SLUG Contributor Limelight
December 25, 2011
Contributor Limelight: Cody Kirkland
After Cody Kirkland's first night of workiing at SLUG, he joined his fellow editors for a "copy editor night out." Most of the copy editors left early after finishing a beer or two, and what started as a group of six or more dwindled to SLUG's Managing Editor, a senior copy editor and Kirkland. A typical new employee probably would have come for a beer and quietly gone home. Lucky for us, Kirkland isn't typical. He stayed until last call, helped his coworkers make friends with some Scottish guys - who were more than happy to buy the poor SLUG employees rounds of drinks - and ended up crashing on a senior copy editor's couch. This first night taught us a lot about Kirkland. He is fun to be around, has a good sense of humor and is highly responsible - all crucial personality traits for any member of the copy editor team. He also makes really amazing coffee at The Rose Establishment, which is great for getting rid of a lingering hangover from the night before. Kirkland recently started penning CD and book reviews for the mag and we're excited that, soon, the rest of the world will be exposed to his witty point of view. Check his blog, The Whiskey Sutra, at thewhiskeysutra.tumblr.com for his most recent rants.
Articles by contributor
Reviews: TEEN – The Way and Color
I knew TEEN would evolve beyond their psychedelic girl group sound—last year’s Carolina proved that. I wasn’t expecting something this good, though. The first track, “Rose 4 U” is familiar enough, but the next one, “Not For Long,” begins to meld ‘90s R&B–style vocal harmonies, modern beats and instrumentation, and spacey textures that are singular to this record and the band itself. … read more
Review: Wye Oak – Shriek
Like many of their musical contemporaries, Baltimore’s Wye Oak are embracing new modes of music-making and shying away from guitar-based rock structures to favor synthetic sounds and electronic textures. … read more
Review: Young Widows – Easy Pain
Young Widows = Pissed Jeans + Death From Above 1979 … read more
Review: White Reaper – Self-Titled
If 2010s punk has a cohesive sound, I’d say White Reaper sums it up. In this six-song, 16-minute debut EP, the Louisville, Ky., trio plays poppy garage rock like the best of their forbearers, but with more punk muscle. … read more
Review: Ty Segall – Manipulator
Ty Segall = Ziggy Stardust–era David Bowie + The Beatles + Fuzz … read more
Review: Ultimate Painting – Self-Titled
Ultimate Painting = The Velvet Underground + (Pavement / Pinback) … read more
Review: The Copy Scams – Copy & Destroy
I would have really liked this band when I was a shoplifting, dumpster-diving 19-year-old. Alex Wrekk, author of Stolen Sharpie Revolution and the Brainscan zine, fronts this novelty band that plays lo-fi pop punk songs about zines—a must-listen if you like DIY punk shit. … read more
Review: Teen – Carolina EP
This five-song EP is just as impressive as TEEN’s sophomore full-length, In Limbo, from last year. The Brooklyn girls have strayed from their Shangri-Las-meets-psych vibe and have moved into a more diverse, rock-oriented direction. … read more
Review: Sleepmakeswaves – Love of Cartography
Sleepmakeswaves = Explosions in the Sky + Russian Circles + Dntel … read more
Review: Potty Mouth – Hell Bent
Critics have called Potty Mouth a riot grrrl band, which is dumb, or called them pop punk or post punk, which is inaccurate and ambiguous, or said they sound like ‘90s New England indie rock, which is a little more clear, but still vague. … read more
Review: Nobunny – Secret Songs: Reflections from the Ear Mirror
Hearkening back to the ramshackle electric lo-fi of 2008’s Love Visions, Secret Songs: Reflections from the Ear Mirror is a deranged mix-tape of Justin Champlin’s dingy, tattered, bunny-mask-clad garage punk interpretations of classic rock n’ roll styles. … read more
Review: Meatbodies – Self-Titled
Meatbodies = Ty Segall + Nobunny … read more
Review: Michael Rault – Living Daylight
Michael Rault = T. Rex + (Emitt Rhodes – Paul McCartney) … read more
Review: Liars – Mess
The band is now adept in the electronic manipulation they flirted with in WIXIW. Mess moves beyond the yearning of WIXIW and offers an alternative—a cheerfully dark counter to tradition and the world at large. … read more
Review: King Tuff – Was Dead
I usually think that reissued records are stupid and lazy, but goddamn, I’m glad King Tuff did it. … read more
Review: Iggy and the Stooges – Ready To Die
I dreaded listening to this record. If 2007’s The Weirdness was any indication, the Stooges can’t be resurrected. They could have fallen back on their raw, stripped-down, live-in-’73 sound that bands today try to emulate. … read more
Review: Flesh Wounds – “Bitter Boy” b/w “Kennel Cough” and...
