Albums by SWRM, Zabus, Spaceface, Insomniac, Go Kurosawa, Late Again, Nate Smith and Orsak:Oslo made the cut on my list of great, overlooked psychedelic albums released in summer 2025, in my first quarterly column on the genre for Treble.
Archive for the Reviews Category
8 Great Psych LPs From Summer 2025 by SWRM, Zabus, Spaceface, Insomniac
Posted in Album Reviews, Lists, Reviews with tags Go Kurosawa, Insomniac, Late Again, Nate Smith, Orsak:Oslo, Spaceface, SWRM, Zabus on 10/02/2025 by Kurt OrzeckBlack Heart Procession’s ‘Hearts & Tanks’ EP: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags the Black Heart Procession, Three Mile Pilot on 10/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Although it only contains four songs, Black Heart Procession’s Hearts & Tanks EP captured the essence of the circumspect band. With drummer Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, Cold War Kids) and accordion player Matt Resovich (The Album Leaf, Mung) in tow, Black Heart Procession crafted and recorded the four songs in 72 hours. That may seem rushed, but as writers will tell you, stream-of-consciousness exercises in which revisions are forbidden often result in works of unadorned honesty. Read my full review on Spectrum Culture.
From the Vault: Top 20 Reasons Why Monterey Pop Was Better Than Today’s Music Festivals
Posted in Concert Reviews, Essays, Reviews with tags Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Mayhem Festival, Monterey Pop Festival on 10/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
[This article was originally published in 2009 on IndiePit.]
So IndiePit will be at the Mayhem festival this weekend. Yeah, yeah, keep snickering, buster. Look, we all have guilty pleasures, and one of ours happens to be Mushroomhead, OK? Kidding, kidding … but Job for a Cowboy, Behemoth and Slayer? Not a terrible way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Sure beats mowing lawns.
Obviously, Mayhem is only one of about a gazillion festivals, hootenannies, throwdowns, hoedowns, showdowns and mow-downs (?) happening this “summer,” that wacky, wet and wild season that began oh, some 18 days ago and will last until September 22. At that point, autumn will swoop in, wrest the reins from its rival season and pulverize it into oblivion … for nine months or so, anyway.
Getting a little off-topic, are we? Oh, yes. Music. Sweet music. Since it is the summer and all, attention naturally gravitates toward festivals, those bastions of sweat-soaked sods, misplaced mods, knuckle-dragging clods, Christopher Dodds and other odds and ends.
They can be fun — if you’ve got buckets of patience, nary a phobia and an active-enough imagination to keep you distracted from all the dirt, heat, smoke and slick flesh sliding up against yours. But they can also be torturous and confining, like being helplessly strapped to a chair, at the mercy of a dentist from hell.
Continue readingTitanic’s ‘Hagen’: Two Cent Album Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Titanic on 09/30/2025 by Kurt OrzeckTitanic wasn’t all that big when it made its debut in October 2023 with Vidrio meekly introduced the project birthed by pianist/guitarist i.la Católica. Something of a cross between a bedroom recording and a hushed session in an after-hours jazz speakeasy, the modest affair featured only three additional guest players, who contributed carefully measured amounts of vocals, cello, saxophone and drums to its eight songs. The follow-up LP, Hagen, does a far better job living up to the Titanic moniker with which Católica christened her project. Read my review on Spectrum Culture.
Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s ‘Innern’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Der Weg Einer Freiheit on 09/29/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Der Weg Einer Freiheit’s new album, Innern, will be regarded as one of the year’s greatest metal records: one that hits hard by virtue of masterful execution of musical adeptness, and that simultaneously leaves listeners feeling better about themselves than when they pressed play. In a world that is completely upside-down, perhaps black netal is our best hope of survival. Read my review on Veil of Sound.
From the Vault: Are the Pixies Milking It With Their Multitudinous Video Releases?
Posted in Album Reviews, Essays, Reviews with tags David Lovering, Frank Black, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, Pixies on 09/27/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
(Note: This essay was written before the Pixies released a fifth video, Live at the Town and Country Club 1988, in 2011.)
So, shocker: Some people have been suggesting in the five-plus years since Pixies re-formed that maybe the foursome – who are revving up for another trek – have only been doing it for the money. What a strange, bizarre accusation. Like the plot of a Behind the Music episode, it’s the most predictable question of all for any band getting back together: It’s been alleged of everyone from CSNY to Simon & Garfunkel to Eagles to the Stooges to My Bloody Valentine to Rage Against the Machine to Dinosaur Jr. to the Jesus Lizard and on. And on. And on.
On the other hand, there is some potentially sound evidence that raking in the clams has been the main, if not only, reason Pixies reunited. As evident in the somewhat-illuminating doc loudQUIETloud, one of the DVDs we’ll be focusing on below, David Lovering was on the verge of going broke, falling back on his career as a magician – turning tricks in order to make ends meet, if you will.
Continue readingArcadea’s ‘The Exodus of Gravity’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Arcadea's 'The Exodus of Gravity': Two Cent Review, Brann Dailor, Mastodon on 09/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Billed as “a futuristic synth-rock odyssey set five billion years in the future, in a world where gravity no longer holds us down — literally or metaphorically — but pulsing with the urgency of now,” Arcadea set the bar a little too high with The Exodus of Gravity. It would seem that the band put more thought into the conceptual sci-fi story they concocted, which alone isn’t enough to buoy the record. Read my Treble review.
Umlaut’s ‘Desolë’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Clinton “Bär” McKinnon, Mike Patton, Mr. Bungle, Umlaut on 09/26/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
How the 10 songs that comprise Desolë are generally catchy is what makes this record a true marvel; it’s like watching a knuckleball thrown by a baseball pitcher circle about as if it’s lost its target, only to land smack-dab in the catcher’s glove. It takes mastery to make order out of chaos, and with Desolë, Umlaut earns that distinction. Read my Treble review.
Julia, Julia’s ‘Sugaring a Strawberry’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Julia & the Squeezettes, Julia Julia, Julia Kugel, Soft Palms, The Coathangers on 09/23/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
The Coathangers’ Julia Kugel treats each note of her second solo album as a delicate item to be savored and appreciated from a state of mindfulness. Read my FLOOD review here.
Shame’s ‘Cutthroat’: Two Cent Review
Posted in Album Reviews, Reviews with tags Shame on 09/22/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
UK rockers Shame don’t mince words on their fourth studio album, pairing their infectious proto-punk grooves with nakedly hedonistic lyrics. Read my FLOOD review.
The Bad Penny (beta) 