Review: A Place To Bury Strangers – Exploding Head

The sophomore record from A Place To Bury Strangers called Exploding Head has received a vinyl reissue with nearly a full second album’s worth of bonus tracks tacked on to the end for your enjoyment. This “noise rock” band sounds crisp and full on the vinyl version that I’m listening to, and features some extensive packaging and other treats in this 13th anniversary deluxe set. When the album was released in 2009, it garnered mostly positive reviews, and it’s easy to see why. A Place To Bury Strangers channel the deepest, darkest parts of industrial rock in a sound that fans of NIN, My Bloody Valentine, and AFI would certainly enjoy.

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Amazon Music Comes to Prime for Free

amazon

The Verge:

Steve Boom is the VP of Amazon Music, and he has a great name for the music business. He’s on the show because Amazon just announced that it is upgrading the music service that Prime members get as part of their subscription. Starting today, one of the benefits for Amazon Prime members is that you now get access to the entire Amazon Music catalog, about 100 million songs, to play in shuffle mode. That service used to only contain 2 million songs.

NOFX – “Punk Rock Cliche”

NOFX

NOFX have shared the new song “Punk Rock Cliche.” The song was originally written for Blink-182, according to a new interview with Fat Mike:

Well, it’s a song I wrote probably six years ago when I was staying on Matt Skiba’s couch — as one does. This is when he had just been asked to join Blink-182 and they were demoing songs for California. I said, “Hey, check this out.” I played the song, and I said “I think this would be a great Blink-182 song.” He worked on some of the lyrics with me — some of them were already written. It was the first time we wrote together. He brought it to the band, they recorded it, and a few weeks later, 

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Interview: Chris Lewis and Scott Russo of Unwritten Law

Unwritten Law

Recently I was able to schedule a Zoom call with Chris Lewis (lead guitarist) and Scott Russo (lead vocalist) of Unwritten Law to discuss the band’s latest album, The Hum. In this interview, we chatted about the 20th anniversary of Elva, the legacy of Unwritten Law, as well as the songs they are most excited to play live during their upcoming headlining tour of the United States.

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Review: Between The Echoes – Awake While Dreaming

When I last sat down to write about Between the Echoes, it was for their single “Phantom Limb” that featured Anberlin’s Stephen Christian on guest vocals. The band has since released their debut full-length record called Awake While Dreaming. The album features several twists and turns, much like navigating your way out of a labyrinth, and their ability to tell a story from beginning to end is rarely seen this vividly on a first album. Over the 14-track LP, that also includes three interludes to break up the sections of the album, Between the Echoes take the listener on a cryptic journey of self-discovery that is filled with plenty of youthful exuberance.

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Review: Trampled By Turtles – Alpenglow

Very few bands can last long enough to record five studio albums, let alone ten, in the brutal music business. The indie folk rock band known as Trampled By Turtles are circling the wagons on their victory lap for Alpenglow, their 10th studio album to date. This set was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy with the majority of the 11 songs being written by lead singer Dave Simonett. This latest LP would be a great fit for fans of the quirky indie folk by The Decemberists, the working-man approach to songwriting by Jason Isbell, and the picturesque storytelling of Bob Dylan. Alpenglow is a stunning achievement for a band who continues to push the envelope of their creativity in new and interesting ways.

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