Beach Rats
Rat Beat (Epitaph). Review by Scott Adams.
Rat Beat (Epitaph). Review by Scott Adams.
Bear Mountain / Child World Double EP (Sky Creature). Review by Carl F. Gauze.
Jim Saah documented the D.C. hardcore scene with training from a high school photography class, capturing energy and excitement with a natural sense of technique and art.
Documentary on the Washington, D.C. punk scene, with a focus on the earlier years.
Fake Names (Epitaph). Review by Scott Adams.
Stories and anecdotes survey punk’s “Straight Edge” movement as the youth of America swear off drugs and booze to achieve Nirvana in the mosh pit.
Companion photo book to the documentary Salad Days, an exploration of Washington DC’s trailblazing hardcore punk scene.
Mike Judge created the straight edge band Judge as a darker, more militant answer to the movement’s detractors. A loner who was able to conquer his stage fright to lead a band, Judge revisits the band in this new documentary.
Riverboat Gamblers can always be counted on to give fans a live music aurogasm, and Jen Cray can always be counted on to cheer them on whenever they play her hometown.
The net result of plowing through a weighty tome like this is a sense of awe at how a bunch of kids created their own culture whole cloth, like the music industry on a Utopian, communal, microcosmic level.
No Mercy Fool/The Suicidal Family (Suicidal). Review by Matthew Moyer.
Bad Religion celebrate their 30-year career the only way they know how: by releasing a killer new album and touring the country playing songs off of all 15 of their punk rock defining releases! Jen Cray was at the party without her hot pink wig.
Akashic Press expands, redesigns, and re-releases Mark Anderson and Mark Jenkins’s invaluable DIY learning tool, Dance of Days. Even better, it’s just as energizing as the first read. What were YOU up to at age 16?
In the near future, there will be a documentary produced on every single punk scene or band from the late ’70s to mid ’80s. And that’s just fine.
Strike Anywhere turns a room full of strangers into a family with their well-measured mix of melodic punk and angry politics.
Martin Atkins imparts the wisdom of several decades worth of punk rock self-sufficiency into one book. Except for predictable sections on sex and drugs, Rob Ward is impressed.
Vivian Girls (In The Red). Review by Matthew Moyer.
An Evening of Bad Decisions (Black Numbers). Review by Jen Cray.
Losing Daylight (A-F Records). Review by Jen Cray.
This fall, Ani DiFranco brought new Righteous Babe labelmate Kristen Ford to Iowa City, where Jeremy Glazier enjoyed an incredible evening of artistry.
This week Christopher Long grabs a bag of bargain vinyl from a flea market in Mount Dora, Florida — including You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, the classic 1979 LP from Ian Hunter.
Bob Pomeroy gets into four Radio Rarities from producer Zev Feldman for Record Store Day with great jazz recordings from Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Cal Tjader, and Ahmad Jamal.
Bob Pomeroy digs into Un “Sung Stories” (1986, Liberation Hall), Blasters’ frontman Phil Alvin’s American Roots collaboration with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and New Orleans saxman Lee Allen.
Roi J. Tamkin reviews A Darker Shade of Noir, fifteen new stories from women writers completely familiar with the horrors of owning a body in a patriarchal society, edited by Joyce Carol Oates.
Mandatory: The Best of The Blasters (Liberation Hall). Review by Bob Pomeroy.
Feeling funky this week, Christopher Long gets his groove on while discovering a well-cared-for used vinyl copy of one of his all-time R&B faves: Ice Cream Castle, the classic 1984 LP from The Time, for just a couple of bucks.
During AFI Fest 2023, Lily and Generoso interviewed director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, whose impressive debut feature, City of Wind, carefully examines the juxtaposition between the identity of place and tradition against the powers of modernity in contemporary Mongolia.
Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (American Laundromat Records). Review by Laura Pontillo.