Tag: column

20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: Low

By Venus Rittenberg, Editorial Director
[RCA; 1977]
Key tracks: “Sound and Vision,” “Always Crashing in the Same Car,” “A New Career in a New Town”

The View From the Afternoon: The Black Lips – Good Bad Not Evil

By Roman Salomone, Contributor
[Fire Records; 2007]
Genres: Garage Punk, Garage Rock, Cowpunk, Psychedelic Rock
Welcome back Rock Lobsters! Last time we met, we talked about a New York classic, the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Fever to Tell. This time, I was thinking we should stay in the US, but take a trip down south to the wonderful state of Georgia. For today, I want to talk about one of my favorites groups and a scenario when one of the nastiest garage rock bands of all time made a subtle yet huge shift towards a more mature direction, which just so happened to result in a stone-cold classic. That band is the Black Lips and the album is Good Bad Not Evil.

The View From the Afternoon: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell

By Roman Salomone, Contributor [Interscope Records; 2003] Genres: Indie Rock, Dance-Punk, Garage Rock, Art Punk Hey Rock Lobsters, I’m Roman and this is my first column, The View From the Afternoon. In this column, I’ll be taking a look back into some of rock’s most essential, overlooked, or just flat-out fun albums of the 2000s. …

Read More

20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: The Air Force

By Venus Rittenberg, Editorial Director
[5 Rue Christine; 2006]
Key tracks: “Boy Soprano”, “Bishop, CA”, “The Fox and the Rabbit”
The Air Force is the fifth Xiu Xiu album. It concludes a practically perfect five-album run, and is the perfect conclusion to the sheer brutality of the first four. The Air Force was the second Xiu Xiu album to click for me, and thus it holds a special place in my heart. 

Before You Die: Halfaxa

By: Emma Rickett, Contributor Halfaxa, home to one of the greatest Grimes songs ever written, is the second studio album written by Canadian artist, Claire Boucher. Even though she dated Elon Musk, was malnourished from only eating spaghetti for two years and got into Twitter beef with Azealia Banks (who claimed Grimes “smelled like a…

Read More

Eurovision Winners: Kalush Orchestra

By Amy Szmik, Copy Editor  
By now, most people are aware of The Eurovision Song Contest, an international songwriting contest between European countries. If you’re not, Eurovision is a televised songwriting contest that has predominantly European countries send a musical act to compete for the win. Its first iteration was in 1956 and has been going on for 66 years. Typically, the competition is hosted in the country that had won the previous year, so the 2022 edition was hosted in Turin, Italy thanks to 2021 winners Måneskin. Usually hosted in May, Eurovision has brought us some of Europe’s most talented, outlandish, fun and dynamic acts to center stage by featuring famous winners such as ABBA, Celine Dion, and more recently, Duncan Lawrence. Eurovision’s popularity has spilled into the United States, and many popular songs or artists got their start from Eurovision.

Lost & Found: 10 Cent Beer Night

By Liam Syrvalin, Contributor
[Image courtesy of Homage]
Lost media is perhaps one of the most bizarre yet most fascinating phenomena to pervade the 20th and 21st centuries. The idea that someone, maybe many people, can remember and prove the existence of a particular piece of content without anyone succeeding in finding it is a strange, almost unsettling concept. The reality of the world of lost media is somewhat like an iceberg; while we know about thousands of different pieces of media that are currently lost, there’s still countless other movies, TV shows, songs and recordings that we don’t have on record and don’t even know about.

Ranked: Oasis

By: Adrian Woods, Contributor Oasis was one of the biggest bands of the 1990s. The legacy they left can be seen in the many influences you see in modern music today. Although, it looks like we’ll never get an Oasis reunion due to the rivalry between the Gallagher brothers. With this year being 25 years…

Read More

Before You Die: Hospice

By Emma Rickett, Staff Writer
In The Antlers’ third studio album, Hospice, the songs take the listener through a relationship between a hospice worker and a patient with bone cancer, metaphorical for an abusive relationship. The album opens with “Prologue,” a somber instrumental to place us in the mood for the story to follow. While the song itself has no lyrics, liner notes can be found within the physical album sleeve describing the woman and relationship the album follows. The notes open with “Before diving into this, I think some background would be useful” and we are taken into the past with “phantom limbs” and hospital visits. 

20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: Atomizer

By Venus Rittenberg, Editorial Director
[Homestead; 1986]Key tracks: “Jordan, Minnesota”, “Kerosene” and “Fists of Love”
production is all over the place, even producing for slowcore/alt-country artist Jason Molina. He has helped shape the world of alternative music and continues to do so. However, his own bands, of which there are several, have also had a massive influence on music. When making his own music, Molina tends to stick to noise rock and post-hardcore. Nothing on Atomizer reaches the same epic highs as Shellac’s “Prayer to God” or the emotional depth of “Tiny, King of the Jews” from Songs About Fucking, but in my opinion it is easily his masterpiece.

20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: Knife Play & A Promise

By Venus Rittenberg, Editorial Director
[5RC (Kill Rock Stars); Knife Play – 2002, A Promise – 2003]
Key tracks (Knife Play): Don Diasco, Suha,
Key tracks (A Promise): Apistat Commander, Fast Car, Ian Curtis Wishlist
TW: Self harm, suicide