Blogcritics Author: McMayhem

Music Review: Creature Feature - The Greatest Show Unearthed

McMayhem — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:46:44 EDT

Creature Feature takes a fertile idea and aborts it.
With a debut album mired in one-dimensional themes, Creature Feature's entree into the music biz amounts to them shooting themselves in the foot. They've stopped painfully short of the heights they could’ve achieved with The Greatest Show Unearthed, a collection of lighthearted, death-and-dismemberment-themed tunes heavy on the...

Music Review: Your Highness Electric- The Grand Hooded Phantom

McMayhem — Sun, 9 Mar 2008 08:44:13 EDT

Your Highness Electric bring the groove, fire up the riffage, and leave no philosophical stoner unrocked.
For godsakes, you boys of Your Highness Electric. Where the hell have you been all my life? After eons of holding out in vain for smart, groovy riff-rock like yours, praying that someone someday would hit upon just the right formula, I was about ready to give up hope. (One can only heap so many expectations on Clutch, after all.) It’s...

Music Review: The Horrorpops - Kiss Kiss Kill Kill

McMayhem — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 08:28:06 EST

The Horrorpops boogie, gloat, intimidate and blaze their own path on their most mature album to date.
Within the panoply of bands resurrecting the rockabilly attitude of yesteryear, The Horrorpops have done what few others can - stand out. They’ve managed to bridge a genre gap by incorporating pop hooks and a brash, decidedly rocking sound into what could otherwise have been an exercise in uninspired replication, and by swing-bashing out a...

Music Review: Howlin' Rain - Magnificent Fiend

McMayhem — Sat, 9 Feb 2008 20:00:01 EST

Howlin' Rain are roots psychedelia that leave little to be desired.
The term “howlin’ rain” is a pretty intense one, no? The words evoke imagery of immutable nature, personified and forlorn, while the truncated howlin’ is bursting with Southern-fried soul. Not to mention Howlin’ Wind was the name of the debut album by Graham Parker and The Rumour in 1976, setting the bar considerably...

Music Review: Bobaflex - Tales From Dirt Town

McMayhem — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:29:01 EST

Bobaflex have come to rip your head off and spit down your neck. And you'll like it.
So I’d been hearing about these Bobaflex guys for awhile, right? I didn’t know anything about them or what they sounded like, though. I finally came across a vague description of them being sort of stoneriffic, so I decided to check them out and it turned out to be one of those rare blind purchases that I didn’t regret at all. ...

Music Review: Sixx:A.M. - The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack

McMayhem — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:40:26 EST

Once upon a time, Nikki Sixx was a god.
The most annoying thing about people who've died and been revived is that they never, ever shut up about it. Nikki Sixx, reigning champion of the second shot at life, has in fact gone so far as to make a movie about his brush with death. Unfortunately for all of us, his virulent strain of narcissism can't even be excused by the fact that he once...