Circle X

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Circle X’s devotion to obscurity is legendary. Formed in 1978 in Louisville, long before that Kentucky city attracted any hipster attention, the quartet specialized in a raw but philosophical hiss that predated the whole ’80s gut-rock explosion (Swans, Sonic Youth, Live…

Dustdevils

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Armed with chiming, steely, detuned guitars, Dustdevils are drunken purveyors of a glorious, buzzing fission. If their second-generation NYC dissonance has gotten them labeled a tired, Sonic Youth-derived headache, the band’s long history (stretching back to 1984), its more extensive palette…

Drunks With Guns

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Drunks With Guns frontman Mike (Myk) Doskocil is the subject of many amusing anecdotes told by the good people of St. Louis, MO. One story involves him hurling a hot, gooey bean-and-cheese-filled burrito at some art-guitar clown who was performing at…

86

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Like Honor Role, 86 was one of the few mid-’80s Southern indie bands immune to jangle-pop obsessions. Melodrama and juvenilia plagued its records, but, for the time and place, the Atlanta trio was worth noting. Firmly rooted in collegiate post-punk, Closely…

Don King

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Formed in 1981, this post-no wave NYC anti-supergroup teamed Mars refugees Lucy Hamilton and Mark Cunningham with percussionist Duncan Lindsay, whose brother Arto and his Brazilian foil Toni Nogueira would join in time for the group’s lone vinyl outing. Don King…

Liimanarina

[This review was first published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here with permission.] The realm of idiot-savant rock is unfortunately littered with sad comedy, accidental sociology and inept cuddle-pop. Leave it to the Finns to make maladjusted wonder worthwhile again. Liimanarina leader Olli Pauke grabs the Jad Fair, Jandek and Daniel Johnston childlike-lost-soul-oddball stereotype by its…

Dirt

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Dirt kicked up some filthy, grimy rock that, at its best, could do it for collector-nerd Halo of Flies fans as well as the anti-social circle at Southern biker bars. The Atlanta quartet’s moonshine punch was an appropriate outlet for uniquely…

Honor Role

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Honor Role emerged from being one of America’s most undistinguished hardcore bands to breathe new life into the genre. They developed so fast that they were more or less unloved in their time. The prime lineup(s) set a solid foundation of…

Wingtip Sloat

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] True anti-careerism in rock is a rarity. Some performers, especially in the posturing realm of all things indie, paradoxically turn willful obscurity into a selling point. Not, for whatever that’s worth, Wingtip Sloat. As the group’s unpretentious homebrew weirdness and wisdom…

Circle

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Simply put, Circle is the most internationally visible, prolific exponent of the outstanding yet criminally obscure Finnish underground. Formed in 1991 in the bucolic coastal city of Pori, the group constantly reinvents, expands upon and refines its hypnotically repetitive, instantly recognizable…

Worms

[This review was originally published in Badaboom Gramophone #3 and appears here by permission.] Though they record infrequently, rarely play live and toil in semi-deliberate obscurity, Worms have puked up some of the most single-mindedly abrasive and beautiful riffs in the history of all that is loud, heavy and slow. Their seemingly endless, monolithic songs…

Alger Hiss

With one of the greatest names for a band (why did no one think of using it before?), Alger Hiss is loud, brutal and nasty, thereby exemplifying all the elements bandleader (and music journalist) Jordan Mamone was attempting to strive towards when he formed the group in 1995.  Along with Hajji Mayer on drums and…

Contributors

These folks either wrote reviews that appear on the site or wrote for Trouser Press magazine. If anyone listed below cares to E-mail us with a link you’d like added, just let us know. And ditto if anyone is AWOL from this list. Grant AldenDavid AntrobusJem AswadTroy J. AugustoMichael AzerradCary BakerMichael BakerEmily BeckerSeth BenderJohn BergstromArt…