know that people will say it’s No Wave or Art Rock, and The Popular Shapes might take from those genres, but the results are like tossing it into a concrete mixer and getting pure magic. Highly recommended.
–Josh (On/On Switch)
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POPULAR SHAPES / THE INTELLIGENCE:
Split: 7"
The Popular Shapes: These
guys are starting to grow on me and I think the lower dosage of only two songs
serves as a bit of an inoculation to their full-length. You know how the
Tasmanian Devil, when he’s moving really quickly, his body is just swirls with
the occasional limb poking out? That’s what the Popular Shapes sound like to
me. They seem to spin songs so quickly and in such a tight circle that it’s
sometimes hard to hear what’s really going on. I can easily imagine them great
live – if they’re the whirlwind counterpart to these two cuts – sharing the
stage with The Tyrades. The Intelligence: Very Dieter-rock and
Teutonic-sounding. Fronted by an android-voiced dude and framed by iceberg-y
and cold knife guitars, metronomic drumming, and jutting angularity, it’s a wee
bit too arty and a wee not as rocking for my tastes. “Cold Calling” reminds me
of the song on the Repo Man soundtrack, the one that kept on repeating “Pablo Picasso was never
called an asshole,” just not as catchy
–Todd Taylor (Dirtnap)
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POPULAR SHAPES, THE/INTELLIGENCE, THE: :
Split: 7"
The Popular Shapes sound kind of like the Minutemen, and when I say that they sound like the Minutemen, I mean that they sound like the parts of the songs that were really disjointed. The main difference between the Minutemen and the Popular Shapes is that no matter how noisy and abrasive the Minutemen got, all you had to do was wait a few seconds for everything to mesh together and they would rule your school. The Intelligence played in the background while I ate pizza.
–Josh (Dirtnap)
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POPULAR SHAPES/INTELLIGENCE:
Split: 7"
Seattle slaps us once again with a double whammy. The Popular Shapes spin you on a tilt-a-whirl of pretty indescribable sound. Honestly, I can’t really put my finger in it. It really is like a carnival ride. The guitar and melody of their two songs leave you dizzy and wanting cotton candy. If you have enough balance to flip the record over, The Intelligence will soothe your sixties sweet tooth. All in all, it’s a pretty sweet ride.
–erika (Dirtnap)
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POPULATION:
Artifacts: 7” EP
Contrary to what is apparently popular belief, and all too often seems common practice in the modern era, punks in the earliest periods didn’t limit their exposure and efforts to these preconceived, rigid pigeonholes—and those who did usually moved on in short order to whatever next bullshit trend was just up the road. Doesn’t take much searchin’ to find flyers or adverts with what would today be inconceivable gig lineups: a Black Flag, Social Distortion, and Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs bill was just as prone to occur as the bassist for über-thrashers Wasted Youth moonlighting with tribal desert-tinged artpunk merchants SavageRepublic. Those with any sense knew, and know, to expand their tastes, not be afraid to step outside of their comfort zones and strive to find new ways to raise a ruckus. What you have here is some Chicago hardcore cats doin’ just that, in this case tradin’ in 1-2-1-2 hyper-speed drum beats for loping bass lines and more atmospheric climes. Their influences are right up front—post-punk, early U.S. death rock, U.K. goth, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division—but they deliver three solid tunes that stand on their own merits, retaining some punk edge amidst slower, dance-friendly beats that don’t rely on barre chord barrages. This is a great opening salvo as far as debut releases go, and here’s hoping a full-length isn’t too far off in the distance.
–Jimmy Alvarado (BLVD)
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POPULATION REDUCTION:
At the Throats of Man Forever: CD
I am guilty of buying stuff for my personal collection and not making an effort to review it in this here mag. I saw PR back in early December of last year. They’re a two man grind, death, metal, punk margarita blender that truly impressed me. Straight-up guitar and drums with dueling vocals was a hoot. Also included in the mix was their great sense of humor. I was sold. I bought the tour 7” and the CD and for some reason (I think I ran out of money) I didn’t buy a shirt. Got to try and support the touring bands! Well, anyway. This is some damn good stuff if you like your cookie monster and rectum ripped screaming vocals. Drums that blast away with double bass drums with cymbals and drum heads pounded with power and precision. I witnessed it first hand and he was barefoot too. The guitars have the requisite chunk and heavy riffage. Nothing soft here. This is coming from two guys who were super nice and friendly when I met them and they morphed into this madness once on stage.
–Donofthedead (Tankcrimes)
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POPULATION REDUCTION:
At the Throats of Man Forever: CD
I am guilty of buying stuff for my personal collection and not making an effort to review it in this here mag. I saw PR back in early December of last year. They’re a two man grind, death, metal, punk margarita blender that truly impressed me. Straight-up guitar and drums with dueling vocals was a hoot. Also included in the mix was their great sense of humor. I was sold. I bought the tour 7” and the CD and for some reason (I think I ran out of money) I didn’t buy a shirt. Got to try and support the touring bands! Well, anyway. This is some damn good stuff if you like your cookie monster and rectum ripped screaming vocals. Drums that blast away with double bass drums with cymbals and drum heads pounded with power and precision. I witnessed it first hand and he was barefoot too. The guitars have the requisite chunk and heavy riffage. Nothing soft here. This is coming from two guys who were super nice and friendly when I met them and they morphed into this madness once on stage.
