Music
Artist: 311
Community Score: 7.95

311's debut album, Music, is an infectious mix of funk metal and hip-hop. While the band fails to come up with a consistently solid batch of songs, their raw energy makes up for the lack of strong songwriting. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Read More

Big Red Letter Day
Artist: Buffalo Tom
Community Score: 6.00

Buffalo Tom proved that their palate was a lot broader and their reach a lot farther than anyone might have expected on Let Me Come Over, and while the following year's Big Red Letter Day didn't show the same sort of growth, it also proved the band hadn't forgotten any of their tricks along the way. Big Red Letter Day sounds a bit poppier than... Read More

Kerosene Hat
Artist: Cracker
Community Score: 6.75

With their second album Cracker have lost the smarmy self-righteousness that plagued their otherwise fine debut, replacing it with a surprisingly solid, rocking core. Kerosene Hat is David Lowery's least affected album yet -- its humor is no stranger than "Dead Flowers" by the Stones or "Fat Man in a Bathtub" by Little Feat, two groups that... Read More

Too High to Die
Artist: Meat Puppets
Community Score: 7.23

Although the Meat Puppets' previous album, 1991's Forbidden Places, was one of the Arizona trio's finest, the band wasn't completely happy with the album's sound, courtesy of longtime Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson. So on their second album for London Records, 1994's Too High To Die, the trio hooked up with Butthole Surfer Paul Leary to... Read More

I Could Live in Hope
Artist: Low

Like so many of their contemporaries, Low are repeatedly lumped into numerous derivative and nondescript headings intended to encompass slow-paced, instrument-driven music that maintains an indie aesthetic. Quite simply, no category can truly reveal the beauty and glory of Low's debut record I Could Live in Hope. Sad core? Not even close! I... Read More

Question the Answers
Artist: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Community Score: 7.00

Once tagged neatly as ska-core, over the years the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have not merely defined and refined this genre, they've moved beyond it as well, as their fourth full-length Question the Answers amply illustrates. Of course, the Beantown heroes still kick out a mighty big sound, but there's so much more to their music nowadays. Take... Read More

Tough Guy Problem
Artist: Dambuilders

This rocket of an EP served as a proper introduction to the energy Joan Wasser and her violin were capable of giving to the Boston indie band. The five songs here show the wealth of moods the band was capable of, from erratic mind games ("Dose") to romantic, tumbleweed swayers ("Idaho,") to all-out pogo rock ("Heather"). Most impressible is the... Read More

Staying Loose (A Compilation)
Artist: H.P. Zinker

Vienna songwriter, guitarist, and singer Hans Platzgumer fronted the H.P. Zinker outfit for several years, establishing a connection with several key American artists and actually creating something of a following for himself in the process. This is more than one can say for quite a few other European rock artists, especially ones from Vienna. A... Read More