Shallow Cuts
Empty Beach Town
No Idea Records (2016)
Sometimes I want to add a lot of back story, my own perspective coming into a record. While that certainly shapes the experience, sometimes you have to let it stand for itself. Shallow Cuts tie into a number of other bands: Dan Padilla, Madison Bloodbath, The Gateway District, Dear Landlord, Tiltwheel. Probably the whole of San Diego the way this … Read more
Shallow Cuts
Storm Watch
No Idea Records (2014)
Shallow Cuts are a group of friends. Oh, they’re a group of musicians too. Some people call that a band. They’re a three piece, with members of Dan Padilla, Madison Bloodbath, and Dear Landlord/The Gateway District.Oftentimes saying a band features members of XYZ isn’t the greatest descriptor, more caught in comparison than in what the side project is doing. In … Read more
Shambles
Self Titled
Independent (2012)
Shambles is a pop-punk band from Boston, with a love for melody, circle pits and post ironic song titles. On the surface, they seem to be a fairly generic pop-punk band and I won’t completely dismiss that but there’s a lot of great aspects to this self-released EP. The best thing about this album is the honestly that really comes … Read more
Shame
Songs of Praise
Dead Oceans (2018)
Shame seems to have captured some buzz. They’ve had several clips in big UK publications and their debut was issued on Dead Oceans here in the States. The band plays forceful and somewhat haunting punk that’s brutal and harsh, but with heart and authentic emotion that seeps throughout the tough-on-the-surface songs. Sure the band screams out descriptive lyrics like “bathe … Read more
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
Naturally
Daptone (2005)
Generally at the beginning of the year, you'll set your hopes high for a handful of releases and odds are, one of those will be one of your albums of the year. The last two years for me though, has had surprising candidates come out of left field to steal my heart and take home that coveted award. This year … Read more
Sharon Van Etten
Tramp
Jagjaguwar (2012)
I’m not going to lie. I’m reaching a bit out of my comfort zone on reviewing this one. And, yes, the rating system is a bit skewed toward albums that fit into my more typical listening genres. In other words, it would take Sharon Van Etten a hell of an album to secure a high score. Tramp, her third release, … Read more
She & Him
Volume One
Merge (2008)
She is Zooey Deschanel, the actress and apparently all around talented individual. I remember the moment that is etched into my retina whenever I think of her is in the movie Almost Famous when she grasps the protagonist (her character's little brother) by the shoulders and proclaims to him, "One day, you will be cool" while staring at him with … Read more
She & Him
Volume Two
Merge (2010)
Following up the aptly titled Volume One with an album that has equally fitting title of Volume Two, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward show that She & Him is not a short lived vanity project for Ms. Deschanel, nor a mere dalliance for Mr. Ward. This time around, She & Him have the benefit (and curse) of knowing that people … Read more
She Killed Poetry
Shut Out the Silence
Imagine It (2006)
Mediocrity is not a hard thing to come by in the metalcore genre. In fact, since every metalcore band has decided to rip off Prayer for Cleansing and Heaven Shall Burn, metalcore has become a little too stagnant in this As All That Killswitch Remains Dying "scene." She Killed Poetry would easily fall off the radar for me, for this … Read more
She Said Destroy
Bleeding Fiction
Mas-Kina (2012)
Let's face it: a lot of the music we listen to is just plain ol' forgettable. Of course, every once in a while, an album will come along that sticks in your mind solely because it makes you wonder just what godforsaken orifice the band pulled it out of. Even more rarely will come the occasion when you make the … Read more
She Spread Sorrow
Mine
Cold Spring (2017)
Alice Kundalini is releasing the second album under the She Spread Sorrow monikier, following the her debut full-length, Rumspringa. Forged in the death industrial heritage of Cold Spring records, she continues to implement fierce power electronics over her bleak ambiance. The form she takes in Mine is a continuation of the sound of Rumspringa. Dark and pensive in its narrative, but powerful and harsh … Read more
She/Her/Hers
She/Her/Hers
Don Giovanni (2022)
I’ll start by saying I have a love/hate relationship with folk-punk. Done right, it’s one of the most authentic styles out there. But it has a lot of genre tropes that annoy me too. Fortunately, She/Her/Hers plays it right, because the genre is also a great fit for the theme of this record. She/Her/Hers began as a solo project from … Read more
Shell Shag
Forever
Don Giovanni (2013)
Shell Shag put it all on the line in opener “Face to Face.” It’s an autobiographical song, about the two-piece band, their y-shaped microphone, and their art and their travels. When the record continues into the second track “Sweet Hoodie,” there’s a feeling that recalls 1980s pop, but the honesty overrides the hokiness of some of the reference material. Okay, … Read more
Shell Shag
Fuck Society
Mauled by Tigers (2012)
What if you could have all the great hits of the early 90s on one record: Liz Phair, INXS, Archers of Loaf all on one easy-to-manage collection? Okay, so this cover set from Brooklyn’s Shell Shag also includes DIY punk like Underground Railroad to Candyland and AK77, as well as songs from The Descendents, The Wipers, Warsaw, and The Undertones. … Read more
Shellac
Excellent Italian Greyhound
Touch & Go (2007)
The first Shellac record that I bought was Terraform in college. I popped it onto my record player and shortly thereafter fell oddly in love with Shellac's minimalist crushing sound. Todd Trainer (drums) and Robert Weston (bass) provide a heavy tight rhythm while Steve Albini (guitar) lays over a tin can like tone, or lack there of some might say, … Read more
Shellshag
FUTQ
Independent (2020)
Shellshag, a duo from Brooklyn, play a unique style of fuzzy stoner punk. Live, Shell and Shag play drums and guitar, standing face-to-face and sharing a Y-shaped microphone stand (pictured on the album cover). It’s personal -- just look at the name – and feels alternately intimate, yet communal -- it has that impossible-to-define punk spirit that involves the audience … Read more
Shelter
Quest For Certainty
Revelation (1998)
Now a days, seeing a bunch of dudes with weird looking tufts of hair sticking out of the back of their otherwise bald heads jumping around on stage making a weird version of punk rock while yelling about the Krishna (the focus deity from the sect of Hinduism called Hare Krishna) probably would not be met with much controversy or … Read more
Shere Kahn
Get Fucked
Rock Vegas (2005)
I was really excited when I put this CD on. For years there have been rumors of a Goonies sequel popping up here and there in the media. It always made me wonder what happened to the cast. Whichever Cory it was had been in and out of rehab and the tabloids, before discovering his true calling as a (failed) … Read more
