A homerun collection featuring four of the Midwest’s unheard of (but surely future reference points) heavy-hitters: DMS, Riddle Of Steel, Ring, Cicada, and Houston.
Some will be too “street punk” or “mod/garagey” for ya, but it’s just cool to hear bands on TKO and Hellcat back-to-back with Estrus/Bomp!/In the Red bands.
Snippets of blazing metal, washes of delayed patterns, relaxed lines matched with stuttering drums, and vice versa. An extremely well-thought-out album.
20 bands – spanning multiple genres – come together under Shepard Fairey’s infamous “Obey Giant” moniker to continue the fight against corporate advertising.
Reissue of the highly-influential ’97 comp with impossible-to-find tracks (that aren’t very good) by Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, At The Drive-In, and Pop Unknown.
Summer Solution 2002 gives me hope that New England still produces great bands and isn’t all hyped-up bullshit garage rock/emo acts who dress the part.
Smoking Popes hailed from Chicago, wrote smart, delicately melodic powerpop, made deceptively simply “punky” chords sound sweet, and this is their tribute.
A 17-track compilation, the perfect primer for anyone interested in sampling the wonderful ear-candy the Goth/darkwave/EBM/industrial scene has to offer.
Last time our heroes were beset by bland “rock” on one hand, and bland “pop” on the other, but this time the real phantom menace is a combination of the two.