Album Reviews

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle reviews Deadbeat Graffiti, the new album from hard rocking duo Black Pistol Fire, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

[rating=8.00] Everyone just chill out. After a thirteen-year recording hiatus indie rock guitar slingers Luna are back with their first offering of new material since 2004’s Rendezvous. Available for purchase this past Friday via Double Feature records, the full-length LP of covers – A Sentimental Education – and its accompanying EP of original instrumentals – A […]

[rating=7.00] Our dark sorceress of winter has returned with her fifth official album, Hiss Spun. Chelsea Wolfe is a truly unique purveyor of gothic imagery and soul-baring songwriting that simultaneously rings the bell of impending doom. Hiss Spun was recorded in a studio in Salem, Massachusetts, where all that surrounded Chelsea was an ominous forest […]

[rating=9.oo] With each of his previous albums — Golden Age Of Radio, Hello Starling, The Animal Years, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, So Runs the World Away and Sermon on the Rocks — Josh Ritter hinted at an imminent breakthrough. Consequently, it may be too much to hope that his latest effort, Gathering, succeeds […]

[rating=9.00] It’s hard to believe that Strange Peace is only the third full-length record from the Canadian trio known as Metz. These noise rockers have been playing together since 2008 and have a live show that seemingly opens the space and time continuum with its intensity. Getting in the studio with legendary engineer Steve Albini […]

[rating=8.00] Weaned on Waylon, Willie, Johnny and Kris, Christian Lopez has been dedicated to making music since the time he was 15. He began outputting his songs five years ago and in that short expanse of time he’s recorded three albums and demonstrated that despite a weary blue-collar ethic, he’s learned more than a lesson […]

[rating=8.00] Chris Hillman embraces his roots as fully and completely as his history on his new Tom Petty-produced album Bidin’ My Time. The recording is a virtual tour-de-force from the man who helped begin the Byrds, co-founded the Flying Burrito Brothers with the late Gram Parsons and acted as titular second-in-command to Stephen Stills in Manassas. Of […]

[rating=8.00] Consistent musical quality and perpetual growth are the calling cards of the Australian electro dance wizard, Dan Whitford, of Cut Copy. Sailing into his fifth full-length album, Haiku From Zero, since forming the dance-centric quartet in 2001 – the obvious is revealed to show Whitford indisputably touts the Midas touch. Haiku From Zero deftly […]

In the newest installment of Wannabe, artist Chris Prunckle mixes things up and gets nostalgic with a review of the seminal 1997 ska album Let’s Face It from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, in his signature six-panel comic strip form. Click on the image for full resolution (best viewed on desktop):

[rating=8.00] Hiss Golden Messenger frontman and chief protagonist M.C. Taylor has always been drawn to a sound best described as a low cast kilter. It began with his tenure in San Francisco’s The Court & Spark, a band whose folk-pop leanings he’d resurrect when he founded his current outfit some ten years ago. Now, with […]