Gospel music is a difficult thing for an atheist like myself.  On one hand, you have the subject of the music- God. Or Jesus. Or sometimes both. But on the other side there’s the music, which when done correctly is music done with fire and passion.  I suppose the peril of the modern day aging hipster/atheist has to run together at some point.

This is my life in a nutshell: the out-of-work music writer, the hardened critic, the aging hipster, the asshole, and even the balding, self-loathing, pseudo-Jew asked by former Ashevillian/head BFO-er/Decline conspirator Bob Rest to give a CD by his latest band, We Have a Meth Lab, a listen and a review.
“Give it a good review” he says, adding later on for me to compliment his band’s musicianship. I download the un-mastered version of his album and prepare myself for it.
These days I hardly listen to a lot of rock and …

Holy shit, The Hold Steady, you sure know how to work a guy over.  Last Wednesday night Jessie and I made the drive from Sylva to Athens to catch your show at the 40 Watt Club and I was completely blown away by the show.
I knew what to expect walking into the concert- I own all of the band’s albums and had seen the band two times previously. But this show might have been better than the first time I saw them in 2006 at the Grey Eagle.  Guitars played …

And Lil’ Wayne (or Weezy, as all the kids on their twitter nintendo cellphone beepers thingies call him) isn’t that bad. In fact, much to my surprise, he’s pretty darn good.
For those of you not in the know, a few weeks ago I posted a brief look back at my relationship with rap.  Much like any proper aging white dude, I believe that the rap music that was released in my teens and twenties was and still is far superior to the stuff that these kids with their swoopy messed …

Sprung from the ashes of Fuzztone ‘Zine comes a new crop of music articles/reviews/ whatever here at The Bugg Blog.  I’m still working out the kinks in the format, but I hope that everyone likes what I’m trying. If not, go read another blog.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists play punk rock, I guess. Good, loud, epic punk rock that is somehow too smart to just be lumped in with all of the leather jacket-clad anarcho-punks wishing for Crass’ return or that Greg Ginn and Henry Rollins would play nice with each other.  Instead, this is spirited punk rock which indebts itself to some 90s indie rock, some noisier arty rock and even big, beautiful swatches of power pop.
Brutalism Bricks, Leo’s latest album is all of those things and still more.  If anything this …

Alice Cooper’s 80s period, it’s a period of time that most Alice fans aren’t even aware existed, and Alice doesn’t even remember recording Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa due to the severity of his alcoholism at the time of writing and recording the albums.
Because of this most people tend to write off the albums as unworthy of Cooper’s heavy metal done as showtunes legacy, but once listeners dig deeper they’ll find a few good songs buried inside of the albums.
First off, to most Alice Cooper Fans these albums (the aforementioned …

There is nothing unique, revolutionary or even remotely clever about Left Lane Cruiser. Their lyrics include gems such as my daddy had a six-string/my momma never slept at night and their guitar always feels very blues-based- in other words, what’s so special about this band? The answer is everything.
Their latest album All You Can Eat!! is a tuneful and energetic romp that never gets repetitive or old.  The band never really moves past basic rock and roll, and doesn’t seem to need or want to. Instead songs are built around …

Live albums are a fickle thing. The good ones leave you just as breathless and sweaty as if you were really at the show, and the bad ones sound just like the albums and are merely contractual obligations.  Alive as Fuck by the Black Diamond Heavies is no obligation. Instead, it’s a rollicking, bluesy and energetic call back to mid sixties garage rock.
Recorded live in Covington Kentucky (home of a few really nice drive-through liquor stores and a great Skyline Chili location), Alive as Fuck never stops. The songs, performed …

Hello out there. I’m 32, and I’ve never felt those oh-so-cliché worries about growing older. I’ve viewed it as another part of life’s journey. This was of course in the days before I listened to Sugar Blue’s Threshold.  Now I’ve come to the rather horrible and rotten conclusion that middle aged is damn frightening.
On paper, Threshold should be good. Sugar Blue has an interesting pedigree (he played harmonica on “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones!), but in execution the album is just plain awful. The songs aren’t the hard lessons …