Shipyards - Night of Fire LP

Waterslide / Imakinn (2024, Reissue)

I couldn't have been more excited when I found out that Waterslide records was going to reissue the two amazing Shipyards records on vinyl.  There's a specific strain of Japanese punk rock that is peerless when it comes to bands that I love, but it is also a scene that has not had nearly as many full length vinyl releases as others that I enjoy.  There's the occasional release here and there, but for the most part, CD is still the king.  I'm hopeful that the release of the two Shipyards records, the first of which I'm writing about today, will usher in a golden age of reissues.

Night of Fire originally was released in 2012, though I didn't hear it until after I had gotten a hold of their second album.  It's a classic melodic punk album that brings together all of the elements that makes me love bands like this.  The album is full of riffs that follow unique chord changes that keep you guessing.  The impassioned vocals that are a little strained at times, but never dissolve into screaming for the sake of it. Everything just feels genuine in a way that keeps me engaged.  And the incredible hooks and choruses always get my head nodding or drumming along on my steering wheel or whatever other surface is around when I'm listening.

I realize that this album is a little old at this point as 2012 was 13 years ago, but this still feels like a new record to me.  It's the sort of thing that I can go back to over and over again and it always sounds fresh and relevant.  I'm glad they have two albums out (the second of which I'll write about next week), but it just makes me wish they had more and that other bands were following suit and making incredible music like this.

Shipyards - Night of Fire :
https://watersliderecords.bandcamp.com/album/night-of-fire

Godzilla vs Destroyah Soundtrack LP - Pink & White Swirl Vinyl (/2500)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2021)

Godzilla vs Destroyah was the final movie in the Godzilla Heisei series and it was a pretty big deal when it came out in Japan in 1995.  I remember reading about it in the G-Fan zine that I used to buy at the old comic shop at the Rockaway mall.  Toho made a huge push that Godzilla was going to die and the plan was to put Godzilla movies on ice for a while so that Tristar could launch their American Godzilla series.  That may not have ended up being the best idea in the world, but I can see why they wouldn't want competing Godzilla franchises happening at the same time in 1995.

I just rewatched the movie this week after not having seen it for quite some time.  I have watched it more recently than some of the others, but it's been at least 15 years.  While it's definitely not my favorite Godzilla movie, it's one of the better Heisei entries for sure.  And following on the heels of Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla, it feels like a masterpiece even though it has its share of flaws.  It's a solid movie though, and a good way to close out this era of Godzilla.  I still don't like how it leaves Godzilla Jr. as the character to leads the next era of Godzilla, but then that idea was completely dropped when the Millennium series started.

For the soundtrack Akira Ifukube is back.  As he should be for this Godzilla's swan song.  The soundtrack is strong, leaning heavily on older motifs while still bringing in some new ideas.  There isn't a bad Godzilla soundtrack from the Heisei era, but at the same time I don't find that any of them stands head and shoulders above any other.  I do tend to listen to Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla '93 the most, simply because it's my favorite movie of the series.

Death Waltz and Mondo do a great job with the vinyl for this as usual.  Again, I do wish there was more consistency in the artwork for each release, but as a standalone piece it is very nice.  This wraps up the Mondo Heisei Godzilla soundtracks, so it's only fitting that I once again say that it's ridiculous that they never released Godzilla vs Biollante on vinyl so that I could have a complete set of Heisei soundtracks.

Godzilla vs Destroyah Soundtrack:
https://youtu.be/iq2-f43x6IA?si=ydIlH901AXlapGIo

Class A Felony - Class A Felony 2xLP - Red Vinyl (/120)

Chopped Herring (2016, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

You can count Class A Felony among the many golden era hip hop groups that I missed the first time around.  Their debut album originally came out in 1993 on Mercury, but I had never even heard their name until several years ago.  I actually picked up this LP a few years ago, but it's another one of those albums that I've put off writing about as something a little more exciting would keep jumping in front of it.  I'm trying to make a conscious effort to get through some of this backlog so here we go.

One of the things I love about this era of hip hop is the quality and creativity of the samples that were used.  The other thing that makes me prefer the early 90s to the eras that followed is the tempo of the production.  Class A Felony has both things going for it.  Excellent samples, and for the most part, the songs are pretty fast, throwing down more bpms than pretty much anything happening these days or during the sleepy late 90s.  The samples are put together in a way that reminds me of the first Godfather Don record, which harkens more to 1990 or 1991 as opposed to when this Class A Felony album originally came out in 1993.  In that way, if may have sounded a little behind the times when it was released, but not having heard it then, I can only same that to me, the production is timeless.

MC duties are handled by Dumar and he does a perfectly serviceable job.  He's attempting that Guru/Rakim laid back style and doing it well enough, but the songs would probably feel more exciting if he emoted a bit more.  Lyrically, he's fine.  But he's lacking some in the delivery department and that might be why the record didn't light the world on fire originally.  

The reissue is sort of lackluster in that the artwork is just a white sleeve with a sticker on it, but this album had never recieved a vinyl release before, so you take what you can get.  The vinyl color is listed as being translucent red, but it leans more orange to my eyes, but I'll still put red in the title because that's what they say it's supposed to be.  Is this a must have album?  Maybe not, but I think the production is strong enough to carry the album and it's a record worth a listen if it's not on your radar.

Class A Felony - Class A Felony:

https://deepconceptsmedia.bandcamp.com/album/class-a-felony-re-issue

J Rock - Streetwize 2xLP - Purple Vinyl w/ Obi (/50)

De Rap Winkel (2019, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Streetwize originally came out in 1991 on a label called Ghetto Groovz.  Ghetto Groovz seems to have mostly only released this album and a few 12" by by J Rock.  I'm guessing it was pretty much an under the radar indie at the time.  As such, I had never heard of it in 1991, though I did see at least one ad for it in The Source as I've been rereading old issues of that.  J Rock is another one of those artists I found out about digging around online looking for albums that I had missed the first time around.  This is definitely one of those.

I actually picked this up a few years ago, but it ended up getting overlooked in my 'to write about' pile for way too long.  I've listened to it plenty of times, but when it came to deciding what record to write about on Wednesdays, I kept going for something a little shinier or more exciting.  Which is kind of how I feel about this record.  It's quite good really, but I do find myself more interested in listening to other things when push comes to shove.

As mentioned earlier, this album did come out in 1991 and at times, does sound a little dated, which isn't uncommon for 1991 records.  For whatever reason, 1991 was one of those super transitional years for hip hop production and it has left some albums feeling like they are part of the 'before' time and others being very clearly golden era classics.  Streetwize couldn't be straddling that line any more.  Several tracks were produced by DJ Premier, with the remainder handled by J Rock himself.  About half of them still sound really good.  Super solid beats for 1991.  The other half are on the simpler side and have more in common with the production of the late 1980s.  But all in all, it's still a fun listen.  I just find that I need to be in the right kind of mood to put this on, just like with other earlier hip hop albums.

J Rock on the microphone is really solid for a 1991 MC.  He's not lighting the world on fire with anything super dynamic or innovative, but he's also not kicking basic nursery school rhymes either.  Much like the beats, he's right on that line as far as taking the next steps into the golden era.  I like every song on this album, and there's a few that really hit that sweet spot.  Sometimes being a really good record in a sea of classics is a tough place to be.  J Rock probably doesn't get the respect he's due, but I guess I'm a little guilty of not giving him enough as well.  It is still definitely a record worth going out of your way to check out if you've never heard it before.

J Rock - Streetwize:
https://youtu.be/Tjkam7Ybt-Q?si=fhklMIBfKvOauKkw

Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla Soundtrack 2xLP - Purple w/ White Splatter Vinyl & Blue and Green Cornetto Vinyl (/2000)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2023)

I just rewatched Godzilla vs Space Godzilla for the first time since probably the original US VHS version came out in the lates 90s.  I didn't really like it then and over the years, it seems that popular consensus is that this movie was a stinker.  But I know that opinions change over time and some movies age well, so I wanted to give it a fresh viewing before writing about its soundtrack.  

