March 3, 2025

Reviews

Ghoulies - "Shafted By The Algorithim" | Album Review

March 3, 2025

Reviews

Ghoulies - "Shafted By The Algorithim" | Album Review

On Shafted By The Algorithm, Ghoulies offer a declaration of dissatisfaction with a world of digitally mechanized forces telling us how to feel, what to do, what to consume, and how to be. The album is a sonic slap in the face to all passive, inoffensive algorithmically pleasing wallpaper sounds.

January 15, 2025

by: John Brouk

Reviews

variety - Subtropical | Album Review

January 15, 2025

by: John Brouk

Reviews

The no wave avant-pop rockers have unleashed the full power torrent that is Subtropical. It’s an energetic and idiosyncratic album that sees Variety tapping into something special, like a Beefheartian post-punk that is occasionally reminiscent of Clash the Truth-era Beach Fossils or Sheer Agony.

December 18, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Picture That - "Strum" | Album Review

December 18, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Strum is the new EP from St. Louis, Missouri’s Picture That. The record’s stripped back moments contrast nicely with the lush and cheery amalgamation of guitars of other tracks, showing the dynamic range and the band’s ability to effectively build kinetic energy before crashing into a dense fog.

November 7, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

22º Halo - Lily of the Valley | Album Review

November 7, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

22º Halo - Lily of the Valley | Album Review

The follow-up to their terrific 2021 album Garden Bed, is a welcome continuation of the band’s intimate and intricate compositions that this time around explore the theme of holding on to hope in the face of personal turmoil.

October 30, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

GEE TEE - "Prehistoric Chrome" | Album Review

October 30, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

GEE TEE - "Prehistoric Chrome" | Album Review

Coming little more than a year after Goodnight Neanderthal, Prehistoric Chrome is the outfit’s longest release to date, with eighteen tracks spanning across 26 minutes. Every song is a full-on tire-squealing, rubber-burning energetic punk rock drag race.

October 15, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

The Lentils - "Where UFOs Fear to Tread" | Album Review

October 15, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

The Lentils - "Where UFOs Fear to Tread" | Album Review

A colorful patchwork of eccentric instrumental arrangements and world-weary, world-wise canticles ruminating on life, death, and the otherworldly, Where UFOs Fear to Tread is the newest record from the LA-based, self-proclaimed “underwater pop/ASMR rock” group, The Lentils.

September 20, 2024

by: John Brouk

Album of the Week, Reviews

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Pearl & The Oysters - "Planet Pearl"

September 20, 2024

by: John Brouk

Album of the Week, Reviews

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Pearl & The Oysters - "Planet Pearl"

LA-based duo Pearl & The Oysters have set their sights for intergalactic territory to see if signs of retro-tinged synth pop can also be found in other planetary systems. Their findings prove quite fruitful, as heard on their brand new record, Planet Pearl.

September 10, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Sonny & The Sunsets - "Self Awareness Through Macrame" | Album Review

September 10, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Sonny & The Sunsets - "Self Awareness Through Macrame" | Album Review

Originally the name of a community crafting program hosted by bandleader Sonny Smith’s mother in the 1970’s, Self Awareness Through Macrame now represents the latest collection of cheery, psych-tinged rock tunes from San Francisco garage pop stalwarts, Sonny & The Sunsets.

August 27, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Bed Bits - "Bed Bits" | Album Review

August 27, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Released last fall, this album is a trippy field trip back in time, like a lost episode of Magic School Bus, where jangly guitar riffs, lackadaisical vocals, and primal percussion all merge to feel like the first triumphantly gawky footsteps of a pre-cretaceous species onto dry land.

August 12, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Radiator Hospital - "Watching A Fire" | Album Review

August 12, 2024

by: John Brouk

Reviews

Radiator Hospital - "Watching A Fire" | Album Review

This record served as the fourth quarter follow-up, a little "something extra," to the band's latest album, Can't Make Any Promises, which was released in March of 2023. Watching a Fire has more of the band's trademark homespun warmth and lo-fi charm, where sweet pop rock tunes coexist with more solemn introspective moments.