Sham 69 – The Adventures of Hersham Boys – Review June 1, 1996 Songs that rivaled those of Never Mind The Bollocks and X-Ray Spex’s Germ Free Adolescents as definitive documentation of that particular time and place.
Helium – at The Loud Music Festival – Review June 1, 1996 Despite the snags, frontwoman Mary Timony proved herself to be a talented guitarist through creative use of feedback and harmonics.
David Tronzo – at The Loud Music Festival – Review June 1, 1996 Tronzo’s playing, on electric and National Steel guitar, was devoid of melody or form. Just a lot of noisy fretboard shenanigans.
Bison – at The Loud Music Festival – Review June 1, 1996 Covering musical ground reminiscent of Iron Maiden, but without the dungeon-rock overtones, Bison were definitely intriguing.
6L6 – at The Loud Music Festival – Review June 1, 1996 Devastatingly loud. I found the singer/bassist’s apparent ego trip obnoxious, but they were better than a lot of hardcore/metal bands I’ve seen.
Sayhitolisa – Review June 1, 1996 Sayhitolisa, from Cambridge, MA, who are essentially hat-tippers to the sentimental side of ’70s funk, are looking for a new bassist. They said so.
Rye Coalition – New Sheriff in Town – Review June 1, 1996 “Great Communicator” is more distorted than bad vertical hold on a TV. “Jimmy Walkover” features urgh-aagh-bleah vocals and sounds like a mudslide.
Rocket Fuel Is The Key – Consider it Contempt – Review June 1, 1996 This band is dissonant, angry, hard, and tight – a “power trio” of nuclear capabilities, as it were. Yes, I say. Yes.
Plastique – Front Towards Enemy – Review June 1, 1996 The phrase “hip hop metal” brings up a very specific sound, a few specific bands, and probably your lunch. It’s been done. Yawn. BUT…