It's still terrible.  I do not understand how you can go from Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla to this thing.  It's really pretty awful.  The story is silly, the action is suspect and everything about is campy, but not in the way I like my Godzilla movies.  I do think, and have always thought, that the design of Spacegodzilla is excellent.  I just don't know why they couldn't execute a good movie around it.  I also have no idea why he spends a quarter of the movie flying around with Big Rock Candy Mountain strapped to his back.  Bizarre.

For the soundtrack, Akira Ifukube isn't on board after scoring the last few Heisei movies.  Perhaps he wisely passed on it after seeing what it was becoming.  Takayuki Hattori steps in to fill the composer's chair and does a perfectly fine job.  The score is as good a score as you'll find for a pretty bad movie.  There's some interesting percussion and tempo changes mixed in with the usual lush orchestral sounds.  It's cool, but it's also not something I'd listen to very much as it inherently makes me think abotu a movie that isn't much fun to watch.

As usual, Death Waltz and Mondo do a very nice job with the soundtrack.  The art is great, but again is sort of out of place with the others in the series due to a lack of consistency.  As a standalone, it's nice, though I do question why they put Spacegodzilla in Big Rock Candy Mountain mode on the cover.  No matter what, this was going in the collection because the goal is to have the whole series.  Too bad theirs still no vinyl release for the Godzilla vs Biollante soundtrack.

Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla:
https://youtu.be/m6otWwSDw4k?si=dGQAEWfKi1mb1Ryu

Southpaw - Left Hand Rule 2xLP

90s Tapes (2025, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

90s Tapes deals in two major types of reissues.  When there's a more well known album being released, that's termed a "classic" and when they delve deeper into the more obscure or previously unreleased recording, they tend to call that release an "indie."  What I have put together myself is that the "classic" tend to have a much better chance of being from that 90-94 sweet spot (my sweet spot is 87-94, but 90s Tapes doesn't do reissues for 80s records) that I like for hip hop, where the "indie" releases often are from the second half of the 90s.  

This has led me to discover many post '94 "indie" albums that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise and has, to an extent, made me soften my stance that hip hop is no good after 1994.  But, the flip side of that is 90s Tapes have definitely put out some albums from that time period that aren't my cup of tea.  Even the indie scene of that era seems to be obsessed with slow, atmospheric beats that don't have the driving rhythm of the earlier 90s.  But every so often, the stars align (at least for me).  Southpaw's Left Hand Rule is the more rare "indie" release that originally came out in 1993.

What that means for me is that the beats on this album are much more in line with the sort of production I gravitate towards.  There's still some slower cuts on here, but the majority have those hard hitting drums that I like so much.  It's not upper tier 1993 production, but it's good and has a varied sound from song to song that keeps the album interesting.   

On the lyrics side we have two MCs, Pro K and Champion.  Both are pretty gifted MCs and have flows that are on the more complex side of what was common in that era.  Again, we're not talking elite flows for 1993, but they're not doing nursery rhyme raps.  They know how to work within a beat and hit that pocket right where they need to.  It's a fun record and one that I like having around when I need a change of pace from my "classics" that I've listened to 40,000 times each.

Southpaw - Left Hand Rule:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/left-hand-rule

Ceylon Sailor - Here We Lie LP

Stunning Models On Display (2025)

The older I get the less in tune I am with what's going on with newer bands.  I'm not intentionally falling out of touch, but through a combination of lack of time and lack of bands working in the sounds that are most pleasing to my ears, it tends to happen. And more so with each passing year.  It would be easy to get depressed about it, but it's just as easy to say "I Hate The Kids" and embrace my inner curmudgeon.   Where I'm going with this is that more and more, I rely on good natured folks to alert me of some of the newer bands floating around out there that might strike my fancy.  And that's what happened with Ceylon Sailor.

They reached out to me and asked if I wanted an LP to write about and described themselves as a "90s-college-radio-styled indie rock band."  I mean, once they said "90s" I wasn't going to turn it down.  After spending some time with this album, I can definitely say that I'm glad they sent it over.  This is some solid, catchy indie rock and while they're not exactly reinventing the wheel or anything, they are writing good songs and playing them well.  And these days, that's more than a lot of bands are doing.

As I'm listening to them, I'm actually struggling to find a lot of 90s indie rock bands to compare Ceylon Sailor to.  They're not as weird as Pavement and they're not as playful as Built To Spill.  They're not as crunchy and rough as Archers of Loaf and they're not as punk as Superchunk.  They don't freak out like Modest Mouse and they don't suck like Neutral Milk Hotel.  I keep hearing a more upbeat version of bands that more made their mark in the early 2000s.  Early Death Cab For Cutie, Snow Patrol and Sweet John Bloom are the ones that first come to mind, with Sweet John Bloom being the most similar of the three.  

Where Ceylon Sailor takes things into more interesting ground is the extra instrumentation.  We've got some horns over hear and maybe a little banjo over there, but it's never added in a pretentious way.  There are times where bands throw in goofy crap just for the sake of it, but everything on Here We Lie serves the song in a way that you kind of can't imagine it working without this bonus layer of sound.  All in all, it's a fun record.  While it's not going to blow your mind with something you've never heard before, it's bound to impress you with it's consistency, competency and general good feelings.  Maybe it isn't the sort of record that I'll be playing constantly, but there are times that I do want to listen to this sort of thing and I'm glad they sent it over.

Ceylon Sailor - Here We Lie:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lnuzWYgjMLdz4PJTyc4JlPLDCOZ87ZrIA

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla Soundtrack 2xLP - Clear With Orange Splatter Vinyl & Blue With White Swirl Vinyl (/2000)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2022)

The 1993 version of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is my favorite movie in the Heisei series.  There's always been something about it that grabs me and takes me along for the ride in the same way that all of the best Showa films do.  It's not even due to my eternal love of the 74/75 version of Mechagodzilla as the 93 design pales in comparison to my boy from the 70s.  But it's a movie that fires on all cylinders and I adore it.

Akira Ifukube is back for the soundtrack again and turns in another great score.  There are a lot of themes from older Godzilla movies used throughout, but for me that only adds to the nostalgia and good feelings that the film and its score bring to me.  Top notch stuff here (That's a technical music criticism phrase, I don't expect just anyone to be able to throw around analysis like that).

Death Waltz and Mondo originally dropped this release at the 2022 San Diego Comic Con with a die cut, neon green slipcover.  They made 2000 of these and they had them available for a while on the Mondo website afterwards.  While I would have never bought the less rare version when this one was available, I think the slipcover is pretty stupid and all it does is hide the excellent artwork.  I would have preferred that every version of the record had the same artwork and the slipcover was ditched.  But that's not how things went so I will forever have this dumb lime green sleeve that doesn't even have writing on the spine in my record collection.

Aside from that though, everything is really nice.  Strong art (though I do prefer what they did for the Mothra and King Ghidorah releases better and would have liked to have had the same artist do all of the Heisei releases), beautiful vinyl (despite not usually being a huge fan of splatter) and a killer screen print on the blank D side.  I'll bring up again how bummed I am that they never released the soundtrack to Godzilla vs Biollante, but I'd be even more bummed if Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla was the one that got skipped.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1993):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5t51qhsSIt5KTGRT5I5zj2uTEt73UuRf

Various Artists - Music From The Motion Picture Judgment Night - Red Vinyl (/3150 - Record Store Day 2023)

Legacy / Epic Soundtrax (2023, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years. 

A few years back I wrote a lengthy missive about the Judgment Night Soundtrack as I had picked up the Music On Vinyl version that had come out in 2020.  One of the key things of that release, and also of the original vinyl release in 1993, is that the track listing is different from the CD version.  The vinyl starts of with the Sonic Youth/Cypress Hill collaboration "I Love You Mary Jane," while the CD begins with "Just Another Victim" from House of Pain and Helmet.  I just couldn't stand the variance in track order because the CD version is what I had in 1993 and was what I was most familiar with, so I didn't listen to the LP much.

