Author: Raymond Cummings

Indie Rock Noise Punk Remembrance Rock 

Choose Your Steve Albini

May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Big Black, Bob Weston, Budd, Bulldozer, Chicago, Rapeman, RIP, Scratch Acid, Shellac, Steve Albini, The Jesus Lizard, Todd Trainer, Touch and Go Records, Two Nuns and a Pack Mule

The late Chicago-based engineer played guitar and sang for three primary bands: Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac

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Alternative Rock Experimental Indie Rock Noise Post-Punk Rock 

Tower of Glower: On Sonic Youth’s Walls Have Ears

February 16, 2024February 17, 2024 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 1986, Bad Moon Rising, Bob Bert, Brighton, Goofin' Records, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, London, Sonic Youth, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore, UK, Walls Have Ears

How the band learned to stop worrying and love the bootleg

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Music Journalism 

Marc Masters’ Excellent Cassette Adventure

November 30, 2023November 30, 2023 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Books, Cassettes, High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape, Marc Masters, Talking Heads, tapes, The Grateful Dead

A conversation with the author of High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape

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Alternative Rock Indie Rock Noise Pop Rock 

All You Men Are Slime: Sonic Youth’s Dirty at 30

July 27, 2022 Raymond Cummings 2 Comments 1992, 30th Anniversary, Beat Happening, Boredoms, Daniel Johnston, DGC, Dinosaur Jr., Dirty, Flipper, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Nirvana, Shonen Knife, Sonic Youth, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore

It might not be their best record, but remains a sentimental fan favorite all these years later

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Experimental Noise 

Clang Quartet: Blare Your Prayers

December 5, 2021December 5, 2021 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Clang Quartet, Cruel Symphonies, Experimental, Judge Thy Neighbor Love Thyself, Noise

On the occasion of his first studio LP in eight years, Judge Thy Neighbor, Love Thyself, we caught up with mastermind Scotty Irving

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Indie Rock 

The Wild Mood Swings of Come

November 29, 2021November 29, 2021 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 1994, 2021, Arthur Johnson, Chris Brokaw, Cimarron, Come, Daniel Coughlin, Don't Ask Don’t Tell, Fire Records, Sean O’Brien, Thalia Zedek, William Bramen

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the indie rock greats’ 1994 sophomore LP, has been reissued as a remastered, two-CD set

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Alternative Rock Experimental Indie Rock 

ALBUMS: The Freewheeling Thurston Moore

December 7, 2020October 2, 2023 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 2020, By The Fire, Daydream Library, Deb Googe, James Sedwards, My Bloody Valentine, Steve Shelley, Thurston Moore

On By The Fire, Moore and company tease his singer-songwriter muse further out

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Alternative Rock Electronics Industrial 

Everything’s Blue In This World: Nine Inch Nails’ Further Down The Spiral Turns 25

June 12, 2020June 12, 2020 Raymond Cummings 2 Comments 1995, Aphex Twin, Coil, Further Down The Spiral, Marilyn Manson, nin, Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine, Rick Rubin, The Downward Spiral, Trent Reznor

The Downward Spiral remix album is so much more than a remix album

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Rock 

ALBUMS: Do The Strokes Define The New Abnormal?

May 4, 2020March 15, 2021 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 2020, Albert Hammond Jr., Devs, Fabrizio Moretti, Is This It, Joe Rogan, Julian Casablancas, New York City, Nick Valensi, Nikolai Fraiture, RCA, The Strokes The New Abnormal

Just one of several questions we ponder about the band’s long-awaited new album

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Hip Hop 

Ghostface Killah and The Art of Storytelling Pt. 10304

February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 2000, 20th Anniversary, Def Jam, Dennis Coles, Hassan, Inspectah Deck, Ironman, Juju, Mathematics, Supreme Clientele, The Beatnuts, Tony Starks, Wu-Tang Clan

Still the quintessential solo masterpiece from the man AKA Tony Starks, AKA The Wally Champ, AKA Starsky Love, Supreme Clientele turns 20

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Post-Hardcore Post-Punk 

Snap, Crackle, Punk: At Action Park, Shellac’s debut LP, turns 25

October 30, 2019June 29, 2023 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 1994, At Action Park, Big Black, Bob Weston, Brick Layer Cake, Rapeman, Rifle Sport, Shellac, Steve Albini, Todd Trainer, Touch & Go, Volcano Suns

In 1994, Steve Albini’s post Big Black/Rapeman power trio burned through our speakers like thighs against the concrete of a hot Alpine Slide ride

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Dub/Reggae Electronics Folk Hip Hop jazz 

Cause All I Have Left is My Memories of Yesterday: Dummy at 25

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments 1994, Adrian Utley, Beth Gibbons, Clive Deamer, Dummy, Geoff Barrow, Glory Box, Island Records, Portishead, Sour Times

How Portishead got me through college in the mid-90s

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Indie Rock Remembrance 

I Believe Stars Are the Headlights of Angels: Remembering David Berman

August 8, 2019August 8, 2019 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Actual Air, American Water, Bob Nastanovich, David Berman, Drag City, I'm getting back into getting back into you, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, Pavement, RIP, Starlite Walker, Stephen Malkmus, Tanglewood Numbers, The Natural Bridge, The Silver Jews

The beloved poet, songwriter and leader of indie rock institution The Silver Jews was 52

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Hip Hop 

Lost in the Echoes

January 21, 2019January 20, 2019 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Earl Sweatshirt, Odd Future, Vince Staples

On Earl Sweatshirt’s Some Rap Songs

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Pop 

Calvin’s Pop Pep Rally

December 19, 2018December 19, 2018 Raymond Cummings 0 Comments Beat Happening, Calvin Johnson, Dub Narcotic Sound System, K Records, The Hive Dwellers

The beat happening goes on with the K Records’ CEO’s Patrick Carney-produced solo LP A Wonderful Beast

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