Sleep, "From Beyond" While doom metal in general traces back to Sabbath for inspiration, a lot of modern doom looks to Sleep's Sleep's Holy Mountain, along with a few other influences like the Melvins' sludgiest work. This album really set the template though, which its...
Wasted Shirt, "Double the Dream" Wasted Shirt is Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt) and Ty Segall, playing the sort of demented noise duo rock that Chippendale in particular is known for. There's only one album of it, called Fungus II, but it's well-worth picking up if...
Blue Scholars, "Cornerstone" The lead-in to the The Long March EP, this really tells you what to expect on this record. And, honestly, this is an extremely generous EP - 9 tracks, 35 minutes, that's plenty of material for a full LP. Blackalicious, "On Fire...
Ghostface Killah, "Wildflower" Ghostface's first solo record, Ironman, is very good. A RZA produced record from 1996 couldn't help but be good. But I think Ghostface's unique personality hadn't quite fully come through, and the production hadn't quite yet differentiated totally from the Wu-Tang Clan....
Today! The Flaming Lips, "Be Free, A Way" On 2013's The Terror, The Flaming Lips were using their psychedelia to explore not shiny wonder but the depths of despair. With Wayne Coyne's romantic life falling apart and Steven Drozd again struggling with substance abuse, the...
