Posts by Ron Hart

The recent revelation from Sonic Youth bassist and ex-wife Kim Gordon in the May issue of Elle that Moore had a little side action going on during the recent years of their marriage might come as a surprise to some. But in listening to songs like the Roky Erickson homage "Empires of Time", "Frank O'Hara Hit"–which refers to the Dune Buggy death of the acclaimed mid-60s poet–and the relentlessly scrub-core closing cut "Communist Eyes", there's something fueling Thurston's thirst for throwback chaos.

Recorded in London, New York City, Echo Park, CA and Tornillo, Texas with such high profile producers as Dave Sitek, the DFA's James Murphy, legendary UK post-punk/new wave producer Nick Launay and longtime Yeahs associate Sam Spiegel (aka Squeak E. Clean), Mosquito is the Like A Prayer to Fever to Tell's Like A Virgin, right up to the rousing gospel choir that roars at the coda of the explosive opening track "Sacrilege".

Much ado has been made already about "I Like It Small", the lead single off Vanishing Point, the ninth solo album from Seattle grunge icons Mudhoney. Is it about dick size? Is it about the intimacy of the venues the band likes to play in? Apparently, both instances are correct, as Mark Arm and company kick off their 25th year serving as the ultimate alternative to commercial rock

After a good decade embedded in electric brimstone both with the Seeds on such masterpieces as Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! as well as the pair of aces conjured with his short-lived blues-punk outfit Grinderman, the Australian modern rock icon returns to the tender subtlety of 2003's Nocturama or, better yet, 1997's brilliant The Boatman's Call as songs like opening track "We No Who U R", "Water's Edge" and "We Real Cool" testify.

When you have a genuine rock icon like Robert Plant not only taking a shine to you but covering two of your songs and making them infinitely better than your originals, perhaps its a non-verbal cue to completely step up your game. This is the conundrum faced by Duluth, Minnesota slow-core greats Low upon entering the creative process for their latest LP, The Invisible Way

Allentown, Pennsylvania, was once known as one of the foregrounds of American industrial manufacturing, especially in the silk and textile markets, not to mention Mack Trucks. But while they closed many of the factories down, as Billy Joel once fastidiously proclaimed in his ode to the blue collar metropolis on 1982’s The Nylon Curtain, the spirit of the town’s metal-on-metal spirit lives large in the DNA of their local sons Pissed Jeans, who may have since relocated to more contemporary digs in Philadelphia but hasn’t lost an ounce of the post-hardcore edge they’ve branded into their creative psyche since 2005.

Over the last 15-odd years, it almost seemed unfathomable to think of a new Yo La Tengo album without the incorporation of a track that surpasses the 10 minute mark.

Two years after the break-up of post-metal juggernaut Isis, Aaron Turner once again turned the heavy community on its collective ear in 2012 when he announced that his influential imprint Hydra Head Industries was ceasing to release any more new albums just shy of its 20th anniversary as one of the most adventurous and innovative metal labels America has ever known.

The duality of the word "party" continues to get smeared like a tube of cheap lipstick as The Coup toss another timely molotov cocktail into this most heightened year in American politics with Sorry to Bother You.

When listening to the visceral eponymous debut of Ontario indie-core trio METZ, I cannot help but imagine the idea of Mudhoney's Mark Arm, who works for Sub Pop as their warehouse manager, smacking a copy of the group's demo on the A&R guy's desk lamenting, "Man, why aren't we signing bands like this anymore??"

A full decade after the release of their debut album Highly Refined Pirates, Minus the Bear continue to prove their transcendence of hipster cool with yet another impressive collection of expert musicianship and great songwriting .

In lieu of the litany of great female groups who've emerged since Sleater-Kinney's demise–Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Lights, Brilliant Colors, Pussy Riot, even Wild Flag featuring former members Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss arguably speaking–none can truly match the unbridled intensity that made the Olympia trio's decade in rock so memorable.

After a May 2009 chance meeting at Bjork's memorable one-off collaborative concert with the Dirty Projectors at the Housing Works Bookstore in New York City where someone suggested they venture into a similar partnership with one another, the pair made good on the advice and got together to dream up this surprising golden nugget of an album they are calling Love This Giant.

When it comes to Woodstock-era English blues guitar, there isn't a more underrated axe than Alvin Lee.  Yet his blistering fret work as the frontman for Ten Years After continues to resonate through the steel strings of such modern-day mavericks as Jack White, Dan Auerbach and Guy Davis Jr. as adroitly as fellow Brits Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, whom the guitarist should be placed alongside more regularly in terms of his influence on the art of those who came after him.

That kind of pie-eyed affinity for pure pop makes Nocturne well worth a spin.

When you look at the entirety of the Blur catalog, however, as you can upon the release of this exhaustive reissue celebrating the group's 21st year, you will rediscover why Blur should always be considered–pound for pound–the best London rock band of the last two decades. And for those who cannot afford the $150 for the 18-CD, 3-DVD super deluxe shebang online or at your finer local record shop, obtaining it piecemeal is just as noble, if not more so in the fortunate event you have enough spare cash to invest in new music altogether let alone upgrades of your favorite records growing up.

When Liars emerged in 2001 with their scorching debut LP They Threw Us In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top, it was a caustic wad of spit in the mascaraed eyeball of everything trendy, vapid and annoying about hipster New York City in the turn of the century

Based on the full-throttle energy theybring forth on Ownerless, they have certainly earned their place warming up their mentor's massive Fender amps this time around.

More conventional fans of Mike Patton might want to wait until January of 2013 when the long-awaited new Tomahawk LP, Oddfellows, comes out, which the singer has described as "really heavy Beach Boys".

 Yet this stuff still sounds like it was recorded on a one-speaker Emerson boom box from 1984. And to remove that sense of scratchiness from the listening experience of material like "Secret Knowledge of Back Roads" and "Bar Scene from Star Wars" would be akin to sucking the soul from its historical importance entirely, not to mention usurping the fun of the challenge in peeling away the fuzz to reveal the true grit of these wonderfully scrappy pop songs.