In 2023, the Judgment Night Soundtrack was released on vinyl for Record Store Day in honor of its 30th anniversary.  Truthfully, I didn't pay much attention to it as I already had the Music On Vinyl version.  Little did I know that the Record Store Day version corrected my biggest issue with the vinyl and used the original track order from the CD version.  I figured that out a couple of weeks ago and almost immediately grabbed the newer RSD version.

And it is an absolute delight to have this on vinyl in a way that I can listen to without being grumpy.  Aside from when the Slayer and Ice T collab comes on, that's never a song that puts anyone in a good mood.  I still stand by what I wrote the last time about the music on this album and you can check that out here:  https://www.ibuywaytoomanyrecords.com/2021/03/various-artists-music-from-motion.html so I won't rehash too much of that.  But I will reiterate that this was a really important record to me back in 1993.  So many hip hop groups that I liked were on it and to this day the Dinosaur Jr./Del The Funky Homosapien track "Missing Link" ranks pretty high among my favorite Del songs.  If you want this record on vinyl, this is the version to get.  

Original Flavor - Beyond Flavor 2xLP + 7"

90s Tapes (2024, Reissue) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late '80s and early '90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Original Flavor was one of those groups that I came across looking for 90s hip hop that I missed the first time around.  I checked out their debut album, This Is How It Is, first and it didn't really stick.  I didn't check out their second album at the time.  When 90s Tapes released Beyond Flavor, I pretty much bought it unheard as I trust their taste in reissues and when they drop an album it's very much a buy now or cry later situation.  I'm really glad I took the chance.

I'll start with what is typically the most important thing for me on a golden era hip hop album, the beats.  And the beats are great.  Upbeat, jazzy loops with strong drums and lots of great scratching in the breaks.  It's exactly the sort of production I am looking for in my hip hop and while it definitely leans towards a more accessible sound, it does so in a way that still feels real.

The lyrics are solid, but not spectacular.  They sort of come off like a lesser UMCs (first album) or Leaders of the New School (also first album).  Never as good as either of those group, but in the same wheelhouse and totally fine.  There's a lot of post Das-EFX "diggety" being dropped throughout the album and also by Jay-Z (yes, that Jay-Z) on "Can I Get Open," which is kind of wacky.  It's the production that makes the record though and this is going to be one of those records I pull out when I'm looking for some upbeat hip hop to brighten the day.

Original Flavor - Beyond Flavor:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-flavor

The Mr. T Experience - The Miracle of Shame 12" - Pink Vinyl

Sounds Rad (2024, Reissue)

Until this 12" reissue came out at the end of last year, I don't think I've listened to this five song Mr. T Experience EP aside from one time right when it came out back in the year 2000.  I didn't like it then, so I didn't listen to it again and it just ended up in my CD rack with the rest.  Now it's back with its first ever release on vinyl.  I commend Sounds Rad for finally getting this out there, but I do feel there are other Mr. T Experience reissues that I would have preferred be tackled first.

As much as Alcatraz was a departure from Revenge Is Sweet and So Are You, The Miracle Of Shame is so different from the rest of the MTX catalog up to that point that 25 years later, I still don't really know what to make of it.  For the kind of music that it is, it's well done and Frank's lyrics are as sharp as ever.  But it's very unlike most of what came before it.

There's the breezy, jangle of "Spy vs Spy" and "Leave The Thinking To The Smart People."  Things go a little more power pop on "Mr. Ramones."  The distortion kicks in more fully on "Stephanies Of The World Unite," but it's got a vaguely psychedelic vibe and a wacky fuzzed out outro.  The EP wraps up with the acoustic "Don’t Know Where Dan Treacy Lives."  All of these are good songs, but they're not really what I personally want from the Mr. T Experience.  It's a curveball in their discography that my peabrain still isn't able to process correctly, as it wants something faster and louder.

That said, the reissue is lovingly done as usual, with the five songs occupying the A side of the 12" and an etching of the cover art on the B side.  I'll also always support more CD only albums getting the vinyl treatment.  I picked it up because I will pick up all of these reissues.  I like Mr. T Experience more than enough to give up the money and shelf space required to have this record in the collection to keep it complete.

The Mr. T Experience - The Miracle of Shame:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kZA6E82qSeWJNFlIRFIM2XL4uM-Pygez4

Godzilla vs Mothra Soundtrack 2xLP - Blue w/ White Splatter Vinyl & Yellow Vinyl (/2000)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2023)

As we continue to go through the Heisei era Godzilla films, number four on our journey is Godzilla vs Mothra.  Off all of the Heisei movies, this one and vs Space Godzilla are probably the two I've watched the least amount of times.  I haven't seen it in several years at this point and am overdue for a rewatch, but even without having seen it in a while, I absolutely remember that is was significantly better that Godzilla vs King Ghidorah.  If my memory serves me correct, it was also the most popular (meaning highest grossing) Heisei Godzilla movie in Japan.

Godzilla maestro Arika Ifukube returned for Godzilla vs Mothra and turned in an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.  While the audio quality and production values are higher which give it away a bit, musically this would not be out of place amongst any of his Showa era scores.  It's classic Godzilla with familiar motifs effortlessly blended with new, original music.  Nothing ever feels out of place and it's a testament to Ifukube being one of the great film composers to ever live.

Death Waltz / Mondo did an amazing job with this release.  The Greg Ruth artwork is incredible and looks glorious sitting right next to the Godzilla vs King Ghidorah soundtrack that he also did.  There's a beautiful gatefold illustration of Mothra's egg that's also quite spectacular.  The downside of this is that again, I wish the artwork across all of the Heisei soundtracks was consistent like this.  Greg Ruth should have gotten to do the entire series.  The colored vinyl looks sharp, especially the blank 4th side with the screen printed Mothra on it.  This is really a nice little release.

Godzilla vs Mothra Soundtrack:
https://youtu.be/fVUl8UeWuKM?si=2SP1vJCnLdrnA4OV

Illegal - The Untold Truth 2xLP + 7"

90s Tapes (2024, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late '80s and early '90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I'm not positive, but I believe that Illegal was meant to be part of EPMD's Hit Squad before that collective (and EPMD) splintered.  It feels like the gimmick was every crew needed some kid rappers back then.  Illegal stayed affiliated with Erick Sermon and he produces three of the tracks on their 1993 album, The Untold Truth.  He's joined on the boards by Diamond D, Bi Markie, Lord Finesse and others.  A real smorgasbord of producers as was becoming the trend.  Luckily the album still sounds cohesive with the sort of '93 era beats that I do tend to enjoy.

Lyrically, Malik and Jamal are really skilled for being younger teenagers.  Their rhyme schemes are sophisticated and their delivery is about as rugged as you can be at that age.  The disses of other kid groups like Kriss Kross sound pretty silly these days, but it's not like they cornered the market on diss records back then.  More than anything, I think this record benefits mostly from coming out in 1993.  It was pretty hard to miss on beats back then, unless you were barking up some G-Funk tree, which Illegal is not.

As usual the 90s Tapes reissue is everything you'd want and more.  Even though the artwork is simple, it looks great.  The songs (which to be honest sometimes overstay their welcome a bit due to their length) are spread out over two LPs with a bonus 7" that has an extra Lord Finesse helmed remix of "We Gets Buzy."  While not a record I heard back in 1993, it's a slice of that time that I miss and am glad to have a new record from that time in the collection.

Illegal - The Untold Truth:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-untold-truth

BOAT - Let's Drag Our Feet LP - Blue Vinyl

Hail The Sound (2024, Reissue)

Boat (Which is usually in all caps, but not always so I tend to use the caps in the post title but not when writing in the body of the post because it looks a little odd) have been one of those bands that talking up the mantle of Pavement style, quirky indie rock in the 2000s.  I first discovered them via 2010's Dress Like Your Idols and have religiously purchased every other record of theirs I could get my hands on, new releases and vinyl reissues of CD only albums.