Flesh Wounds = Johnny Thunders + Condo Fucks … read more
Review: Dog Party – Lost Control
I wish I was as cool as these girls when I was a teenager. … read more
Review: Burnt Ones – You’ll Never Walk Alone
I pioneered a new rating system to evaluate this record: I drew plus signs next to songs I really liked, minus signs next to songs I disliked, and nothing next to songs that made me feel nothing. Despite sounding uncannily similar to their psych rock peers, the sexy, grimy reverb spiral of “Vision Forever” gets a plus sign, as does the mighty bubblegum fuzz of “Fountain of Youth” and “I Care – I Don’t Care.” The time-changing brain burner “Cloak” gets a plus sign, too. … read more
Review: Bleached
They’re like Vivian Girls, but more polished and with better singing, like Best Coast, but punk rock. Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, formerly of the all-girl punk band Mika Miko, join with Jonathan Safley and Sara Jean Stevens to form LA’s Bleached. … read more
Review: Bleached – For The Feel
Luckily, three-song EP For The Feel comprises only good songs … … read more
Review: Blank Realm – Go Easy
Judging by the opening bass line of the first track (“Acting Strange”), I thought Blank Realm was a Swedish hardcore band. … read more
Review: Airstrip
Willing is the debut album of this Chapel Hill, N.C. outfit. It is primarily slow, rhythmic, guitar-driven rock with a few poppy, almost upbeat numbers thrown in. … read more
Review: Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Though there are a few stinkers, Transgender Dysphoria Blues actually isn’t horrible. “Drinking With The Jocks” and “Osama Bin Laden As The Crucified Christ” kick ass like the Eternal Cowboy and Searching days, and “Two Coffins” is the most paralyzing song I have heard in a long time. … read more
Localized: Problem Daughter
This month’s Localized is a cross-section of SLC punk: the visceral, dissonant hardcore punk of Foster Body, the surf-soaked party punk of JAWWZZ!! and the acerbic, bittersweet pop punk of Problem Daughter. These bands have shared bills over the last few years—Foster Body and JAWWZZ!! even share a drummer. They all name each other among
Step Out of the Sun and into Shades of Pale...
