rock and roll fables

music, comics, and media in a rock 'n' roll world

© Copyright 2014 - 2023 · RNRF LLC · All Rights Reserved ·

Alanis, Alternative Classics, And More Fuel The Animal Instincts That Dwell In The Official Soundtrack Of Yellowjackets Season 2

By Leave a Comment

You don’t need to watch Showtime’s hit Thriller Yellowjackets to enjoy the (mostly) ’90’s mixtape that serves as the soundtrack for Season 2… but it sure does help! For a casual music fan you get choice cuts from The Cranberries, Live, Veruca Salt, Garbage, 4 Non Blondes and Pulp to name a few but for fans of the show, those classic tracks as well as the unique covers and other sonic oddities (Lookin’ at you, Alanis!) scattered throughout season 2’s 9 episodes hit a little harder when dropped into the middle of nowhere with a pack of teens trying to survive and, later, in the present trying to navigate some truly complicated and, quite frankly, very effed up lives.

[Read more…]

We Are Scientists Continue On A Path Of Constant Excellence With LOBES

By 1 Comment

There’s something comforting in the knowledge of how amazing We Are Scientists has evolved over the years. Especially when considering how many of their contemporaries of the mid-aughts yielded many a one hit wonder/album and then went the way of the Dodo or just transmogrified into something different entirely (Looking at you, Arctic Monkeys), it’s a miracle they survived at all. Yet here we are with their eighth record right around the corner after a steady stream of solid releases and the feeling that We Are Scientists is still just getting started.

[Read more…]

The Ritualists Masterfully Balance Beauty With Bombast On Baroque & Bleeding

By Leave a Comment

There’s a lot of amazing music that comes to mind when listening through the second outing from NYC’s The Ritualists but none of it actually lives up to what Baroque & Bleeding actually brings to the party. Sure, there’ll be comparisons to Franz Ferdinand or to Pulp and White Lies (Both of whom have been produced by B&B producer Ed Buller) and even to any number of bands emerging from the mid-’00’s Brit Rawk revival but what Christian Dryden and The Ritualists collective has conjured up together on their sophomore record is the sort of aural originality that comes once in a lifetime.

[Read more…]

Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe Balance Brooding And Bombast On Electro-Fied Debut Full-Length

By Leave a Comment

What a wild trip it is to hear former The Icarus Line vocalist Joe Cardamone team up with the legendary Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, The Gutter Twins, etc) for a project that sounds absolutely nothing like any of their previous outfits. On the self-titled debut from the duo dubbed Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe fans get an experimental Electro-fused romp through Darkwave and more on a heady head trip from two powerhouses of modern music.

[Read more…]

Gypsum Invite Listeners On An Aural Odyssey With Wondrously Whimsical Debut

By Leave a Comment

Going through my original notes for the Gypsum debut and I likened listening through the record to recent experiences with the Lauren Lakis album as well as a feel of early dredg. Which is true to an extent but the record is also an all around head trip, filled with a wondrously whimsical tone and a kind of wizardry in regards to the songwriting strength and sonic world building.

[Read more…]

We Are Scientists Present Pop Rawk Perfection On Winning Huffy

By Leave a Comment

Over the years, We Are Scientists has gradually morphed from these interesting Indie darlings to a bombastic sonic tour-de-force. On their latest, Huffy, We Are Scientists harness the burgeoning energy that started during 2016’s Helter Seltzer to conjure up one of their most massive sounding records to date with powerful performance prowess shining as much as the sanguine sonic storytelling.

[Read more…]

Mark Lanegan And Joe Cardamone Make Some Macabre Munster Music Together On Electrified Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe 12″ Single

By Leave a Comment

While doing some late spring cleaning recently which included a LONG overdue purge of those archaic physical media artifacts known as “compact discs” I came across an abundance of Mark Lanegan albums (Which are not getting purged, btw) and among the records currently in my collection, I cannot think of an artist more dynamically diverse than Lanegan with each and every release. Which is definitely the case again with his latest offering falling under the moniker of Dark Mark Vs Skeleton Joe.

[Read more…]

What’s In A Name? Tombstones In Their Eyes, Looking For A Light

By Leave a Comment

Everything happens in cycles, yeah? Music especially is this glorious living organism that goes through changes, reboots styles, and then goes somewhere new and even more exciting. Right now, there seems to be a resurgence of a lot of the sub-genres that made the ’90’s stand out with Grunge/Alternative and Nu-Metal making another go at trending in the now. Looking For A Light, the latest offering from Los Angeles’ Tombstones In The Eyes, dwells in the former category and focuses most of its’ energy toward that Jesus Jones, Lush, shoegaze aesthetic to give listeners something fresh yet familiar.

[Read more…]

Singles! Practice, “I Saw Love”

By 2 Comments

Practice is such and unique blend of indescribable sonic delights. Formed by We Are Scientists, Spill Gold, and Bishop Allen’s former drummer Michael Tapper, Practice hearkens back to a time when music was just fun and with recent single “I Saw Love” (Taken from the forthcoming full-length due in early 2021), explores and encapsulates that aesthetic to give listeners this this pure, raw thing that’s jovial, jubilant, and genuine.

[Read more…]

Gang Of Four Celebrate The Legacy Of Andy Gill With Anti Hero

By Leave a Comment

This is my second review lately of an artist releasing something after a founding member has shuffled off this mortal coil and it’s depressing as fuck because the relevant brilliance in both cases is staggering.

But I digress!

[Read more…]