Ryan Bray's posts

After 13 years, Deer Tick still doesn’t quite know what kind of band it wants to be. Not that this is a problem,…

Dead Cross, Dead Cross
Grade: B+

[Anti-]

There’s a reason we form our closest affinities with rock and pop music during our youth. There’s something…

Heartworms, The Shins’ first record since 2012’s Port Of Morrow, kicks off with the bouncy, sun-kissed jaunt “Name…

Stephin Merritt loves a good gimmick, doesn’t he? There was his Magnetic Fields magnum opus, 1999’s 69 Love Songs—exa…

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost…

Most memoirs wait to be written until their writers have lived a full life. At 36, Laura Jane Grace doesn’t need to…

A piercing scream opens “Skunk,” the lead track on The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Now I Got Worry. It’s a…

For years, it seemed like time would never catch up with NOFX. The legendary L.A. outfit has always seemed to take…

Is there a prouder, more tireless ambassador of punk rock and hardcore than Keith Morris? The name might lack the…

De La Soul’s contributions to hip-hop over the past three decades are mighty, but the Long Island trio has often…

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost…

Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.

When Los Lobos loaded into City Winery in Chicago back in February, it was equal parts rock show and commemoration.…

Electriclarryland, released 20 years ago last month, was the Butthole Surfers’ receipt for years spent cementing…

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost…

Forty years would seem to be plenty of time to canvass and document the history of punk rock, but as is the case…

Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost…

Bob Mould might have been having a self-deprecating chuckle at himself when he named his 2012 record Silver Age, but…