Tag: Columns

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.

Lost & Found: Noah’s Ark

[Image courtesy of Warner Bros.] By Liam Syrvalin, Contributor The holiday season is upon us! For some, this might bring feelings of joy, warmth, and comfort; for many others, the holidays bring severe stress, discomfort, or sadness. However, the one constant throughout all of these emotions is terrible Christmas movies. Alas, one particular movie stands…

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.

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. 

Ranked: ATCQ

By: Adrian Woods, Contributor A Tribe Called Quest are one of the most influential and pivotal rap groups of all time. In 1985, Q-Tip and Phife Dawg started recording demos. Eventually, other group members Jarobi White and Ali Shaneed Muhammed would soon join, and in 1990, they would release their first studio album, something that…

Read More

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

20,000 Albums for Eidelyn Gonzales: Shaking the Habitual

My previous column, Punk’d, focused on, as you could probably assume, punk music. When talking about punk music, it’s pretty much a guarantee that politics are going to come up.

The last two issues of my column covered the albums WIDE AWAAAAAKE! by Parquet Courts and WORRY. by Jeff Rosenstock, both of which are extremely political, covering issues ranging from systemic racism to the faults of capitalism.