Rock – Page 2 – Rocknerd

Reviews: 5TimesZero, Post War Glamour Girls, Vassals (2017).

8 March, 201730 April, 2017 Indie, Industrial, Pop, Post-Punk, Punk, Record, Rock 0

Record reviews at last! Synthpop, shouty post-punk and grungy ’90s guitar pop. Some good stuff coming out over the next month.

Reviews: Artefact, Ritual Howls, La Orden (2016, 2017).

15 February, 201715 February, 2017 Goth, Post-Punk, Punk, Record, Rock 0

Guitar post-punk in black and grey.

John Cale: Music For A New Society/M:FANS (1982, 2016).

28 January, 201712 April, 2017 Record, Rock 0

Music For A New Society was written and recorded over a few weeks in 1982. Cale basically pulled out handfuls of his guts and shoved them into the piano and the vocal mic as hard as he could. It’s a perfectly captured moment, and one of the best things Cale ever did.

The 2016 rerecording is … completely different.

Reviews: Gnu Reunion, Treasureseason, Shijo X (2017).

19 January, 2017 Dance, Pop, R'n'B, Record, Rock 0

A cheering selection, from old and new bands.

The Celibate Rifles: Merry Xmas Blues (1983).

24 December, 201625 December, 2016 Indie, Record, Rock 0

Then give ’em all the turkey and tell ’em to get stuffed.

Links: Stoner metal, Stevie Wonder, Bill Drummond on punk.

21 December, 2016 Links, Punk, R'n'B, Rock, Writing 0

Essays on aesthetics.

Ganser: relentlessness by guitar.

5 December, 2016 Indie, Post-Punk, Record, Rock 0

Taut indie guitar rock, sparse but weighty; machine music by a guitar band with the proper relentlessness.

Reviews: Diversant:13, La Vogue vol. 1, Ambrasive, DrawnSword (2016).

20 November, 201621 November, 2016 Dance, Industrial, Record, Rock 0

’90s style industrial, early ’70s style songwriting, two dance non-reviews.

Links: High-resolution consumer audio, London for music sales, the worst Beach Boys album.

17 November, 201618 November, 2016 Audio, Links, Live, Record, Rock 0

Audio snake oil, London still the centre of the universe, Summer in Paradise.

Links: Burroughs on the presidency, American Pie, Blood on the Tracks.

9 November, 20163 May, 2017 Country, Links, Rock, Writing 0

A beautiful and apposite William S. Burroughs reading, and some classic rock faff.

Reviews: The Royal They, Unity One, Graveyard Love (2016).

24 October, 2016 Indie, Industrial, Punk, Record, Rock 0

Pre-grunge-style indie rock, EBM synthpop and disorienting synthesizer-guitar landscapes.

A note on A. C. Temple.

15 October, 201616 October, 2016 Indie, Post-Punk, Rock 0

Who else remembers late ’80s Blast First band A. C. Temple?

Theodor Adorno wrote all the Beatles’ songs as a Cultural Marxist assault on America. Possibly.

13 October, 20166 June, 2018 Esoterica, Opinion, Pop, Rock 7

One of the finest conspiracy theories in popular culture is the claim that Theodor Adorno, a main figure in the Frankfurt School of “cultural Marxism” fame, secretly wrote all the Beatles’ songs.

The overwhelming historical importance of the Beatles, and why Live At The Hollywood Bowl is revelatory.

25 September, 201612 October, 2016 Pop, Record, Rock 0

The trouble with the Beatles is not that they aren’t mindbogglingly important (they are) or indeed actually good (they are), it’s that you can’t get away from them even in 2016. They are actually so famous and so important that it’s almost impossible in the present day to understand how and why.

Reviews: Arsia Line, The Primary Colors, Lindy Vision (2016).

20 September, 201621 October, 2017 Goth, Indie, Post-Punk, Rock 0

Black Native angular post-punk, psychedelic garage and some straight-up witch house.

Links: Beatles, Prince Buster, Freddie Mercury age 12, Freddie Nietzsche.

10 September, 201610 September, 2016 Classical, Links, Pop, Rock 0

The Beatles’ Live At The Hollywood Bowl recovered, Prince Buster obituary, Freddie Mercury aged 12, Nietzsche the composer.

Links: Microsoft DRM, Brian Eno, Lou Reed and Revolver.

7 August, 201626 December, 2016 mp3, Rock, Writing 0

While I’m busy faffing with the new theme …

Mos Generator: Abyssinia (2016).

11 June, 201629 March, 2017 Metal, Record, Rock 0

“doom heavy stoner metal band”, the press release bluntly announces.

I was right at the time. Nineties indie rock sucked. Except Dave Graney, of course.

4 June, 201613 October, 2017 Indie, Opinion, Rock 0

Just rereading the Dave Graney interview I did in late 1992 for Party Fears. This was when no fucker cared about Dave Graney, after his indie hipness fronting the Moodists in the 1980s and his artier cowboy rock’n’roll in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Reviews: Airbag, Metroland, Suns of Thyme, Virus (2016).

21 May, 201629 March, 2017 Industrial, Metal, Prog, Record, Rock 2

When I was Official Shitworker on Lemon, we christened the review round “dogshit patrol,” after the regular Arlo cleanup. I promise I’ll stop before I start thinking of it that way here.

I threw up on Lux Interior.

2 April, 201628 August, 2016 Drugs, Live, Rock, Writing 11

It was mid-1986, at the Red Parrot in Perth (name and logo blatantly nicked from the New York club of the same name) in Perth. I was nineteen and had been going out to see bands and drinking in earnest for six months. The Cramps had played (the Canterbury Court Friday 22 August 1986 show, I think) and went there for after-show drinks.

Godzilla Black: Press The Flesh (2016).

27 March, 201624 August, 2016 Record, Rock 0

“Formed by two frustrated drummers” tells you about sixty percent of what you need to know. The rest is descended (through similarly-influenced ’80s indie rock, then the stuff that was left after grunge imploded) from the heavier ’60s psychedelic rock, rather than prog.

Last Words (EP) by Muzzle

24 December, 201514 October, 2016 Indie, Record, Rock 0

“Last Words” (2014), is the debut EP for young Fremantle independent rock band, Muzzle, with three-piece Daniel Panizza on bass, Daniel Prince on drums,