The Stone Roses – The Stone…

It’s hard not to draw comparisons between the 1990s and the 1960s — the liberal environment, the spike in musical creativity, the sheer mass of youth culture dominating the zeitgeist. In both decades, the pangs of paisley permeated every notion of the underground. Were there drugs? Yes. The mutual indifference of optimism and pessimism? Sure. [...]

The Cure – Faith

The Cure is a confusing group to parse. They’ve always had a reputation for being all gloom and doom — an aesthetic likely informed by Robert Smith‘s black dandelion haircut and mousey stage persona — but the span of their career has been eclectic to say the least. Their first albums, for example, were filled [...]

The Flying Burrito Brothers…

For a person not terribly versed in country/western music (i.e., me), the figure of Gram Parsons is a strange one. I remember coming across this album in a record store fairly late in my teens and thinking to myself: “Nope.” To be fair, the cover is strikingly similar to the chaff you’d find in any [...]

Chrome – Half Machine Lip Moves

What does your television do when you’re not watching? Chrome’s 1979 LP Half Machine Lip Moves is a record from a band that tries to harness the hidden waves of buzz and static that could be there when you’re not — because, well,  you never know. The cover art is oblique and collage-y pointing directions [...]