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Live for Today

Taking it Back
Our Pride/Positive Outlook (2006)

No pun intended, but good Lord, how gosh darn posi can one band be? I know straightedge hardcore is supposed to be a positive outlook on one's life and choices, but how much glee club positivity can one muster up and still consider themselves hard? Everything on Northern California's Live for Today debut EP Taking it Back is not just … Read more

Justin Timberlake

Futuresex/Lovesounds
Jive (2006)

You are the biggest solo star of your generation and your first album since leaving the boy-band that made you famous was one of the biggest sellers of that year and everyone is clamoring for your next album; so what do you do? If you are Justin Timberlake, you spend four years making a follow-up that's so radically different from … Read more

Sabertooth Zombie

Midnight Venom
Twelve Gauge (2006)

After lying in bed with scenery consisting of drifting ceilings and absent eyelids, this year can finally end with a night of sleep soaked "z"s. Over three hundred days spent and not many left to live (for 2006) and FINALLY Sabertooth Zombie drops Midnight Venom: eighteen tracks of metallic hardcore that sound like seventy-two hours of no sleep and snakes … Read more

Switchblade

Switchblade
Cyclop Media/Trust No One (2006)

Switchblade is a completely enigmatic group to me. They do not seem to consistently release records with the same labels. I was first introduced to them via their Icarus Inc. - a division of Deathwish Inc- album a couple of years ago. I liked what I heard. These guys are a mostly instrumental behemoth that usually produces long passages of … Read more

Ghost Mice

Europe
Plan-It-X (2006)

"To speak of money and music in the same sentence is a fucking travesty. I'd rather keep losing money, rather keep scraping by than be a part of a scene constantly talks about sales, guarantees, and marketing prowess... Because this is how simple it should be; music is inside you, boiling, and it needs to get out because it's your … Read more

Bad Astronaut

Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment
Fat Wreck Chords (2006)

Before the release of Twelve Small Steps, One Giant Disappointment, frontman Joey Cape willingly admitted that the record does not measure up to what it should have been, and not many bands would ever publicly admit something like that, but not many bands have experienced the tragedy that befell Bad Astronaut. The band's co-creator, drummer, and one of Cape's best … Read more

Gorgoroth

Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam
Regain (2006)

Disclaimer: Whenever a reviewer has no idea how to end a review - a more common occurrence than the reader might think - the reviewer is forced to employ the cheapest of literary tricks: the disengage. By taking the reader out of the narrative flow with an aside that is thought to be clever, but in reality is fooling no … Read more

Lifetime

2 Songs
Decaydance (2006)

Everyone into hardcore over the age of twenty-five reeled in shock and horror when they found that the newly reunited Lifetime had signed with Decaydance Records, the label that Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy owns. No, Lifetime, say it isn't so. Fall Out Boy? The marbled-mouth teen pop-punk mega-stars bassist signs the most revered melodic hardcore band of all … Read more

Kingdom

Kingdom
Independent (2006)

After the 90's, it seems that any vegan straightedge band seems hell-bent on pigeonholing itself into being a metalcore or melodic death metal band, with good reason, too. Abnegation's foray into death metal, Verses of the Bleeding, sucked and Earth Crisis's attempts to become like Pantera were lukewarm at best. Kingdom tries their hand at stepping outside of the box … Read more

Girls Aloud

The Sounds of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits
Polydor/Universal (2006)

In this day and age of "indie" bands selling to kids and having number ones left, right, and center, one could be forgiven for thinking that pop music in the form we saw for most of the mid 90's and early noughties is a thing of the past. Luckily, with this collection of singles Girls Aloud have reminded us of … Read more

Microwaves

Contagion Heuristic
Crucial Blast (2006)

I don't think I've ever heard an album come from this far out in left field and still come together flawlessly. The general consensus seems to be that you can either have a totally bizarre album or a catchy, cohesive album, but you can't have both. But Pittsburgh, PA's Microwaves is living proof that they don't have to be mutually … Read more

Greg Graffin

Cold as the Clay
Anti (2006)

Nearly a decade ago Bad Religion's Greg Graffin released his first solo effort, the miscellaneous American Lesion (miscellaneous because you can only find it online), and it was a definite departure for the punk rock icon. He slowed it down quite a bit and explored a different side of his musical roots, as well as lyrical themes not present in … Read more

Woods

How to Survive In/In the Woods
Release the Bats (2006)

How to Survive In/In the Woods isn't the easiest CD to review, because to put it bluntly, it's not the easiest CD to listen to. How to Survive In/In the Woods is thirteen tracks of experimental, lo-fi, noisy folk music distorted and amplified beyond comprehension. The result is both beautiful and frightening, calming and disturbing, and ultimately one of the … Read more

Brand New

The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Interscope (2006)

Reviewing albums isn't an especially technical task. Anyone can do it. But, when you are piecing together your thoughts for an album review, there is a lot to be concerned about. Mainly, will the words put down on paper (or in this case, a computer screen) be an adequate representation of the music contained on the album? More times than … Read more

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