ASWAD – Showcase

July 30, 2008

I’ve never really raved about reggae. Sure, I thought Musical Youth was amusing in the ’80s, and I’ve owned all the H.R. albums. But alas, H.R. was in the Bad Brains (’nuff said), and there are more thoroughly amusing ’80s records (Jefferson Starship, the ‘Footloose’ soundtrack, etc). Every tie-dye wearing, Birkenstock-having college hippie I’ve known […]

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call it in the air ‘just a morning thought’ (1998)

July 21, 2008

I really wish i knew more about this six-piece ensemble from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan – they had a fragile, dreamlike, and textured sound that reminds me (oddly) of a more “emo” Tribes With Knives. The usual list of comparisons would be fair (Promise Ring, American Football, Cap’n Jazz, etc), yet there was something about the […]

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Bedlight for Blue Eyes

July 9, 2008

It’s not out of print, but it can be got for around a buck on Amazon and half.com, and I consider it the greatest true metal album of recent years. It has a heavy/melodic confidence not unlike Dio’s Holy Diver, or Sanctuary’s Refuge Denied, or even Fates Warning’s Awaken the Guardian. These kids were truly […]

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Vinyl to MP3, revisited

July 5, 2008

Very soon, the Culture Of None blog will begin to share thrift store vinyl finds, and the time has come to consider the best means of converting records into MP3 files. I have been very resistant to buying the obvious leader in this process, the USB turntable. Ion’s product (shown) seems to be very common, […]

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Compact Discs, only a penny apiece.

June 21, 2008

The early- to mid- ’90s can fondly be recognized as a “sounds like” era of band-signings, and few labels were as guilty of this peculiar record industry phenom as the Atlantic/WEA family, and their various imprints (Interscope, Atco, etc). Although this practice had always existed, the 1990’s particular surge in music-product profits from the grunge/alternative […]

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Fur is stronger than nails

June 19, 2008

Firstly, you really should know about the metal band Anacrusis. They were a unique (and scruffy) quartet from St. Louis, MO that consistently tweaked their prog-metal recipe over four albums, ultimately adding Casio-esque synths and dated-sounding electronics on swan-song Screams and Whispers. Their 1991 release Manic Impressions was not only the crowning acheivement of their […]

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King of Kings

June 18, 2008

DGC, the David Geffen Company label, housed a large family of rock music notables (Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Sloan, The Sundays, etc). King of Kings was not one of them. This self-titled 1991 release certainly caught my attention, however, with its mysterious cover image — particularly striking on the longbox. Yes, in pre-internet 1991, this soon-to-be […]

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Bassmint Productions demos featuring Eminem

June 17, 2008

A very amusing entry here from the demo tape bin. This early ’90s ensemble goes by the name Bassmint Productions, and two lyrical giants share respective sides of this home-dubbed cassette. Chaos Kid and M&M (Eminem) are their MC identities, and the audio we’ve rescued from this ailing reel deserves a kind listen. Quite a […]

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