–Donofthedead (Tankcrimes)
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POPULATION REDUCTION:
At the Throats of Man Forever: 7"
The music on here is ruling. Great riffs and drumming, with excellent production. Unfortunately, the vocals are just too low and guttural for my taste. Fans of early Napalm Death and other early death metal/grind will love this! First three hundred are on green/black splatter vinyl for the scum. If you love those low vocals, this is gonna be about as good as you will find.
–Mike Frame (Tankcrimes)
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POPULATION REDUCTION:
Each Birth a New Disaster: LP
If you haven’t heard the magic of this guitar and drums duo in person or on recording and you are a fan of metal, grind, death and such, you are missing out. This is the band’s first full-length, showcasing their brand of death metal, grindcore, and thrash attack which continues on the greatness of their At the Throats of Man Forever EP that came out a year or two back. Heavy riffs, blast beats, and everything in between are thrown out at you. There is no lack of heaviness and speed from these two men from the Bay area. The music will make you bang your head, mosh, slam, and, for stoner types, maybe smoke one. It makes you feel like they are taking you for a ride; first going slow, then fast, and finally even faster, about to crash but still in control. Interested yet? But on top of all that, they have humor. Make fun of the Amish? Old people? SUV owners? Black metal fans? All of the above. They don’t seem to narrow themselves to what topics they cover in their lyrics. Overall, this LP has shown me how much I really do like this band. After seeing them live and hearing them recorded before, they surely raised the bar on this one.
–Donofthedead (Tankcrimes)
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POPZILLAS, THE:
The Incredible Adventures of Pandora Pop: CD
This is really unique and interesting. As far as I can tell from the translated-from-German one sheet, this is a German band playing a concept album that I think is supposed to be a soundtrack to a Japanese manga story. It doesn’t make any sense, but I like it. It’s really pro-produced sounding pop with ethereal female vocals. It’s nice, I could listen to this a few times for sure, I just don’t really understand what they’re trying to do.
–ben (Wolverine)
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PORCELAIN BOYS:
Away Awhile: CD
This is up to its neck in All worship—noodley guitar playing, thumping bass, and hooks galore. While not quite as proficient or complex in delivery as All, or the Descendents, the band is catchy in its own right and the songs are well made and well played. If yer into the pop punk thang but prefer a bit more sophistication than the average Queers/NOFX Xerox clone is dishin’ out, this’ll definitely hit the spot.
–Jimmy Alvarado (SP, sp-records.com)
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PORCELAIN GOD:
Home Taping Is Killing Music: CD
Super-homemade CD of “anti-hardcore psychedelic punk” recorded in 1982, that sounds like some kind of sub-Beefheart twenty-somethings with a $25 budget for instruments and recording. Historically valuable, perhaps, but not in a Killed By Death way. And entertaining, but not in a 72-minute way.
–Cuss Baxter (Slutfish)
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PORCH GHOULS:
Self-titled: 10” EP
Down’n’dirty, lowest of the fi, dirt-dragged gospel swamp boogie blues. They’ve got their arms around quaalude sorrow and amphetamine burns, meaning they’ve sizzled through the highs and embrace the lows (or at least sound like it. They may be upright citizens). It’s also the first band I’ve ever heard that plays the suitcase; a 50’s dealie with a hole for a mic and a foot pedal and a tambourine attached. This slab is mostly covers and who they pay homage to is telling: Hound Dog Taylor, Willie Dixon, Little Richard, and R.L. Burnside. Listen to this long enough, and I feel my teeth start loosening and I keep reaching for an unmarked mason jar to swallow my fears and troubles away. The Porch Ghouls are in the same base camp as The Oblivions and the Gibson Brothers; lost souls drowning for your salvation. Good stuff.
–Todd Taylor (Orange)
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PORCH GHOULS:
Self-titled : 10" EP
Down’n’dirty, lowest of the fi, dirt-dragged gospel swamp boogie blues. They’ve got their arms around quaalude sorrow and amphetamine burns, meaning they’ve sizzled through the highs and embrace the lows (or at least sound like it. They may be upright citizens). It’s also the first band I’ve ever heard that plays the suitcase; a 50’s dealie with a hole for a mic and a foot pedal and a tambourine attached. This slab is mostly covers and who they pay homage to is telling: Hound Dog Taylor, Willie Dixon, Little Richard, and R.L. Burnside. Listen to this long enough, and I feel my teeth start loosening and I keep reaching for an unmarked mason jar to swallow my fears and troubles away. The Porch Ghouls are in the same base camp as The Oblivions and the Gibson Brothers; lost souls drowning for your salvation. Good stuff.
