Lollipop Magazine

Transmissionary Six – Review

August 20, 2002

Waltzing, whispering… Transmissionary Six have woven a stunning silk of gently purple-blue, lightly melancholy stuff with acoustic guitars and organs.

Boulder – Reaped In Half – Review

August 16, 2002

They smack you full-force in the back of the head with the unholy power of their metal, but they’ve begun to form the metal before they start swinging.

Beachwood Sparks – Make the Cowboy Robots Cry – Review

August 16, 2002

This six-song EP finds the band stepping farther away from Gram Parson’s Cosmic American Music template and into outer space.

Avoid One Thing – Review

August 16, 2002

Sounds like a new rock band’s first album, which is strange considering how many Boston-area scene “veterans” they’ve stacked the line-up with.

Tom Waits – Blood Money – Review

August 16, 2002

Imagine a drunk, homeless guy with a voicebox shouting about dwarfs and roosters being accompanied by other drunk homeless guys banging on street signs.

The Bellrays – In the Light of the Sun – Review

August 16, 2002

In place of the gloriously raucous lo-fi soul-punk of Let it Blast and/or Grand Fury, In the Light of the Sun is a mannered, almost mellow classic R&B sound.

Tom Waits – Alice – Review

August 16, 2002

Alice is actually a bit of a throwback, a re-visitation of the more overtly sentimental work of his heavily orchestrated, faux-beatnik early period.

Terror 2000 – Faster Disaster – Review

August 16, 2002

For those who want a little old Soilwork with your new Soilwork, look no further than this second record from Speed Strid’s vicious side dish, Terror 2000.

Strapping Fieldhands – The Third Kingdom – Review

August 16, 2002

Psych guitars and sensitive folk vox are slammed into one another with disconcerting time signatures and fucked-up time changes galore.

Step Kings – 3 The Hard Way – Review

August 16, 2002

I’ve never been into this groove-oriented/hardcore/rock band. I’m not gaga over this 10-song outing, but I admit I am digging a good chunk of them.