The lone proper full length that hadn't made it to vinyl was 2007's Let's Drag Our Feet.  I had been waiting patiently for this reissue and I'm glad that my faith wasn't misplaced.  A hole in a collection is an annoying this, particularly when there isn't a way to fill it.  Hail The Sound has stepped up to the plate for the third time, having also released the vinyl versions of Songs That You Might Not Like and the early songs compilation 50 Sweaty BOAT Fans Can't Be Wrong.

The record itself is great.  I have loved everything I've ever heard from Boat.  I'm an absolute sucker for 90s indie rock, particularly indie rock of the quirky variety.  Boat brings the quirk in spades, but they never sacrifice the pop song that's the foundation of things.  You can listen to the record and just enjoy it as a collection of songs, but you are also rewarded for multiple listens that peel back layers and bring to light interesting chord progressions, breaks and hooks.

I'm really thrilled to have this on vinyl finally.  There were two early CDr albums that Boat released early in their career, Life Is A Shipwreck, We Must Remember To Sing In The Life Boats and After All.  A chunk of the songs from those two releases made up the bulk of 50 Sweaty BOAT Fans Can't Be Wrong, but there's a bunch of songs still left over.  While I personally would have preferred straight vinyl releases of those two CDs, I'm at least hopeful the rest of the songs will be on a Volume 2 version of that comp.  Oh, and a new record would be great too, it's been a few years now since the last one.

BOAT - Let's Drag Our Feet:
https://boat.bandcamp.com/album/lets-drag-our-feet

Capital Tax - The Swoll Package LP

MCA (1993)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late '80s and early '90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

There's very little that has been as exciting to me in recent years as finding one of those perfect, early 90s golden era records that I didn't know about.  It's like uncovering a lost artifact that totally captures a time and a place that's so very near and dear to me.  You can put Capital Tax on that list of more recent discoveries.

I have had this record sitting around in my 'to write about' pile for a decent amount of time.  I'm not really sure why it took so long.  Sometimes you just get distracted by the newer, shinier record that came in and then all of a sudden you're neglecting something that's just sitting right there.  Capital Tax shouldn't be ignored.  This is an album packed full of the sort of hip hop production that I love.  Lots of upbeat bass lines, thumping drum tracks, jazz horn loops and killer scratches in the breaks.  It came out in 1993, that's one of the high water mark years of hip hop production and this Capital Tax record fits right in.  

On the lyrics side, the MC duties are held down by TMD, Total Mind Devastator.  You've got to admit, that's a pretty slick MC name.  I dig it.   His gruff vocal delivery over the hard hitting beats make it so surprising that this crew was from Oakland.  Everything about it kind of screams East Coast style to me.  But if you're making an album this good, it's pretty irrelevant to me what zip code you get your mail delivered to.

It's so surprising to me how many great albums are still floating around out there waiting to be discovered.  This LP wasn't even all that much on Discogs.  But, they are cramming 58 minutes onto a single LP, which is a bit much.  This is one of those albums that I'd really like to see a nice double LP reissue for.  Hopefully someone steps up.

Capital Tax - The Swoll Package:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kkzIwhoCRcRGt5Ylhg5W7aIncuNx69P8U

The Gamits - Endorsed By You LP - Yellow Vinyl (/200)

Snappy Little Numbers / Fail Harmonic / Bearded Punk (2025, Reissue)

Endorsed by You was originally released back in the year 2000 and was The Gamits debut full length.  I know this, because i looked it up.  I've never been all that familiar with The Gamits.  I have a split 7" with them on it somewhere in my collection (I assumed filed under "G" or "M"), but I really don't remember it as it was part of a 7" subscription series I was in over a decade ago.  Before that I did know their name, but mostly from hanging around the Vinyl Collective message board in the mid 2000s.

Putting on this album is the first time I've heard much of anything by The Gamits.  I wasn't going in with any idea of what they sounded like, aside from the fact that I knew they were pop punk and I do have a good record by Discreature Comfort, the newer band fronted by The Gamits' Chris Fogel.  For whatever reason, despite my unfamiliarity with them, they kind of sounded like I thought they would.  Pretty good pop punk, with the occasional song or section of a song that has the sort of drumming that makes me nuts.

There's this galloping, super fast drum beat in pop punk that I most closely associate with NOFX, but creeps out into many, many bands (even ones I love like Snuff).  It's one of those things that immediately makes me tune out and think, "oh, it's this kind of pop punk."  And while that is definitely not the case for the vast majority of this Gamits record, when it does pop up, I immediately get frustrated.

And that frustration is mostly because I do like the bulk of this album.  The guitars have the big crunchy sound that I dig.  The vocals and choruses remind me a little bit of Hospital Job (though, due to when each of those bands were releasing records, it's actually the other way around).   At its core, it's a well done pop punk record.  It's just at its best when they slow things down just a bit and lean into the pop side of pop punk.  And if the occasional drum gallop isn't a weirdly specific pet peeve for you like it is for me, I think this is a record worth checking out.

The Gamits - Endorsed By You:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/endorsed-by-you-reissue

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah Soundtrack LP - Yellow w/ Gray Splatter Vinyl (/1000)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2023)

The third film in the Heisei Godzilla series was 1991's Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.  In addition to the return of one of Godzilla's most famous adversaries came the return of the man who in many ways defines what Godzilla soundtracks should sound like, composer Akira Ifukube.  But more on the soundtrack in a moment.

I'm definitely the sort of person that prefers Showa Godzilla movies, but there is a lot to like about many of the later entries as well.  That said, I do struggle to find too many positive things to say about Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.  Now, admittedly, I'm probably due for a rewatch as it's been likely ten years or so since I last watched it, but most of my memories are pretty negative.  

It has this really convoluted and kind of stupid time travel storyline that involves aliens tricking humans into bringing muppets back in time to stop Godzilla from being created and creating King Ghidorah instead.  The plot holes are larger than both monsters combined and It's really a slog to get through it.  The fights are fine and Mecha-King Ghidorah is a monster design I really like a lot, but as a whole, right up their as my least favorite of the era.

On the other side of the coin is the soundtrack and having Ifukube back is one of the saving graces of the movie.  His themes are appropriately dark or triumphant, depending on what mood needs to be set and I honestly can't imagine how much worse the movie might have been without his score holding things together.

The LP looks great, I really dig the artwork, though I do wish the art was more cohesive across the various LP releases.  It's great to have these soundtracks on vinyl finally, but in a lot of ways that only frustrates me more that the Heisei series wasn't completed.  As a reminder, the Godzilla vs. Biollante soundtrack should have been the one I wrote about this week, but it never came out.

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah Soundtrack:
https://youtu.be/gFKQ5QS6vIY?si=2JLiqknoNSEBm6o3

Godzilla vs Biollante Soundtrack - This Does Not Exist on Vinyl

This is just a quick missive to remind the world that the next Godzilla movie after The Return Of Godzilla is Godzilla vs. Biollante. Mondo/Death Waltz released Godzilla soundtracks all out of order jumping between Heisei and Millennium series and some non-Godzilla Showa kaiju soundtracks. Then, they just stopped over a year ago and they never did Biollante, the Heisei film that many would argue is the best of that era. 

Doing the soundtracks in order, I should be writing about Godzilla vs. Biollante tomorrow, but I can't write about a record that does not exist. I'll be posting the Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah write up Friday morning, I just wanted to call this omission out again. This also doubles as a plea for someone, anyone, to put this soundtrack out on vinyl. It's a hole in the collection and one that frustrates me greatly.

