Sunday, January 1 1995
Carl Hancock Rux, Rux Revue
Carl Hancock Rux’s debut is a fully realized effort to present poetry as musical theater. It’s similar in this vein to Charles Mingus’ A Modern…
Radiation Kings: The Early Years
Third wave ska’s greatest blessing is its death. Driven off the best-seller racks at Best Buy and into the underground, only the devout remain. Its…
Refused: New Noise Theology EP
Two years ago my life was changed in about 50 minutes. The Swedish nation had imported into our country the sounds and energy of a…
Rich Creamy Paint
I made the worst mix tapes during my senior year of high school. No structure and no continuity at all. I’d pick 12 or 15…
Replikants: Slickaphonics
I haven’t heard the first Replikants album. I’m afraid to do so, since this new one definitely screwed with my head. The Replikants, at least…
Red Star Belgrade: Telescope
It’s hard to beat the opening line’s of Red Star Belgrade’s new release: “You’re so mighty and so high / I couldn’t see you with…
The Rooks: A Wishing Well
This recording should be appreciated for what it is, a deeply personal scrapbook of sentiments set to complex melody and harmony.
Ted Roddy with The Tearjoint Troubadors: Tear Time
He’s been crisscrossing Texas, hustling gigs in beerjoints and ballrooms from Corpus Christi to Lubbock, dancehalls and roadhouses from Ft. Worth to San Antone, from…
Rambient: Hurricane
The first single off So Many Worlds, “Hurricane”, appears here with several reworkings and spiffed up edits. Rambient, the group behind this tune, consists of…
Tom Russell: Borderland
As Tom Russell sees it, there are two types of borders: geographical and personal. The former is an arbitrary line on a map that divides…
Rainbow: The Best of Rainbow: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
Rainbow’s founder Ritchie Blackmore is perhaps best known these days for two rather dubious achievements: he wrote the most pedestrian—and most memorable—guitar riff in history…
Retriever, Greatest Moments Of Doubt
Not your typical Orange County pop-punk band, Retriever drench their tunes in layers of distortion, while never losing their strong sense of melody. Frontman Kevin…
Rialto
Rialto’s self-titled debut picks up where Pulp’s 1996 classic Different Class left off—offering glam-influenced Britpop and vivid lyrics presenting snapshots of 1990s lower-middle class British…
Steve Roach: Light Fantastic
Steve Roach seems to be a very eccentric person. Not only does he have dozens (literally) of albums, but they’re all significantly different. He doesn’t…
Royal Trux: Pound For Pound
Hagerty and Herrema’s latest tour de force (and their ninth full-length), Pound For Pound bursts at the seams with fuzz and grit and cigarette butts.…
Rites of Spring: End on End
What really defines a generation? Is it the politics of the day? Is it the pop icons clad on the covers of entertainment rags? Is…
Bill Retoff: Reanimation
Competition for attention as an artist is fierce. Artists send out promos, press kits and letters screaming about the significance of what lies in their…
Ray Paul: The Charles Beat
When The Knack hit #1 with “My Sharona” in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, it was a really exciting time for a lot of bands skilled…
Phil Ranelin: Vibes from the Tribe / The Time Is Now!
Two good reissues here. Try this for size—hard hitting free jazz, a touch of psychedelia, world music flourishes, funk basslines, Mothers of Invention vocals, revolutionary…
Rialto: Night on Earth
Night on Earth may be Rialto’s sophomore effort, but, in truth, the movers behind this British band have been involved in the Brit-pop music scene…
