If you needed an excuse to celebrate music, today is International Jazz Day. Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Tim Presley of White Fence and Cate Le Bon have issued a new Drinks LP, Hippo Lite . You can find a review of the album at No Ripcord .  Hippo Lite is now available for purchase from Drag City .  Drinks Hippo Lite Drag City Released: 4.20.18 Hippo Lite by Drinks Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Touch and Go Records is reissuing Big Black 's Headache , a four-song EP originally released in 1987. Now past its thirty year mark, I'm aware of  Headache  thanks to the  The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape  compilation, which pulled together tracks from the EP as well as  Atomizer   and the "Heartbeat" single.  I expect these remastered tracks to sound much better than they do in the  Eight Track Tape  compilation.  Big Black's Steve Albini , ever the critic of digital technology, had no qualms with illustrating the limitations of first-gen CD systems by intentionally building this CD-only release from analog masters.  Consequently, the tracks don't have much depth or bottom.  In fact, they sound crispy.  So, I'm hoping for a richer, more intensified listening experience once this EP becomes available. The EP's most noteworthy inclusion is likely "My Disco," though the piercing, up-tempo "Grinder," the dilemma-rich...

I was in Ocean City, New Jersey with a friend, sitting outside on a deck with a boombox resting between us. It was 1993. On this particular evening, I had something new that I wanted to pop into the tape deck I’d picked up earlier at the Surf Mall, a boardwalk superstore packed with clothing, posters, and other youth-marketed, alterna-junk. It was a cassette of Fugazi ’s latest release, In On The Kill Taker . I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was eager to hear it. In the song “Facet Squared,” frets are gently tapped, a couple sharp notes are plucked, a relatively understated rhythm gains traction and the sounds gradually build. And then all you hear are guitars cycling through a couple of glorious phrases as all other elements go silent. I felt elated when those riffs peaked, as if triumph had beset my ears, offering assurances that I’d found something for me, something that was going to be important to me for the rest of my life. I’m admittedly romanticizing this ex...