Kamakaze - Head On 2xLP + 7" (/750)

90s Tapes (2023) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late '80s and early '90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I still have piles of 90s Tapes reissues that I haven't been able to write about yet.  As I was going through some things, I noticed that I still hadn't gotten to Kamakaze, which had come out in late 2023.  This was the first official release for a shelved album that was supposed to have come out on Reprise back in 1995.  I'm not sure why it didn't get released back then, but if I'm being honest I probably wouldn't have heard it back then as '95 is when I was pretty checked out on what was happening in hip hop.

The production on this record was mostly handled by Marley Marl with a few tracks done by K-Def (who did one of my all time favorite beats on "Funky Child" by Lords of the Underground among others).  I think having Marley on beats mostly helps this album hold on to that sound that I prefer rather than dipping into the post 1994 style of production that I don't care for as much.  There are traces of that, as I don't like the G-Funk sounding keyboard whine on "Spread It Around" or the slowly, slinky sounds of "Da Rocks Ya'll" and "Goodlife."

But there are several songs on here that have good, hard hitting drums and an aggressive tempo that falls much more in line with the sort of early '90s hip hop that I prefer.  The tracks that are the ones that make this a record to keep on the shelves are the ones like "Snakes In The Grass," "House O' Hitz Crew," "Devastating" and the title track, "Head On." As far as lyrics and delivery goes, KL and Solo both sound great.  They've got gravelly flows that are engaging and are the type of rappers that I think would always excel if given the right beat.

For me, this isn't a top tier-untouchable lost gem of a record.  It's a really good album that is way better than a lot of records that came out in 1995 and beyond.  It's not perfect and there's a handful of songs that I don't dig all that much, but in general it's a solid album and one that I tend to enjoy more with each subsequent spin.

Kamakaze - Head On:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/head-on

Cyclo Sonic - Heathentown LP - Green Vinyl

Big Neck (2025)

Bandcamp says this came out on December 30th or 2024.  I don't think that can really count as a 2024 release can it?  You truly only had two days to listen to it before 2025 came roaring in.  I think you have to count this as a 2025 release personally, so I will.  And with that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, let's talk about the second Cyclo Sonic album.

When I wrote about their prior record in 2022, I mentioned that I liked their guitar riffing, but wasn't the hugest fan of the vocals.  On their second album, I still mostly feel the same, but there are improvements on both fronts.

As far as the music goes, everything sounds tighter and crisper.  Not in an overproduced sort of way, but the fuzzy chords have a little bit more shine to them now.  They just sound brighter and in turn, better.  From a vocal standpoint, there are still those moments where we tread closer to the glam side of things, with the track "Prethentown" perhaps being the biggest example on the album.  But most songs are upbeat, the good kind of aggressive with some catchy hooks thrown in for good measure.  I think this is an improvement on their debut.  

Cyclo Sonic - Heathentown:
https://bigneckrecords1.bandcamp.com/album/heathentown

The Return Of Godzilla Soundtrack LP - Clear Blue Vinyl (/2500)

Death Waltz / Mondo (2021)

When Waxwork put our their Showa box set of Godzilla soundtracks in 2021, I had barely finished opening the mailing box before I started thinking about what they could do with a Heisei era box set.  Unfortunately, that was not to be as Mondo imprint Death Waltz stepped in instead.  I would have preferred the consistency of Waxwork doing it, but I figured that Mondo does really nice work, so even though these will end up being more expensive in the long run, they'll still be nice.

My plan was to write about these in order of movie release date, so when Mondo started releasing the soundtracks out of order, mixing Millennium series with Heisei series, I figured I'd just have to wait a bit.  Well, here we are well over a year since the last Godzilla soundtrack was released.  Mondo never put one out for 1989's Godzilla vs. Biollante or 2004's Godzilla Final Wars.  

I think it's incredibly lame that they never completed either series and I wonder if it had anything to do with the shake up a few years back where the founders of Mondo were forced out of the company by parent company Funko.  A dumb situation that reeks of the sort of corporate nonsense that drives me up the wall.

Regardless, I have already waited way to long to write about these Godzilla LPs and I'm ready to finally start filing them away in my collection.  So on Fridays for the next few months, I'll be writing about some Godzilla soundtracks.  Starting with the soundtrack to Godzilla's return in the 80's, appropriately called The Return of Godzilla.  At least in Japan, in America is was released as Godzilla 1985 and had scenes inserted of Raymond Burr posing and Dr. Pepper product placement.  The first time I saw Godzilla 1985 was whenever the first airing of it happened on TV.  I remember I was at my dad's house and it was shown during primetime, unlike the usual Saturday or Sunday afternoon showings that I was used to on channel 9 or 11.  I also remember a lot of Dr. Pepper commercials, including at least one that had Godzilla in it.

The movie itself seemed very fancy and flashy to me as technology in movies had certainly evolved since the last time Godzilla was stomping around Tokyo.  It never felt connected to those earlier movies to me back then (which in fairness, storyline-wise it wasn't), but as I've gotten older I hold a similar nostalgia for it as I do the Showa series ones.  But I'm burying the lead about the movie, and about the soundtrack; The Return of Godzilla is kind of boring.

Composed by Reijiro Koroku, the film's score is mostly dark, very brooding and only offers brief moments of respite from that dourness.  The Super X fight at the end is a notable exception as it has a fairly upbeat and triumphant military motif, but a lot of the soundtrack is just a downer.  The movie is kind of the same way. There's some good building smashing action, but it's done in such a heavy handed, trying to be serious manner that it zaps some of the fun out of things.  Don't get me wrong, I like the movie and the soundtrack at the end of the day, but I definitely rank them lower when compared to most Godzilla movies and scores.

The LP that Mondo has given us is good, for the most part.  I can't say I love the art on the cover.  While I like the idea, the execution doesn't do much for me.  Godzilla just looks weird.  There is a very cool pop-up Godziulla built into the center of the gatefold, but of everything Mondo bothered to actually release, this is the artwork I probably like the least.

This write up is probably way longer than most of the others will be as I had to set the stage a bit.  Next up on the Godzilla filmography is Godzilla vs. Biollante.  But again, Mondo never released that soundtrack so I'm going to have to skip it and go right to the movie after that next Friday.  I just hope someone, anyone (hey Waxwork!) releases the Biollante soundtrack on vinyl someday.  It's a glaring hole in the collection and really frustrates me.

The Return Of Godzilla Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp7o1q38PjxHybeS3MHxg8uX7Wcdzyp3X

Mystidious Misfitss – A Who Dat? 2xLP + 7" (/500)

90s Tapes (2024, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

If you are looking for a hip hop group that has a name that is difficult to remember how to spell, Mystidious Misfitss might just be the group for you.  Their lone album, A Who Dat?, originally came out in 1995.  I didn't make much of an impact at the time, and from what I gather, that seems to be because their original label, Epic, didn't even bother to release the album on CD in America.  But had I heard this album, it's definitely one that I would have been into.

I know there is only a one year difference between 1994 and 1995, but I can't even begin to explain just how different hip hop production in those two years sounds to me.  It's like almost an entirely different genre of music for the most part.  Over the years I've learned that there were good beats still being produced after 1994, but I still find them to be on the rare side.  But for whatever reason, A Who Dat? is absolutely full of them.  

If you told me this came out in 1993, I wouldn't even bat an eyelash.  To the point where I'm mostly convinced this was recorded much earlier and the release just got delayed to 1995.  I haven't read that anywhere and have no proof other than the aforementioned nugget that this didn't come out on CD in the US, but this just sounds like that perfect, early 90s golden era sound that I love.  On top of the strong beats are 3 MCs that do a great job.  It's similar to other multi-person groups of that like Yaggfu Front, Pharcyde and maybe Leaders of the New School as long as you understand there's no one like Busta in Mystidious Misfitss.  There's a few too many skits, but that's not a problem unique to Mystidious Misfitss.

As usual, 90s Tapes sets the bar as high as high could be with this reissue.  It's a thoughtfully put together package with excellent artwork, great sounds and everything you would expect from them.  There's a reason I set an alarm multiple times a month to wake up in the middle of the night to buy their releases.  I don't deprive myself of sleep for just anything.  If you see one of these on Discogs or eBay or whataever and it's a nice price, go grab it.  Mystidious Misfitss created a great record that more people should hear.