Sequestered deep inside the old Hi-Grade Meats compound at 2160 S. West Temple is Shades of Pale Brewing. You know the place: Its sign had those two smiling cartoon pigs, eager to be turned into hotdogs. The pigs are gone, and now a Shades of Pale sign beckons. … read more
Review: Stanley Classic and Adventure Series Drinking Vessels
Stanley Classic and Adventure Series Drinking Vessels stanley-pmi.com In June of this year, I praised Portland Growler Co.’s ceramic Sprocket growler, but after trying Stanley’s Classic Vacuum Growler, I’m glad that the ceramic behemoth fell off my refrigerator and exploded into a thousand pieces on my kitchen floor. Stanley’s steel growler is more durable, lighter,
Bitters Lab: Craft Lake City Craft Food
Bitters Lab bitterslab.com Most people with a hobby like gardening or record collecting are usually content to keep their hobby as something fun and relaxing to do on the weekend. Most people probably don’t let their hobby take over an entire room of their house and eventually start a business with it. Andrea Latimer and
Queen Farina: Craft Lake City Craft Food
Queen Farina queenfarina.com Queen Farina, purveyors of raw honey and honey-based products, began as a scheme to keep Aubrey Johnson’s kids busy. “My sister called me up one day and said that she was trying to think of something to get her kids involved with to teach them the value of work,” says Gina Nielson,
Ben Franklin Blowing Bubbles at a Sword
In his “first screening, ever, first short film, ever,” Jonathan Napolitano documents three “mental athletes” as they train for and compete in the 2011 USA Memory Championships. … read more
Getting Up
Slamdance alumnus Caskey Ebeling’s Getting Up documents the artistic rehabilitation of Los Angeles graffiti legend, social activist and publisher Tempt One. … read more
The Sound of Small Things
Peter McLarnan presents a gut-wrenching look into the young marriage of Sam and Cara as they struggle to maintain trust and communication despite Cara’s recent deafness. A group of visual artists’ first foray into narrative filmmaking, The Sound of Small Things uses lush cinematography to capture the nuances of human interaction. … read more
February
Opening with a dark and surreal sex scene, we follow the main character’s search for human connection on the most basic level. Sex permeates the 11-minute film, from the thumping sounds our character hears above the basement floor while fixing a pipe, to the blowjob he receives in an alley outside of a booming nightclub. … read more
Welcome to Pine Hill
Based on real events in the life of lead actor Shannon Harper (playing himself), Welcome to Pine Hill presents an intimate look into the life of a young black man as he severs the ties of his drug-dealing past and attempts to cope with his sudden diagnosis of terminal cancer. … read more
We Win Or We Die
Mahdi Zew, an oil company administrator and father of two daughters, pilots his car with a trunk full of explosive gas cylinders into the heart of the Katiba. This suicidal and heroic act devastates his family, yet creates a new future for Benghazi. … read more
Buffalo Girls
In this challenging documentary, director Todd Kellstein gives us a sympathetic look into the world of Stam and Pet, just two of the 30,000 professional Muay Thai fighters in rural Thailand’s underground child boxing circuit. Stam and Pet, both eight years old, are prodded into the boxing circuit by their parents, who use the large prize sums to support each of their families in a struggling farming community. … read more
Heavy Girls
Daniel, a middle-aged man with a wife and son, serves as 90-year-old Edeltraut’s caretaker while her son, Sven, works during the day. When Edeltraut, suffering from dementia, locks David out on her balcony and takes off, David and Sven search the streets of Berlin to track her down. Thus begins the start of their unspoken secret romance. … read more
On Tender Hooks
We hear Ozzy Osbourne wailing in the background as Damien rises into the air, hanging several feet above the ground from the hooks in his back. Then the film fades to black—at least for me, because I passed out cold. I came to as the end credits rolled—apparently I had slumped over onto the audience member to my left and had missed the end of the film. … read more
Bindlestiffs
A riotous and irreverent tale of three high school virgins and their quest to “fuck shit up,” Bindlestiffs is like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Superbad on crack—literally. Suspended from school for graffiti after The Catcher in the Rye is banned, Andrew, Luke and John check into an inner-city motel, determined to experience the world, Holden Caulfield style. What follows is a week of debauchery as the boys go looking for love, good times and poon. … read more
Hope. You Like Crap.
