Review: Kyle Craft – "Dolls of Highland"

by Paul - 0

This one’s a spinner On a frosty winter’s eve, as I sipped mulled wine in front my roaring fire, for a moment I mused on the finer points of obscure British literature. It was then I discovered Kyle Craft. Haha, nope not true. Sounds fancy though. I think it was via Reddit I first heard the haphazard caterwauling of Kyle Craft’s defunct band GASHCAT. I can’t really remember. But what I do remember was how I was totally lost in a vision like an old 30’s serial, all black n’ white, a phonograph hurling the grotesque and beautiful divergent folk pop of this band called GASHCAT. Kyle Craft returns with re-workings of some old favorites, and some new disjointed rock opera entries. This

Get Behind Me, 2002

by Paul - 1

How well do you remember the teenage wasteland? There have been a few times in my life when I’ve been sailing along, dipping my oar on either side of my life-raft, stroke for stroke, moving along fine. Distracted by some distant fog horn somewhere at my back, I run straight into an iceberg that pulls me out and reminds me of 10,000 feelings I’d long ago let sink. One such recent cache of novelty came in the form of one particular block of random songs on one particular Apple Music radio station click here for info. Some of these songs I hadn’t heard for so long, it was like listening to them for the first time, but they carried on-board memories,

Belated Review – Hemmingway – "Pretend to Care" (2014)

by Paul - 0
Pretend to Care

Right now, at midnight, I have two shots of gin in me, and I'm listening to Hemingway's "Pretend to Care" for the first time. There's some grunge in there somewhere, then some of that same stuff that laced every Thursday record, but I can't forget got the slow-burn-swagger that gave Nirvana personal hit after personal hit. In my imagination, I lift my hand and stare at this blood that's oozing across my palm. It's the same blood that ran through my veins as a 16 year old heartbroken kid. I'm lying flat on my back on my old bed. This weird grey/red paisley comforter my mom got on sale at Macy's is all that separates me from the sheets I haven't changed

Beach Slang, or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and (Try To) Love the Sincerity

by Jason - 1
Beach Slang in full swing.

Growing up a punk rock kid is filled with dichotomies. On the one hand it is all honesty and expression while on the other it is draped in leather and scowls. On one hand there is finger- pointing and sing-alongs while on the other is the merch guy (or girl) that intimidates you to buy an LP for fear of… I don’t know…. I can only speak from personal experience of course but I always found these two contrasts pulling at me any time I put on a record or went to a show. If I dropped the needle on a new L(P)ove I often times had trouble wanting to convey this to friends. The side of me that wanted to constrain my passion was

Turnover – “Peripheral Vision"

by Paul - 0
Peripheral Vision

Going back several years, I always felt let off the hook by “Big Girls Don’t Cry” because technically, I’m a male human. Therefore, it’s cool if I listen to all these all these weepy young-bloke bands until I grew up. I didn’t know it was possible at this point in my life for these "old bones" to be so into a band like Turnover (band page). I imagined by now I'd be donning turtlenecks and acid wash jeans. I'd be sipping on a Tom Collins, grilling Oysters on the beach while Adult Contemporary radio takes barely-discernible withdrawals from my already waning testosterone levels. Thus the testosterone medication. “Peripheral Vision” gets 4 out of 5, which on my scale ain’t bad. This is the

You Cannot Replace That Memory – On Cheap Girls

by Jason - 0

When you get into your late 20s and early 30s, I’ve always believed that you’ve made all the friends you’re going to make for life. Sure, I mean, perhaps some new acquaintances come in like a breeze and then quickly exit… but the stalwarts, the dependables, the drinking buddies have been firmly established and little can change this. Now into my 30s I have come to realize that this is pretty much accurate. Oddly enough, I had also assumed this to be true of bands. What I mean to say is, the bands that I had been collecting and treasuring like a mint condition baseball card or a cherished photo or a memory of first drinks and awkward kisses… well I

We're Back! (Baa-naaaaaaaa)

by Paul - 0

After a long hiatus, some offline-ness, and some personal growth (some due to being older, some due to calorie intake), we are back! On our About page, you will notice that we cover the same content as this post, but I will go ahead anyway. Back in "the day" it used to be lots funnier to be a jerk. Honestly, we posted negative reviews mostly for the sake of being negative. But it took a heavy investment in different brands of mattresses to realize a guy sleeps bunches better when he's got a more positive outlook, sleep numbers aside. So for round 4 of Closttrekkie.com, we're going to try to spin the silver lining wherever we can. We'll only deprecate ourselves where it serves our

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