Category: Reviews

Telemarket – Ad Nauseam

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Rating: ★★★½☆

If you don’t know Telemarket, you should check them out. I didn’t, and thanks to an email from Adam Wayton, lead singer and producer of the 5-piece band out of Athens, GA, I was turned on to their debut album, Ad Nauseam, released in late August for the first time on Science Project Records, an affiliate of Cloud Recordings. Sidenote: If you don’t know what ad nauseam means, go look it up, says your English teacher. Hit the jump for full review and tunes to stream.

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Holy Wave – Five of Cups

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For the past however many years, Holy Wave has been working in the Austin music scene, often times as the sort of bastard step-child of heavy-hitters the Black Angels, and sadly overlooked more often than not. Careful ears will have seen that the group have been gradually moving away from similarities, and Five of Cups is the perfect statement album, making the group a powerful beast all their own. Broke it down into track by track for you all, with some trite final thoughts at the end.

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Owsley – Owsley

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Rating: ★★★☆☆

Owsley. Now there’s a name I hadn’t heard in a while. I knew I knew them/him, but I couldn’t remember any songs off the top of my head. Then, I put the record on, the first pressing of his 1999 self-titled debut, and it all came back. Ahhhh, that’s right. I recognized track 1, “Oh No, The Radio” immediately, but the real banger (if you can have one on a late 90s pop/indie adjacent record from a guy named Owsley) is track 2, “I’m Alright,” which has now been stuck in my head ever since I first gave this a spin. Hit the jump to keep reading full review.

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Elder Jack Ward – The Storm

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Rating: ★★★☆☆

Jesus is coming back soon, and Elder Jack Ward wants to make sure you’re ready. He sure was.

Perhaps he knew his time was coming soon, so it’s no surprise the veteran Memphis gospel-soul singer wanted to use his last breaths to continue spreading the Word through music to anyone with ears to hear. He went to visit the heavenly realms in April, just months before this posthumous album’s release, but if you’re not ready to be converted, this album may not be for you.

Hit the jump for more!

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Babe Rainbow – The Organic Band

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Turn your gaze up. The naked stars are out. The boombox is cranked to 11, salty air on the fresh breeze, and cool sand squeezes between your toes. You enjoy friendly conversation at length and share some laughs. It is “Smile Time”…so much so that your jaws hurt. Find the cooler covered in wet sand and grab some cold beers. Time to wax up the Hobie longboard for tomorrow A.M.’s rally, and gather ’round a warm fire dug into the sand. After a long sunny Saturday in the surf, that sounds epic to me. Now picture this vibe in album form. That is the newest effort from Babe Rainbow, The Organic Band, wrapped in a tight wetsuit. It is Saturday Night.

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Elizabeth King – I Got A Love

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Rating: ★★★½☆

As previously mentioned on this site, I’ve been taking a deep dive into blues, R&B, gospel and just about all things early Southern soul music over the last few years. This involved a trek to Memphis and the incredible Stax museum paired with hours digging through the blues and soul section of every Record shop and market I frequent during my travels. It has become an obsession to soak up everything I can about the genre, peoples and communities who created this music. After all that time absorbing the music and culture, I was a bit shocked when Elizabeth King came up in a press email and I was unfamiliar with her brand of sacred soul music. Her career is drenched in the very essence of Southern gospel soul music and I am beyond pleased to share my thoughts on her new album I Got a Love today. Hit the jump for my full thoughts and review.

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Film Review – Relic

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis

After an elderly woman goes missing in the woods surrounding her home, a mother and daughter return home to find her but are haunted by her ever worsening, and all consuming, dementia.

Relic comes out this Friday, July 10th via all streaming platforms and I’ve got a review for you if you’re into the horror/thriller genre.

Please hit the jump for my thoughts on this upcoming film by Natalie Erika James.

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Ultimate Fakebook – The Preserving Machine

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Rating: ★★★☆☆

When looking back on my early days of music discovery, the years when you found “the good stuff”, the late 90s and early 00s were likely the most important time for me. This was a time when I began to transition from the middle school days of mostly radio rock n roll towards a more indie, underground scene. Coming out of Kansas at the time were bands like The Get Up Kids, Appleseed Cast, The Anniversary, and of course, Ultimate Fakebook. Though maybe not as widely known as those other bands, the group was equally as important to me and to that scene. So it of course brings me great pleasure to review Ultimate Fakebook’s first album in over 10 years, The Preserving Machine. Hit the jump for my thoughts on this long awaited album.

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Pretty Lightning – Jangle Bowls

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Rating: ★★★½☆

In these weird times we’re living in, it seems like a perfect moment to get some album reviews up since we are major slackers in that category. It makes it east to motivate for a review when a band is kind enough to go out of their way to send us a physical copy of their release. We are hoarders people! My new pals in the German based band Pretty Lightning sent me their new album Jangle Bowls and I’m going to offer my thoughts on it after the jump. Remember, that I’ve stopped traditional reviews and tend to offer a more creative take on opinion pieces.

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The Menzingers – Hello Exile

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Rating: ★★★★☆

We still write album reviews? You’re damn right we do! Though it’s been a bit of time (okay maybe a lot of time), we do still like to talk about music and the full album experience. We currently live in a very “right now” society where things need to deliver fast and immediately, but the ATH team still loves a great record. This review of a great record features Scranton, PA based The Menzingers and their new album Hello Exile. Hit the jump for some words and thoughts.

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