video review

  • This video is a collaborative review with the good guys over at Dead End Hip Hop. Here’s the text they popped in the description box: “We couldn’t hook up with The Needle Drop and not do an album review. Brooklyn MC Theophilus London drops his debut album a

  • Despite a bit of genre-hopping, Machinedrum’s latest album, Room(s), comes together quite nicely. There are moments tracks influenced by the world of glitchy, which this guy has always had a soft spot for. But Machinedrum is very good about appealing to the winds of change whenever they’re

  • Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s debut full-length surprised me in some places, but underwhelmed in others. I love how effortlessly these guys pull together a fun and bouncy salute to the world of 60s rock and pop. It sounds as fresh as it does retro. Where this album really ended up

  • It’s 2011. And with numerous bands looking for new ways to modernize and gussy up death metal, I couldn’t be more depressed. Thankfully, Disma keeps things ugly and repulsive on Towards the Megalith. Featuring vocalist Craig PIllard of Incantation, growls on this LP are frigging blood-curdling. The vocals

  • Though Blackenedwhite isn’t perfect, it’s definitely a likeable release from this OFWGKTA-affiliated duo. With Hodgy Beats on the mic and Left Brain building the beats, the tracks here offer up a series of fantasy raps about girls, weed, and guns. This is by no means an mind-blower of

  • Little Dragon’s third album comes after a move toward accessibility on 2009’s machine dreams, but doesn’t go further down that path. Making things simpler to gain a wider audience just seems like something a band in Little Dragons’ shoes would do, though. They’ve had plenty of

  • If the rock history books stay accurate, Brooklyn’s They Might Be Giants will go down as being one of the most idiosyncratic bands of all-time–even if that idiosyncrasy seems to wane a little bit on Join Us. This record isn’t completely devoid of fun or flavor. The

  • On Toxic Holocaust’s fourth album, the Portland band takes a leaner approach to its grimy fusion of punk and thrash metal, lowering the black metal influences that were once prominent on the band’s earlier releases. While there’s not a lot of variety to be had on this

  • On the Cool Kids’ full-length debut, When Fish Ride Bicycles, the Chicago duo pulls together some impressive beats and features. The great beats are to be expected, but things really deteriorate in the rapping and lyricism departments. I know it’s band to simply get hung up over the lyricism

  • On the band’s sophomore album, Touche Amore generates some of the most empowering emotional hardcore I’ve heard in years. Yeah, the lyrics do make mountains out of emotional molehills, but the punk spirit powering the music is the same that made classics in this genre so, well, enjoyable.