"You  had  to be there." It's this phrase that's put out there following an ill-spent attempt at conveying the impact of an experience, the event's resonating effects still mapped throughout your grey matter yet impossible to express verbally to anyone unable to comprehend the time and space of the where and when. I talk about the 90s quite a bit, aware that my era of self-discovery means nothing in the here and now, JUST the where and when, and that articulating these feelings may often yield little or no reaction. Because you had to be there. And, I admit to sometimes missing that decade. I've done my damnedest to look ahead, to never be indoctrinated into that insufferable collection of unmovable mid-lifers content to reside in a state of permanent reminiscence. I try and focus on relevant, i.e. "now," music. But, as this point in time was where I began to understand how I identify musically and where my passions lie, there's a feel...

“Light a Roman candle… And, hold it in your hand.” This line always stood out to me, its bold and sung utterance built atop the gritty stroll of “4th of July,” a song from Soundgarden ’s much acclaimed Superunknown , an album whose existence warped my being with every listen, my adolescent brain smitten with every melodic stanza, every metallic lick. I fed this album into many blank cassettes in the summer of 1994, almost using the task as an excuse to necessitate an uninterrupted hour-plus of listening: “Gotta cut the track right. Gotta press PAUSE just before I run out of tape on side-A.” So essential that album remains to my chronology that I rarely listen to Superunknown as it puts me at a time and place I'd rather not be. It remains an affecting work from Soundgarden, whose primal scream, Chris Cornell , is dead from an apparent suicide. He was 52. Needless to say, since this news was announced, Superunknown has been on rotation, the dust wiped off the jewel case, a Wa...

Is "5am" Chastity Belt 's most sophisticated single? Deviating from the band's typically casual, lo-fi lean, "5am" sees Chastity Belt anxious and melodically emotive, a lengthy outro apparently meant to close out their upcoming new album, I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone , which is being released by Hardly Art on June 2nd. The track's instrumental repetition builds tension especially after the verses have been spent, its guitar sounds evoking the sort of six-string interplay that Sonic Youth would employ, generating noise-inductive frequencies and gently plucked melody. All info on I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone was provided by Hardly Art. This morning, Chastity Belt unveiled a third song from their upcoming full-length I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone. "5am" is the record's epic closing number and reveals a harder-edged side of the band that hasn't been heard before. Stream the track via Stereogum or the link above. I ...

Some recent purchases from... Thrill Jockey Records : Uniform Wake In Fright Thrill Jockey Records Released: 1.20.17 Uniform 's Wake In Fright was issued as an "art edition" limited to 200, white vinyl housed in a screen-printed homage to Mad Max that's sealed with a wax stamp.  Needless to say, these are gone.  I won't say that the screen printed cover does much to enhance the actual album, but it's still pretty cool. I reviewed Wake In Fright at No Ripcord .  I recommend picking up a copy .  Castle Face Records : Damaged Bug Bunker Funk Castle Face Records Released: 3.10.17 As with any specialty Castle Face vinyl release, you jump on it as quickly as possible.  For the latest Damaged Bug release, the excellent Bunker Funk , I was able to pick up the Half-Candy/Half-Poison version.  It's a three-sided double-LP with an etched side that comes in a gatefold sleeve.  There were three other specialized editions of Bunker F...

As announcement for their upcoming new album, Boris dials up the power-sludge with "Absolutego," the first single from the Sargent House release, Dear . With its title borrowing from the band's 1996 album of the same name, "Absolutego" is somewhat of a return to form for Boris, their last few albums a series of pop-fueled excursions, hook-heavy and melodic.  Having just toured for the 10-year anniversary of their much-celebrated album, Pink , Boris's want of muddied distortion seems to owe itself to that series of shows.  Its oozing bass tone and rattling percussion generates a welcome mire of viscous delight.  With a stinging cry from guitarist Wata , her notes ascend beyond the muck midway just before the song shifts into doom-laden shriek and battery.  It's damn near perfect. Dear is up for pre-order here , available in LP and CD formats.  The official U.S. release date is July 14th via Sargent House .   Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead

Disco Inferno In Debt Rocket Girl Originally released: 1992 via Che Records Reissued: 5.5.17 Finding some common ground between The Bomb Squad 's peerless and innovative approach to sampling and the ethereal charge of My Bloody Valentine , Disco Inferno 's 1992 debut LP, In Debt , sounds out of place from when it was originally conceived.  In some ways akin to what Slint had achieved with its 1991 milestone release, Spiderland , the Essex trio's sound is stark and textural, repetitious guitar strokes bordering on pensive while their rhythmic intensity carries most of the band's emotional weight.  Post-punk in the Alt-rock era.   Underappreciated at the time, Disco Inferno has gained some notoriety since dissolving in 1995, prompting the necessity to reissue In Debt .  As this was certainly something I'd missed in 1992, I feel like I'm listening to the proper heirs to Wire 's creative legacy, an experimental rock trio whose capacity for creative gr...

BARDSPEC : "Bone" (via Earsplit PR/ By Norse /Soundcloud) Satanarchist : "Fire Against the Wall" (via Earsplit PR/Bandcamp) First Against The Wall by Satanarchist Kacey Johansing: "Bow and Arrow" (via Force Field PR/ Brooklyn Vegan /Soundcloud) Hermitess : "Blood Moon" (via Atwood Magazine /YouTube) Full Of Hell : "Trumpeting Ecstasy" (via Rarely Unable PR/ theQuietus /YouTube) Sincerely, Letters From A Tapehead