–Todd Taylor (Orange)
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PORCH MOB:
Can of Worms: CD
I thought I liked this until I realized it just kept putting me to sleep. I needed the sleep though.
–Megan Pants (Self-released)
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PORCH MOB:
Can of Worms: CD
I thought I liked this until I realized it just kept putting me to sleep. I needed the sleep though.
–Megan Pants (Can of Worms, no address)
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PORCHARITAS:
Get Wasted With…: 7” EP
The tiger-striped fruit of the perennially-fertile Bobbyteens tree blooms once again in the bendy-straw-enhanced form of this three-girls-and-a-guy-drummer Hunstville quartet. Song topics include—not particularly surprisingly—pillow fights, drinking, and love’s labors lost. For some reason, the band is unable to sell me on attitudinal claims like “IT’S GONNA BE A MAKEOUT NIGHT!” with full sincerity; “Get Wasted,” however, beams forth with full authenticity. I’ll drink girlie drinks to that! BEST SONG: “Get Wasted” BEST SONG TITLE: “Pillow Fight” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: Record comes complete with Porcharita drink recipe and conveniently attached bendy straw.
–Rev. Norb (Vertical House, theverticalhouse.com)
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PORN STARS OF HORROR:
From Love Letters to the Morgue: CD
Any band that can seriously sing the lyrics “We are the Porn Stars of Horror! We are blood drunk!” is cool in my book. This straightforward horror hardcore band with dual male and female vocals covers all the usual territory: Bride of Frankenstein, zombies, murder, etc. When the horror half of the band’s moniker is set aside in favor of the porn half, the digressions into gang rape and blue balls ballads get a bit tedious, and I could do without the occasional ham-fisted acoustic bit, but those are thankfully outnumbered by the more exciting, rocking tunes.
–MP Johnson (1332)
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PORN STARS OF HORROR , THE/ POTBELLY / SKEXIES, THE:
This That and Some Other Shit: 3-way split: CD
The cover of this CD’s glossy one-panel digipack looks like art that was lifted from some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan fiction that my roommate would blog about. It’s some Quincy punk male vulture and male warthog with female werewolf and female fish creature hanging on them. This looked like complete shit. In conjunction with the bands’ names, I was expecting complete shit. I don’t give a fuck if I come off like the PC Police on this, but the artwork, some of the song titles, and the band names, to a certain extent, reeked of reinforcing gender roles and stereotypes—and the lyrics on some songs reinforced this: these three bands that seem to revel in being shit, with a desire to be offensive. All three sections of the disc begin with malicious statements about the proceeding band, with a declaration about the whole disc being shitty at the outset. PSOH: Horror punk with hardcore punk songs, both male and female vocals. One of the male vocalists has a hankering to sound like Glenn Danzig. I hafta admit that their sexual juvenilia in the song “Touch” made me laugh, with its words of butthole touching in something of a romantic context. Perhaps the worst “love” song ever. Skexies: Male- and female-fronted Violent Society type ‘90s crap of a lower tier with metal bits. I thought it was harmless until the song “Sweet Tits.” The song’s chorus has the remarkable refrain of, “Slut, Slut, Dirty Slut, Dirty Whore Go Fuck Yourself,” sung by both vocalists. The song also has a line about shoving “black cocks” in one’s ass being a “blast.” Maybe I’m being sensitive here, but I’m calling racism based on the fact that the line is meant to offend whomever the song is about. They could just be the thoughtless words of a jilted meathead, but that shit is fucking too much for me. Potbelly: Pretty sure this is a live set. All male band. Shitty, unmemorable drunk punk hardcore bullshit. “Jaimee the Cock-Blocking Lesbian” is one of their songs. “Monkey-Fuckers from Mars” is another one. Don’t forget “Alcoholicide.” Come to your own conclusions on that one.
–Vincent Battilana (PB / P.I.G.)
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PORN STARS OF HORROR / STUPID IN STEREO:
Split: 7”
For a band with one of the worst names ever, the Porn Stars Of Horror are surprisingly rad. Straightforward horror hardcore that gets bonus points for doing something so mind-blowingly obvious that I can’t comprehend how it has never been done before (or how, if it has been done before, I’ve missed it): they turn the “verata clatoo nicto” chant from Army of Darkness into a song. Of course, they lose major points not only because they did not use the official spelling of the chant (which originally appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still), but because they chant the three words in the wrong fucking order (should be “klaatu barada nikto”). If you’re keeping track, that puts them into negative points. If you’re going to mess with nerd stuff, you best do it right. Stupid In Stereo’s side is a match thematically, even if their pop punk sound doesn’t mesh. They pay tribute to Ash and the evil dead with a song called “Tree Love.” And they spell everything correctly.
–MP Johnson (Unrepentant)
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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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