Sunday, January 1 1995
Sunset Valley: Icepond
You can’t blame a band for getting sick of the constant comparisons that critics and consumers make between groups. Shades of Black Sabbath, Beatles-esque, Barry…
Slayer: God Hates Us All
In an admittedly ineffective attempt to duplicate the churningly chaotic spirit of Slayer’s worldview, let’s put the CD player on random and see what evil…
Soulfly: Primitive
If At The Drive In is the more hip and more musically challenging cousin of Rage Against the Machine, then Soulfly would be the more…
Super XX Man: Vol. IV
I first heard Super XX Man in a little shop in Shinjuku, Japan about three years back. It was a cut on a little 7-inch…
Stir: Holy Dogs
There is nothing that’s particularly bad about Stir’s Holy Dogs and that seems to be part of the problem. Despite first impressions and the band’s…
Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One
Janet Weiss, Corin Tucker, and Carrie Brownstein are musicians that take on political issues of identity from positions of agency, and All Hands on the…
Shape Shifter: Opiate Sea
This is about as honest as mainstream alternative rock gets right now. Sure all the derivative shit is in place—enough Athens, Seattle, Chapel Hill and…
Supreme Beings Of Leisure: self-titled
Over the past decade, the strict boundaries of musical genres, largely put forth by profit hungry corporate music companies for easy radio play and consumer…
Silver Scooter, Orleans Parish
Sensitive guy rock is all the rage at the moment and Austin’s Silver Scooter is yet another boy pop band jumping on the bandwagon. Mixing…
The Shazam: Rev 9
I never thought I’d say this, but I’d never noticed how great a track the Beatles’ “Revolution #9” from The White Album really is. And…
Cat Stevens: Catch Bull at Four / Foreigner / Buddha and the Chocolate Box
Sound like one of those dreadful trailers for a dire VH-1 Behind the Music episode? Yes, having covered the true giants of the pop music…
Supa DJ Dmitry: Screams of Conciousness
I’m going to start throwing dance parties whenever my shipment o’ CDs from PopMatters arrives. It’s difficult to gauge the effectiveness of a dance music…
Static-X: Machine
In the lack of anything new to add, the current band’s musical failings overshadow their angry insistence on their personal shortcomings.
Spyglass: Strategies for the Stranded
Hey, Spyglass, why don’t you just lighten up a little bit? Nine songs here on this Strategies for the Stranded and they all make me…
Shaggy: Hotshot
The latest import from Jamaica to heat up your chill blue winter comes in the form of a super-catchy ragamuffin named Shaggy, whose hit, “Lonely…
Noel Sanger: Ritual
Somewhere out there in the great, big world, there are some people who just can’t get enough of trance, and who need one more freakin’…
Joe Satriani: Engines of Creation
One thing I have to comment Joe Satriani on is his liquid ability to change with the times, and still retain his amazing ability as…
Shalini: We Want Jelly Donuts
Shalini’s debut album We Want Jelly Donuts would have almost definitely yielded airplay on college radio and MTV’s 120 Minutes had it come out in…
The Shazam: Godspeed The Shazam
Arena rock with melody and without cliches. The Who in the 70’s without the attitude. What The Move would have sounded like if they were…
Kelley Stoltz: The Past Was Faster
In America’s mad, list-crazy rush to name the greatest invention of the Millennium, nobody mentioned the home 4-track recorder. It’s not too surprising, really; faced…
