October 2003 – Page 14 – Lollipop Magazine

The Star Spangles – Bazooka!!! – Review

October 8, 2003

You’ll stomp, you’ll stumble, you’ll drink too much, you’ll probably break a bone or two, but you’ll love the grimy-yet-infectious hooks.

The Secret Channel – Have You Heard – Review

October 8, 2003

If The Secret Channel had happened during the AlterNation era, they’d be sharing stages with The Pixies, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Nation Of Ulysses.

These Arms Are Snakes – This Is Meant to Hurt You – Review

October 8, 2003

For a Seattle band, These Arms Are Snakes sure do sound like they’re from DC.

Robert Belfour – Pushin’ My Luck – Review

October 1, 2003

Country blues, acoustic guitar, sedate mutterings & rarely a standard 12-bar blues in sight. No SRV/Skynard/white boy bar band massacre of a pentatonic scale.

R.L. Burnside – First Recordings – Review

October 1, 2003

He’s got an attitude the size of a Mac truck, and a personality with the power to knock you down. This is the raw element, where it all began, the fountainhead.

Schatzi – Motion City Soundtrack – Split EP – Review

October 1, 2003

Schatzi contributes three great songs to the split, two of which evoke the same energy as Motion City Soundtrack’s tracks, yet are less poppy and more moody.

Officer May – Smoking In A Minor – Review

October 1, 2003

Tense-ion/release hard art-gunch punk trio moving at midtempo and chiming and biting like those Wire, LaPeste, Honor Role, and Drive Like Jehu discs.

Nothingface – Skeletons – Review

October 1, 2003

I used to like Nothingface, but as time goes on, the band seems to’ve modified the intense hooks and grooves that made their heavy-set sounds explode on impact.

Joe Callicott – Ain’t A Gonna Lie To You – Review

October 1, 2003

Joe Callicott isn’t the gritty Delta-style blues guy you would expect. His is a light, smooth style, not so much polished as greased.

Elgin James – For Carol – Review

October 1, 2003

Ghosts of The Replacements, Sugar, and Chamberlain conjured up through long-time Boston figurehead Elgin James’s rough-but-vulnerable voice.