Mystidious Misfitss – A Who Dat?:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/a-who-dat

Arcadian Starship - No Feelings 7"

Debauch Mood (2024)

Arcadian Starship is a group fronted by Shirahama, who was also in Sleeping Aides and Razor Blades.  They put out a full length a couple of years ago that I didn't get as the bits I heard of it didn't light my world on fire.  My understanding is that album was more of a solo endeavor, but on this 7", Arcadian Starship is reimagined as a full band.

Japanese powerpop/poppunk is often the best version of those genres, especially these days.  Arcadian Starship dabbles in both and I can hear the influence of the 90s UK scene, sort of like a Mega City Four, but it's filtered through a power pop lense that has echos of The Cute Lepers.  As you can imagine, this is great, upbeat music with lovely choruses and lightly fuzzed out guitar work.

It's so good, it really does make me want to give that first full length another chance, but more than anything I'm looking forward to seeing what this group does in the future.  A whole album of songs like this is something I would sign up for immediately.

Arcadian Starship - No Feelings 7":
https://debauchmood.bandcamp.com/album/arcadian-starship-no-feelings-7

Dr. Frank - Show Business Is My Life LP - 180g Vinyl (/200)

Sounds Rad (2024, Reissue)

It's taken me way too long to write about the Sounds Rad reissue of this Dr. Frank record.  It came out last year and is (sort of?) part of the Sounds Rad Mr. T Experience reissue campaign.  I'm eagerly waiting for the next entry in that series.  It's been a little quiet lately, but I keep hoping the next one announced will be Making Things With Light.  Maybe my favorite Mr. T Experience record, but definitely the one I would really like to hear a remastered and spruced up version of.

But today, we have the Dr. Frank solo record from 1999.  I remember after Love As Dead had come out there were already rumors and scuttlebutt about a Dr. Frank solo record.  Based on the recent string of acoustic songs on Mr. T Experience records, I had assumed that a solo record would be more of that with just Frank and a guitar.

What we got instead was a record of predominantly full band rock songs that to be honest, mostly don't really sound all that different from the Mr. T Experience records of the era.  I was really disappointed by this at the time and truthfully, I didn't really listen to the record all that often.  As the years went by, I didn't remember much from it aside from the "Knock Knock" song, which was admittedly fun.

When the reissue was announced, I was again kind of disappointed that it was 'taking' a spot from a Mr. T Experience album that could have been released instead.  But, I didn't have this on vinyl and figured it was time to give the album a shot again.  Especially as all of the Sounds Rad reissues have been excellent, and the die cut vinyl sleeve on this one was particularly cool looking.  And I'm glad I did, it's better than I remember it being and listening to it without a preconceived notion of what I thought it should be let me appreciate the record more for what it is.

In a lot of ways, I think it's an even stronger record than Revenge Is Sweet And So Are You, another one that I didn't appreciate as much at the time, but ended up enjoying more when I went back to it many years later.  It's more varied in sound and kind of has a ramshackle mix tape sort of vibe to it as opposed to the glossiness of Revenge.  And there are a handful of acoustic songs on here too, so it's not like that section was completely ignored or anything.

In hindsight, I should have given this album more of a chance 25 years ago, but I had less patience back then and was always looking for that next amazing thing.  A lot of times, I never found it and ignored some pretty good stuff that was sitting right under my nose.

Dr. Frank - Show Business Is My Life:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mFjGDEION3dzNaLpeg99Nt7EV_suLDB9k

Intelligent Hoodlum - Tragedy - Saga of a Hoodlum 2xLP

Hip Hip Enterprise / 25 To Life (2018, Reissue) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Following up on last week's write up of Intelligent Hoodlum's debut album, we have his follow up, Saga of a Hoodlum.  It was on this album, that he brought the name Tragedy more to the forefront.  It's also much easier to write about Tragedy than writing Intelligent Hoodlum over and over again, so we'll go with Tragedy from here on out.

I really dig the first record, but one of the shortcomings all these years later is that the 1990 production sound is a little dated to my ears.  I still like it, but I tend to need to be in the mood to listen to something of that era to really get into it.  Saga of a Hoodlum came out in 1993, which is right there in the middle of my favorite time in hip hop.  The production has caught up to Tragedy's rhymes and as good as his debut is, for me, this one blows it out of the water.

Yeah, I suppose a few of the samples are not exactly unique and if you can listen to "Funk Mode" without immediately thinking of Brand Nubian, kudos to you.  But that really doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the record at all, I'm too busy enjoying the beats and listening Tragedy uncork killer rhyme after killer rhyme.  This would be the last time Tragedy would put out an album until 2001.  I haven't heard that one, and do want to check it out, but more than anything, I lament the extended time off from 1990 to 1993 without an album.  in a time period where groups were dropping albums every year and innovation was at an all time high, I wonder what Tragedy could have done with another release in between the two that came out.

This album was not released on vinyl when it was originally released, so it's great that it finally came out for the album's 25th anniversary.  I didn't know it came out originally, so I had to backtrack and hunt down a copy.  Double vinyl is great and I really do like the new artwork, though I personally would have preferred it with the original.  Mostly because the art doesn't really fell like something that would have happened in 1993, it's too modern an aesthetic.  The original art might not look as 'nice' as this, but it's of that era and fits more with the music, I think.  Still, a great reissue and one worth looking out for.

Intelligent Hoodlum - Tragedy - Saga of a Hoodlum:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m8ujse4W-hHVq8z6V_kRs7IyRhgcmQviU

Clikatat Ikatowi – The Trials And Tribulations Of... Box Set - White / Black Splatter Vinyl

Numero Group (2025)

This is the last of the 3 recent Numero box sets I've picked up.  Like the Boys Life and Boilermaker sets before, Numero has done an fantastic job with this set.  It has all of the bells and whistles you come to expect from their releases: great artwork, great liner notes, great sound and a thorough track listing.

Clikitat Ikatowi is a band name that I think I first heard of when Mario Rubalcaba joined Rocket From The Crypt.  The band was no more at that point and I didn't back track and hunt down any of their records that I had missed.  I'm not even sure why, as I usually tend to do that.  But their scarcity or my unfamiliarity with them just made them one of those bands that I kept meaning to get to, but never did.  Numero did the hard work for me and have compiled all of their songs from their lone proper full length, an EP, their demo and compilation appearances.

It's another one of those instances where I wish I had been listening to this band all along.  I especially think that had I been able to hear them in the 90s when I was exploring bands like Unwound, Karp and godHeadsilo, I probably would have become very attached.  Honestly, they blow Karp and godHeadsilo out of the water and are every bit as compelling as the best moments of Unwound even if the sound isn't completely similar.  

They're also a band that shows quite a bit of growth from release to release.  While you can definitely tell they are the same band all the way through, they really coalesce into a tight knit unit by the time we get to their swan song, River of Souls.  Those songs have a tumultuous churning quality two them, while at the same time displaying a cohesion where you know the band is never going to lose track of the plot.  It's a sign of what a great band they were and what a jackass I have been for not listening to them all this time.

Clikatat Ikatowi – The Trials And Tribulations Of...:
https://clikatatikatowi.bandcamp.com/album/the-trials-and-tribulations-of

Intelligent Hoodlum - Intelligent Hoodlum 2xLP

 

90s Tapes (2021, Reissue) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Intelligent Hoodlum (aka Tragedy) is a name that for whatever reason I was pretty familiar back in the 90s when I was originally discovering hip hop.  I don't know why I knew his name though as I didn't have any of his records back then.  It would take decades before I actually listened to music, but it seemed like there was some sort of lore about him back them that I can't quite pin down.  This probably just reads as me rambling, but the point I'm trying to make is that I was aware of the legacy of Intelligent Hoodlum before I got my hands on his music.

