Holy shit, people. Our pals at Guerilla Union have outdone themselves with this year’s Rock The Bells festival lineup. Moving to a two-day format at three venues, RTB has room for even more legends and rising stars. Listen to MC Supernatural freestyle the lineup:

Hot Water Music
Exister
Rise Records
10/10
GUYS! Do NOT let your girlfriends listen to this. What’s happened is Chuck Ragan and crew have fucked up the curve of masculinity, and NOTHING YOU EVER DO will be manly enough. EVER. I am pretty sure that Hot Water Music has taken the last eight years since their last album using gasoline as aftershave and drag racing in cars they built by hand.
The album starts off with the track “Mainline,” which is probably a reference to how they ingest the pure testosterone that …

Matt Skiba and the Sekrets
Babylon
Century Media
7/10
Skiba’s become the Wooderson of punk bands; he gets older, but his lyrics stay the same age. I mean, I love me some Alkaline Trio, but “Luciferian Blues?” “Angel of Deaf?!” What is that? Are you 17? Come on Skeebs, please stop playing Magic: The Gathering while in the studio and get some new material.
That said, me from 2001 loves it. I mean, it’s Alkaline Trio without Dan Adriano balancing out Skeebs’ attempt to CHANNEL HIS INNER ADAM ANT. The Sekrets (WITH A K, MATT?!) …

Joyce Manor
Asian Man Records
Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired
9/10
Joyce Manor, whatever will I do with you? You’re so good, but such a tease. 9 songs? I know it’s a punk record, but COME ON! Clocking in at a whopping thirteen minutes long, this record was twice as long and twice as hard as my last hump session. But unlike the lady involved, OATIWSGT leaves me wanting more. Good work, fellas.
-Jonathan Yost

Photos by Chris Lopez

Electric Six
Heartbeats & Brainwaves
Metropolis Records
8/10

With Electric Six’s Heartbeats & Brainwaves—the disco-punk-metal’s eighth album in nine years—the Detroit-based sextet may not break any new ground, but therein lays their charm. Arguably the most prolific band in existence right now, singer Dick Valentine and his five cohorts are content to crank out their brand of earnest inanity, and they aren’t all that interested in changing up their formula for broader appeal; one gets the impression their flirtation with the mainstream at the outset of their career was enough for them. They’re something …

Tom Waits
Bad As Me
Anti- Records

It would be a misnomer to say Tom Waits is aging like a fine wine. Yeah, he gets better with age and other such platitudes, but likening his continuing evolution to the maturation of a barrel of whiskey is more apt—warm, rich, and full of earthy undertones that leave the imbiber reeling. Bad As Me, his first album of original material since 2004, exemplifies the analogy.
At age 61, the maestro of conjuring melody from junkyard clatter, sideshow soundscapes, and barstool serenades has released his most concise …

Star Fucking Hipsters
From The Dumpster To The Grave
Fat Wreck Chords
2/10
Oh, shut up. “From the Dumpster To The Grave?” REALLY? You would think that after a few decades, the socially-conscious arm of the punk movement would have something new to offer. But, I guess we’re stuck with the same contrived, cliche bullshit that does nothing to forward any kind of change towards the system that SFH loves to bitch about. Yes, yes, “the system,” “the Vietnam War,” “bitching about Christianity,” I GET IT. At least the riffs are decent, so if …

Since the first album I ever bought with my own money was “Weird Al” Yankovic’s The Food Album, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve always enjoyed a good accordion line. See what happen’s when Portland’s Jack Heart Jackie invade a San Francisco piano store.

Tidelands
If…
Self-released
7/10
Goddamn, reviewing depressing music is depressing, even if it IS really good. Tidelands’ If… is really good. With Gabriel Leis’ droning baritone and a barrage of orchestration, Tidelands weaves tales that are full, if not a bit melancholy, and at times, fairly chaotic. How they got all that to work together is beyond me, but I’m not going to ask too many questions. I WAS gonna try to clean my room while listening to it, but it lends itself to reading a book far more than it does to being …

Devo
with The English Beat and Tom Tom Club
San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino
August 4th, 2011
As a child of the 80s, I was pretty fucking stoked to see The English Beat and Devo. Together. With The Tom Tom Club clogging up valuable stage time in between. I was even a bit more excited to see that the show was at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, which is all of 8 minutes away from me. Then I discover that the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino has …

Sublime With Rome
Yours Truly
Fueled By Ramen
8/10
So, the first new Sublime album since Brad Nowell’s untimely death is… fucking good. While I hate, HATE, that it’s called “Sublime with Rome” versus, you know, a new fucking name, I can’t stop myself from humming along to this shit. Seriously. It’s not “Journey with that Filipino dude,” or “Guns N Roses W/O Slash.” I know that they were hampered by a lawsuit involving the name, but pick something new, guys. While obviously lacking any references to Louie Dog, Sublime with …

So, some of you may be familiar with our Haiku Reviews, which are meant simply to help us catch up on the back log of records we’re supposed to review. Well, this is a group of records I also wanted to get covered, but I had a bit more to say about them. Now, with a variety of beers, Iron Chef on mute and some drunk texting, I present: The Racket Teenage Poetry Review Corner.
City And Colour
Little Hell
Vagrant Records
9/10
He is sad.
I am sad.
He makes me sad.
I am happy …

Jim Bianco
LOUDMOUTH
10/10
Bars across America need a new anthem, and Jim Bianco’s first track off of LOUDMOUTH is the solution.  With lyrics about the fun life you led and no matter the outcome, classic rock style drums, and just enough mandolin to bring out the Irish drunk in everyone, “Sinners” is sure to have everyone, sinner or not, singing.  Jim Bianco is full of wit, heartbreak, lust, comedy, and fun, but all with a great amount of honesty.  “But I Still Want You” tells the truth of something we’ve all been …

Tommy Simms
Then The Archers Bowed and Broke Their Bows
8/10
Man, someone REALLY enjoyed their parents’ record collection, didn’t they? That someone was Tommy Simms, vocalist for Win Win Winter and the scruffier of the Simms siblings involved in Automatic Loveletter. His solo release separates himself from the Warped Tour crowd and finds himself much more at home at Woodstock. The original one, you know, the one with the metric tons of marijuana, topless hippies and free love. Not the one with fucking Metallica, riots and rapes.
I’ve been sitting at my computer, …

Corinne Bailey Rae
The Love EP
Capitol Records
6.5/10
While I’m not usually a fan of cover songs (let alone cover albums…painful), Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Love EP isn’t too bad.  The singer-songwriter takes a stab at putting her own twist on some famous love songs from the past.
The EP opened rather weak with “I Wanna Be Your Lover” originally recorded by Prince.  A synth took over a lot of the instruments of the original, which made the song more cheesy and not really much of a cover at all, as it sounded very …