Ace Of Wands Desiring LP (Fortune Stellar Records) It’s hard to articulate how cool this is and how much this statement means but, from moment one of listening to Ace Of Wands’ new album, there is a direct artistic and creative line which connects Ace Of Wands to Heart. Of course, making comparisons between other artists and the work of Ann and Nancy Wilson is easy enough to do on a completely superficial level, but delving deeper beneath the surface of the sisters’ music and really looking deeply at the creative designs in their music is much more difficult and, on Desiring, that’s where and ..read more

SLIP-ons Heavy Machinery EP (Scamindy Records) There aren’t many ways for a band to write songs which sound unmistakably similar to the work of another group without sounding derivative. The only way that it’s possible to walk such a narrow and treacherous line is to be completely ignorant of it; the band in question just has to bull their way in and boldly be themselves – any similarity that the group may bear to anyone else is purely coincidental. Such is the line that SLIP-ons walk on their Heavy Machinery EP; on first listen, that there’s a similarity between SLIP-ons and Husker Du (or Su ..read more

Guest Directors Interference Patterns LP (Snappy Little Numbers/Topsy Records) While the idea of well-known musicians reappearing in new bands with some new musical ideas isn’t particularly new at this point (OFF! revived Keith Morris’ stake in hardcore, Kathleen Hanna’s comeback with The Julie Ruin has been spectacular and Paul Leary’s appearance with The Melvins was excellent – even if it was frustratingly short-lived), Guest Directors have taken that idea in some unexpected directions on their debut full-length album, Interference Patterns. Here, guitarist Gary Thurstensen steps away from ..read more

Kirkby Kiss Ouroboros EP (Council Records) It might sound unlikely, but working in the music press can be surprisingly frustrating. The reason for that is simple, really – most bands believe that what they’re doing is unique enough that they couldn’t possibly be forgettable or mistaken for any other band. The problem is that, at a certain level, the name of a release can be mistaken for a band’s name and has the potential to throw listeners who are otherwise unfamiliar with a band down a very deep rabbit hole. Take New Jersey’s Kirkby Kiss, for example; the band’s Ouroboros EP bears a similar ..read more

Wrong WarOn Further Reflection 7” EP(Council Records) At this point, now decades since hardcore reshaped the face of punk rock, it would be easy for someone who isn’t a part of the punk community (isn’t a fan) to not understand how anyone could get excited about “another punk 7”.” Really, that there’s a form and structure in place is impossible to deny; guitars are distorted, songs are fairly simple, lyrics normally hold to a reasonably confrontational form and tone and (normally) the length of a song remains brief enough that getting bored along the way is very difficult to do. Yes, punk son ..read more

mssv Human Reaction LP (Big Ego Records) While Mike Watt’s early career was defined by the bassist’s time with The Minutemen, it can’t be denied that since the end of The Minutemen, Watt has been viewed as a solo entity. That isn’t to say that the bassist hasn’t played with other bands since then (there have been several), just that Watt has stood as very much an individual entity – even when playing with other bands like The Stooges, fireHOSE and Banyan. The reasons why such separation from artist and band have occurred aren’t clear, but that mssv is presented as a single unit (three members ..read more

The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (20th Anniversary 5LP Super Deluxe Edition Box Set) (Warner Records) While The Flaming Lips had already established themselves in the pop and rock communities by the time Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots was released in 2002, the album holds the distinction of being the one that really took the band to another level – and equally impressive was the manner in which they managed to accomplish it. An argument could easily be made that, while The Flaming Lips had already established a solid foothold in the rock market, what truly established the ban ..read more

Urban Junior Urban et Orbi LP (Voodoo Rhythm Records) It doesn’t seem like this should be true on paper but, in the fourteen cuts which comprise Urban et Orbi, Urban Junior shows those listeners who come upon the album the future of pop. That might seem like a bold statement, but it’s true; throughout this album, Urban Junior intermingles electro clash, punk, something which sounds like indie or garage rock and (somehow) underground hip hop with the kind of impunity which only comes when one is programming music on a laptop in a college dorm room, and then has the audacity to leave the mess o ..read more

The Modernettes View From The Bottom EP (Porterhouse Records) What Porterhouse Records has been doing over the last couple of years has proven to be pretty thought-provoking. The label had already established a name for itself – releasing deluxe edition vinyl reissues from bands like Circle Jerks, Urge Overkill and All – but keeping a second hustle releasing reissues by even more obscure artists has really proven to be an inspired choice. Last year, for example, Porterhouse pressed and released a reissue of Young Canadians’ seminal single “Hawaii” to raves from those few who were able to obta ..read more

Kane Brown Ordinary Man 2LP (RCA/Sony Music) It doesn’t take long, after one begins listening to Kane Brown’s Different Man LP, to realize that the artist is most definitely onto something here that might end up changing everything – if it has a chance. True, country music has been surrounding and absorbing every other type of music with which it comes into contact over the last twenty-five years or so (thanks in no small part to Shania Twain, Mutt Lange, Billy Ray Cyrus and Dolly Parton – who have all done their part to broaden Country’s horizons), but it is on Kane Brown’s third album where ..read more