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AThe catalog

Reviews & Tips

Every active entry gets a catalog number, like a proper label. Reviews worth reading, pressings worth knowing, and videos worth your time. No filler, no reposts.

The Discogs cover for Nané's self-titled 2020 album, with colorful illustrated tropical shapes around the band name
VIMZ-016Austin Scene

Nané's debut still feels like Austin looking forward

Nané's 2020 self-titled LP captures the Austin band's funk, soul, rock nerve, and Daniel Sahad's huge presence, with one ACL Fest morning still burned into memory.

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The Discogs album cover for The Refreshments' Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy showing a painted pin-up pilot holding a drink and a bomb
VIMZ-015Review

The Refreshments' Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy keeps its bite

The Refreshments' 1996 Mercury debut is all desert wit, bar-band bite, and melodic nerve, with the story already pointing toward Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

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The 1979 Epic album cover for Cheap Trick's Dream Police showing the band dressed as police officers in a surreal white room
VIMZ-014Review

Cheap Trick's Dream Police goes big and gets weird

Cheap Trick's 1979 Epic album turns paranoia, power pop, studio polish, and arena-sized nerve into one of the band's strangest big swings.

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The 1966 GNP Crescendo album cover for The Seeds showing the band posed beside a weathered wooden structure
VIMZ-013Review

The Seeds' debut still pushes hard

The Seeds' 1966 debut turned a few chords, a stabbing organ, and Sky Saxon's sneer into a garage-rock blueprint that still rattles the shelves.

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The album cover for Donna Missal's Lighter showing Missal standing in a black embroidered jacket against a desert landscape
VIMZ-012Review

Donna Missal's Lighter deserved a louder room

Donna Missal's 2020 album Lighter landed in the pandemic quiet, but the reverse-sequenced heartbreak story still hits when you give the record its due.

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The 1969 Dunhill album cover for A Group Called Smith showing the band outside a weathered wooden building
VIMZ-011Review

Review: Smith's great 1969 debut

A Group Called Smith is a soul-rock debut with a Top 5 single, a monster Gayle McCormick vocal, and enough grit to keep it out of the nostalgia bin.

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Extreme close up of vinyl record grooves
VIMZ-004Guide

Deadwax decoder: how to identify a first pressing in 60 seconds

The runout groove is a record's birth certificate. Matrix numbers, stamper codes, mastering engraver signatures — here's how to read them in the store aisle, before you pay.

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