This album originally came out in 1990, so it does have a sound that's probably a little dated, in comparison to the type of records that were being made in other years of the early 90s.  That isn't to say it's bad, in fact there's something that's equally charming and exciting about how the production was handled during that time period.  It feels like the beats on this album as about as cutting edge as they could have been in 1990 apart from your Public Enemys, Ultramagnetics and Tribes.  And it's over this production that Tragedy lets loose.

Lyrically, it's pretty obvious that this came out in the early part of the 90s, due to subject matter and some of the tropes that are leaned into.  But aside from that, Tragedy is among the upper tier lyricists of that type, especially as far as how his rhyme schemes flow.  Is he a Rakim or a Chuck D?  Of course not, barely anyone else is.  But in a time period where Kid N Play and Young MC ruled the roost, it's immediately apparent how much higher Tragedy floats.

90s Tapes handled this reissue and while I missed the boat on it when it originally came out in 2021, I was able to hunt down a copy at a reasonable price.  It's the best version of the record that is out there and while it may not be packed full of the bonus material as some of their other releases, they handle the album itself with the best possible care.  It's another stellar reissue.

Intelligent Hoodlum - Intelligent Hoodlum:
https://tragedykhadafi252.bandcamp.com/album/intelligent-hoodlum

Roach Squad - Roach Squad LP - Orange Vinyl

Little Rocket / Sounds of Subterrania / Waterslide / Rad Girlfriend (2025)

Roach Squad is a band made of Hugo Mudie from The Sainte Catherines, Alex Keane from City Mouse, Sim Robson from nowhere else that Discogs is aware of and Graeme Philliskirk and Frankie Stubbs from Leatherface.  Graeme and Hugo were also in Medictations with the late Dickie Hammond, and that group is what I see the most similarities to when it comes to the sounds of Roach Squad.  And that's a good thing.

When you have two members of Leatherface in your group, with Frankie being one of them, the odds are really stacked that I'm going to be interested in your band.  And Roach Squad does not disappoint, serving up the sort of gritty, melodic punk that in many ways is my absolute favorite kind of music to listen to.  It has that 90s UK vibe, with gruff, but melodic vocals courtesy of Hugo Mudie on 12 of the 13 tracks.  Now, while there is a definitely a part of me that's thinking to myself, "self, why is Frankie only singing on one of these songs," Hugo carries the vocal duties exceptionally well, just as he did with Medictations.

Frankie does step in on "I Wonder," which is a treat.  But the rest of the time he and Graeme are holding down the band with excellent guitar interplay, with those trademark riffs and dynamics that have made me a fan of this sort of thing for 30 years now.  It's a super consistent record from start to finish and while I wouldn't say that there's a specific song or two that stands above the pack, the pack of songs as a whole is pretty stellar.  An easy recommendation as one of the best albums of 2025 so far.  If you read this website even somewhat regularly, I cannot fathom you not digging this.

Roach Squad - Roach Squad:
https://roachsquad.bandcamp.com/album/roach-squad

Boilermaker – Not Enough Time To Get Anything Halfway Done Box Set - Blue Vinyl

Numero Group (2024, Reissue)

I was reasonably plugged in to a lot of music that was happening in the mid 90s.  I followed as much as I could and bought as much as I could afford.  Yet despite my best efforts, there are bands that slipped through the cracks for me and Boilermaker is one of them.  You'd think that being from southern California would have helped get them on my radar considering how much I tried to follow what was happening in San Diego, but it wasn't until many years after they stopped playing that I had even heard of them, let alone heard them.  Full disclosure, listening to this box set was the first time I have heard the vast, vast majority of these songs.

But it's records like this that I think the phrase "better late than never" was invented for.  Boilermaker is a pretty great band.  They're in that post punk, emo adjacent wheelhouse if you want to throw around genre specifications that don't really mean a whole hell of a lot any more.  What I can say, in my dumb way, is that they're a noisy rock band, that has just enough melody to make their angst palatable to me.  There are times, particularly in the vocals, that I'm reminded of fellow California cohorts, No Knife.  There are other times where the vibes feel more midwestern in nature, bringing to mind new label mates and last week's box set stars Boys Life.

As with most Numero offerings, this box set is a triumph.  Complete to a fault with all of their albums and an singles along with some demos and live material.  The box set itself is gorgeous with their usual perfectly executed liner notes book that helps tell the story of this band.  The closest thing I have to a complaint is that two of the songs are included on a bonus 7" that went out to the first 500 orders and those songs aren't part of the larger box set.  I have the 7", so I'm good - but it is a little strange to me that it feels like an add on.  I'm sure there's a reason for that, I'm just not sure what it is.  Other than that minor quibble, it's another home run from Numero.

Boilermaker – Not Enough Time To Get Anything Halfway Done:
https://boilermakernumero.bandcamp.com/album/not-enough-time-to-get-anything-halfway-done

T-Max - The Alleywalker 2xLP (/250)

 

Trumindz (2024) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

The Alleywalker was originally meant to be released back in 1993, but for whatever reason (I looked, but couldn't really find any information about why) it wasn't actually released.  30 plus years later, here it is courtesy of Trumindz Records.  I had never heard of T-Max prior to this reissue popping up and I'm grateful I was in the right place at the right time when it came out so I could grab it.  It's sold out now and I would have been bummed out to miss on this one.

In some ways, I sort of feel like the only thing I need to say about this album is that it was supposed to come out in 1993.  It has the sort of beats and production that are kind of synonymous with that year and it's everything I'm looking for in my hip hop.  The tracks are fast paced, the bass lines are real head nodders and that aggressive snare drum crack hits right where it needs to be every time.  T-Max is from Boston, so you definitely get that golden era classic sound.

Lyrically, T-Max more than gets the job done.  I sort of hear a little bit of a similarity to Ed O.G., but that just might be my brain applying someone else from Boston to T-Max's sound.  Regardless of who is is or isn't similar to, he knows his way around a rhyme and lays out some standard, but excellent tales of life and of mic supremacy.  This is definitely the sort of album I'd recommend whole heartedly to folks that like that early 90s sound and are looking to check out something that hadn't heard before.  It's a bummer it's sold out, but it's definitely worth hunting for.

T-Max - The Alleywalker:

https://youtu.be/gokFivAkvMY?si=FopaPJf-UE35enQk

Jesse - Complete Discography 2xLP - 3 Versions (UK/US, Germany & Japan)

Little Rocket / Sounds Of Subterrania / Waterslide / Rad Girlfriend (2024, Reissue)

Jesse is the Frankie Stubbs band that released records for a brief moment in time between 1995 and 1998.  It was after the initial incarnation of Leatherface and the band Pope, before Leatherface eventually started playing again.  They released three 7"s, a Japanese tour split 7" with Hooton 3 Car and a full length album that capped things off in '98.  This new double LP discography compiles everything from those releases plus a previously unreleased bonus song.

Let's start out with the music, it's flawless.  The songs album is in rarified air for me as I absolutely love it and have been pretty obsessed with everything the band was doing since those 7"s first started coming out.  It's very much a band that makes sense as being a Frankie Stubbs band, it's not dissimilar to Leatherface or Pope enough to not appeal to fans of those bands.  But at the same time, I always felt there was something a little smoother about the Jesse songs.  

Maybe it's just that they are a touch slower and more melodic than some of the more aggressive Leatherface recordings that proceeded it.  But if you had heard The Last or the Pope record, if made a lot of sense that this is where Frankie was going next.  Just flawless songs and the only complaints I ever had is that I wish the LP didn't also have all of the 7" songs on it. and we had gotten 14 brand new ones instead of just seven.

OK, let's get to the variations.  First up is the standard version on grey swirl vinyl.  It was also available on orange, blue and white vinyl.  Not sure of the pressing information on each of the individual colors, but I'm not aware of any one of them being rarer or pressed in different numbers than any of the others.

