I have been fortunate to have the some great opportunities to publish in the past month. I just launched a new monthly vinyl record review column with AudioFemme. I will be reviewing new vinyl and vintage finds every month.
Here’s the first column! In it I review a comp of North-West grunge bands and a comp of psychedelic, James Brown-inspired bands from Benin and Togo.
NEW VINYL
No Seattle: Forgotten Sounds of the North-West Grunge Era 1986-97 (Volume One)
Compilation by Soul Jazz Records
The thing is, I really wanted to like this record. From the first song I heard — Thrillhammer’s “Alice’s Palace” — I knew that I would.
The majority of the bands on No Seattle never got record deals; they didn’t tour extensively outside of the North-West region and they didn’t achieve fame; therefore, their output was often raw and unpolished. The liner notes set the context for how tiny the rock scenes were in these small towns in Washington and Oregon, where the floor breaking from the walls at a house show could be a band’s biggest (or at least most memorable) gig — as it was for the band Pod.
Willona M. Sloan 