Lollipop Magazine

White Hassle – National Chain – Review

December 1, 1997

Listen as two members of Railroad Jerk (Marcellus Hall and Dave Varenka) take it to the backwoods for some blues/country skronk!

Guitar Wolf – Planet of the Wolves – Review

December 1, 1997

Nipponese practitioners who learned at the feet of Link Wray, the Stooges, and the Ramones the same way the Stones worshiped at the feet of Muddy and Wolf.

Fuck – Pardon My French – Review

December 1, 1997

Full of folky strums, fragile vocals, and a fleet-fingered sense of construction that seems almost too casual until you realize how well it holds together.

Pavement – Shady Lane – Review

October 1, 1997

This EP, which features reworked versions of two tracks from their new rec, Brighten the Corners, and three new numbers, has some pretty engaging moments.

Guided by Voices – Mag Earwhig! – Review

September 1, 1997

Mag Earwhig! is a patchwork collage as diverting as any of their album sleeves and perhaps the apex of Guided by Voices’ long and storied career.

Helium – No Guitars – Review

July 1, 1997

No Guitars is a pretty darn fine pop, luminous enough to stay the granola-folk gag reflex the stated concept and butterfly cover art may arouse.

Railroad Jerk – The Third Rail – Review

December 1, 1996

One of the few indie rock bands who don’t allow their unbridled sense of detachment to teeter off into the realms of boredom.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Now I Got Worry – Review

December 1, 1996

The disco strings, funk riffs, and a good deal of the “Number one blues singer in the country” cheerleader-speak that colored 1994’s Orange are absent.

Come – Near Life Experience – Review

August 1, 1996

With most of the old lineup gone, it’s been left to guitarist/vocalists Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw to keep the fire stoked, and they leave no hair unsinged.

Kustomized – At The Vanishing Point – Review

May 1, 1996

Where other bands mellow, ripen and rot with age, the thirtywhatevers of Boston’s finest keep getting harder, rougher, and snarlier with every release.