Second, we have the Sounds of Subterrania version from Germany.  This one was pressed on good old fashioned black vinyl, but has alternate, screened artwork that is just spectacular.  The picture doesn't do justice to the flap, tuck in thing that closes up the whole package.  The cover art is taken from the Indestructible 7", which also happens to be my favorite Jesse song.

Finally is the Waterslide version from Japan.  This one is on clear vinyl, that is described on the Waterslide website as being "coke blue."  It also comes with a sharp looking obi that I'm a big fan of.

I don't buy as many duplicate copies of albums as I used to.  The variant game is a game I've decided is just too expensive these days.  But for an album as important to me as this one is and the three distinct versions that were made, I just couldn't pass them up.  But hey, I'm showing some restraint.  I didn't get all four different colors of the standard version.

Jesse - Complete Discography:
https://jesselrr.bandcamp.com/album/jesse-complete-discography

Boys Life – Home Is A Highway Box Set - Clear/Blue Vinyl (/250)

Numero Group (2024)

Boys Life was a band that I originally discovered while writing for my college newspaper.  In my dealings with Cargo records, they sent me a review copy of Departures and Landfalls and I was immediately taken with it.  While I tended to prefer the poppier strains of that wave of emo, something about Boys Life really connected with me.  Or I guess it's more accurate to say that Departures and Landfalls connected with me, for whatever reason, I never hunted down their other records the way I did for most bands of that era.

Luckily, Numero has done the hunting for me.  Which is a relief as that first album in particular was very rarely available and when it was always seemed to be priced outside of my comfort zone.  This box set solves that problem by gathering up both Boys Life full lengths along side of every other song from their demo and various 7"s.  There's even some live tracks as a bonus.

It's those first two albums that are the biggest draws for me and both sound fantastic as part of this set,  I've been kicking myself that it took me so long to finally hear the self titled one as it's really great and something I really should have been listening to for years at this point.  The singles/demo part of this box set is also outstanding.  A lot of those early songs did end up on the first album, but typically different versions, so I enjoy having access to everything.  Plus there's still a solid amount of songs not on either full length.  The live material is nice to have, but I'm not really a live record guy, so it's probably the bit I'm least interested in.

Of course, Numero comes correct with outstanding packaging on this release.  Everything is given the extra primo good treatment and the accompanying liner notes really are more of a book than just notes for the albums.  If there was a label to tackle this project, I couldn't think of a better one than Numero.  There are so many bands I'd like to see them give this sort of treatment to; Seaweed, Christie Front Drive, No Knife...but they could start by doing Chisel, who thus far have only had one of their LPs reissued on Numero Group.  Gimme a box!

Boys Life – Home Is A Highway
https://boyslife.bandcamp.com/album/home-is-a-highway

Bomb Threat - Bomb Threat LP

 

 90s Tapes (2024, Reissue) 

 Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

Originally released on cassette in 1995, Bomb Threat was definitely not something on my radar back then.  It's another one of those misplaced relics that 90s Tapes has leapt in to rescue and give a proper reissue to.  It's a short album, clocking in at 25 minutes and really only has six actual songs, making it one of the rare single LPs in the 90s Tapes discography.  But it's still treated with the usual respect, looking and sounding great.

Bomb Threat is a crew and the album plays more like a compilation.  Five of the six songs are helmed by specific MCs or groups and it's not until the final track that the whole unit is credited for a song.  I don't know any of the individual groups or MCs on this record, but I certainly wouldn't mind hearing more from some of them.

As I've mentioned many times, 1995 is that line in the sand year for me with hip hop most of the time.  1994 and earlier is where my heart typically lies.  If a record came out in 1995 or later, it's more of a rarity for me to connect with it.  It does happen though, and Bomb Threat is one of those time, and it really boils down to the production for me.

There are great beats on this album, and while they tend to lean towards the mellower side of the golden era, they also lean close enough to that rougher early 90s sound to grab my attention.  This is particularly apparent in the first two songs.  "Phenomenal" by Bleak may not quite be phenomenal, but it's awfully good with a killer beat that Bleak runs roughshod over.  The other highlight for me is "Sabotage" which is attributed to Lifesavas & Sly Brown Da Hornet.  Again it's the production that seals the deal for me, though everyone on the mic gets the job done on this as well.

The rest of the songs are all good, there's nothing on here that I don't like, it's just those first two that tend to steal the show every time I listen to it.  I'm not sure if any of these guys have more material from the early to mid 90s but if they do, I'd love to hear it.

Bomb Threat - Bomb Threat:
https://90stapes.bandcamp.com/album/bomb-threat

Bambies - Snotty Angels LP - Smokey Gray Vinyl

Spaghetty Town / Wanda (2024)

This album was sent to me along with the Peawees album I wrote about a few weeks back.  I didn't know Bambies before getting this LP, but I'm pleased to make their introduction.  This band is from Montreal and I guess has been going since 2014.  Snotty Angels is their second full length, with their first one having been release on tape only, it seems.

I was mildly trepidatious before playing this, as snotty isn't usually a descriptor used for the bulk of the bands I'm into.  I can't tell you how many times I've put on a record where the music is promising only to have it ruined by someone who absolutely can't sing in any capacity.  Luckily, that didn't happen with Bambies.  While the vocals do certainly have an element of 'snot' to them, it's not to the point where the growl takes over and the tunes become painful.  There's enough melody still coming through to carry the songs and when you add in the backing vocals, we've got some nice choruses going on here.

Musically, this is some really nice jangly power-pop-punk-garage type stuff.  I'm reminded a bit of the the two Love Boat records that came out on Alien Snatch quite a few years ago.  There's also a bit of The Cute Lepers mixed in as well.  It's upbeat, the musicianship is on point and is just a generally enjoyable record.  A pleasant bonus with another record I was already looking forward to.

Bambies - Snotty Angels:
https://thebambies.bandcamp.com/album/snotty-angels

The Supersuckers - The Smoke Of Hell LP - Red Vinyl (/2000)

Sub Pop (2024, Reissue)

The Supersuckers are a band that I discovered around the same time as I discovered Rocket From The Crypt and the two bands often seemed like they went hand in hand, at least to a certain segment of fans.  As the years have gone by, it's felt like that cross section of fans has gotten smaller and smaller.  I think that is at least in part because of how the two bands' catalogs diverged around the late 90s.  I always thought that The Supersuckers started to embrace their metal influences more than their punk ones.  At least for me, that was more than enough to make me less interested in their other albums.

But I really do still like a lot of the early Supersuckers material.  La Mano Cornuda was my introduction to The Supersuckers and that album along with The Sacrilicious Sounds of... are the two of theirs that I always dug the most.  I never had The Smoke of Hell or The Songs All Sound The Same compilation album, but a buddy of mine in high school did.  So while I heard them back then, I then went decades without hearing them again.

I was excited when Sub Pop finally rereleased The Smoke of Hell.  Here was my chance to add the vinyl to my collection without paying the collectors prices that the original pressing of the album had been going for.  This version is on red vinyl and is a somewhat limited reissue with 2000 copies pressed.

All these years later, I think I see some of the things that I don't like about The Supersuckers more than I did back then.  Again, those pesky metal influences are there and while maybe they are sharing the bill with a louder, riff based punk sound..they are still there.  No aspect of metal has ever been anything I've been interested in, so for me, The Supersuckers are at their best when they're just barrelling ahead with simpler chord progressions and the catchy hook in the chorus.  I'm sure a lot of folks would argue about how catchy some of these songs are, but these guys have always known how to write a pop hook, they often just bury it under a cloud of whiskey and attitude.

Again, I'm happy to finally add this to the collection.  While it's not my favorite Supersuckers release, there's plenty of good stuff on it.  I'm still debating on whether or not I need to hunt down a copy of The Songs Still Sound The Same or not.  That one kind of completed the quadrilogy of the Supersuckers albums that I have interest in.

The Supersuckers - The Smoke Of Hell:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mCWoW4jMnbefNh13LkZKsLmsO9q8CTSWY