20 years ago, Shaun Parker made a horrible student film. In Hope. You Like Crap., Parker shows the film in its entirety, talking shit on it and his former pretentious self with amusingly scathing, self-depreciating commentary. … read more
Danland
“I’m in love with the concept of being in love,” says amateur porn producer Dan Leal, aka Porno Dan, in the beginning of this documentary following his unrelenting search for love amid porn conventions and gangbangs. But for co-dependent sex addict Porno Dan, love is hard to come by when sex with hundreds of women is business as usual. … read more
I Want My Name Back
Roger Paradiso documents the rise and fall of hip hop pioneers Wonder Mike and Master Gee, original members of The Sugarhill Gang, the group responsible for the seminal record “Rapper’s Delight.” After the release of the world’s first commercial hop hop composition, Wonder Mike and Master Gee’s artistic credit and monetary earnings were taken by Sugar Hill Record execs, throwing the two into a 30-year struggle to reclaim their place in hip hop history. … read more
Washed Out, Memoryhouse @ Urban 04.28
There was a big difference between Washed Out on record and Washed Out the show. If you’re the kind of person who wants a band to sound exactly like they do on the record, you probably hated this show—a lot of the songs were changed up a bit to translate into a full band as Washed Out has moved from a bedroom project to a career for Ernest Greene. The songs sounded bigger and louder and heavier than the laptop synth-pop versions. Greene was obviously into it—pounding on his keys, bobbing his head like a parrot and putting himself into every word he sang. … read more
Liars @ Urban Lounge with Cadence Weapon
Then, like a splash of hot oil in the face, we were hit with the caustic surf guitar and cymbal crash of Sisterworld’s “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant.” The crowd members immediately started slamming into each other as our long-forgotten punk instincts took over, and the band took advantage of our heightened energy as they moved into the dance-punk club banger, “Brats,” from WIXIW. It was as if the Liars from 2001 met the Liars from 2012 and made a song together—too bad nobody knew how to dance, because this would have been the time for it. … read more
The Boards Reunion Show with Avon Calling and Gnawing Suspicion...
As these sages of punk rock strap on their guitars and study their set lists, the crowd of two dozen aged rockers (and a couple young punks like myself) watches anxiously, sensing the nervous energy in the bar. The guys haven’t forgotten how to kick ass, though, and they start with some of the oldies—stripped down punk rock n’ fuckin’ roll. … read more
Found Footage Festival @ Brewvies 11.29
The Found Footage Festival, which originated in NYC in 2004, is comprised of a nationwide tour of various US cities. They insist that in eight years of the festival, this year’s footage is the most unsettling yet. I believe them. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Who Is Dayani Cristal?
A man recites “A Migrant’s Prayer” in Spanish, backpack in hand, as he prepares for a treacherous journey north across the Mexican border, into the USA. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
On February 12, 2012, the punk-informed feminist art collective Pussy Riot stormed the altar at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, clad in colorful dresses and balaclavas, screaming “It’s God’s shit!” in a performance art piece that would be heard of around the world. … read more
Sundance Channel Series Review: New American Noise
This six-part documentary series produced by Somesuch & Co. and Nokia Music delves into the underground music scenes of six cities across the U.S.—the sticky strip clubs of Atlanta, the twerk battles of New Orleans sissy bounce parties, the guerilla shoegaze concert on some bridge thing in Portland. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Crystal Fairy
Jamie (Michael Cera) an American living in Chile, and his Chilean friend Champa (Juan Andrés Silva) have made plans to go on a road trip into the desert and ingest the psychedelic San Pedro cactus with Champa’s younger brothers (Agustín and José Miguel Silva). While at a house party the night before the trip, Jamie smokes weed, snorts coke and accidentally invites the hippie girl he just met to go on the trip with him. By morning, Jamie has forgotten about the previous night and the boys hit the road. But the girl (Gaby Hoffman), and American who calls herself Crystal Fairy, hasn’t forgotten—she’s on a bus to the desert and calls Jamie, asking to be picked up. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Big Sur
Punching thru death clouds suffocating the New Zion, foot glued to accelerator with guitar chord change feedback shrieks into high-altitude circle jerk of starfuckers and art cannibals and humble unseen angels to stash auto in strip mall, take pre-noon flask pulls in tribute in anticipation of a dead reluctant god’s silver screen flashback, Jean-Marc Barr is Kerouac incarnate and Polish… … read more
Sundance Film Review: Soldate Jeannette
Fanni tries on an expensive dress at an upscale fashion boutique. After much deliberation, she buys the dress. She dumps it into a mailbox just outside the boutique. Fanni’s landlord and his lawyer walk into her posh apartment. She offers them matcha tea, and they tell her she’s being evicted that afternoon because three years’ rent is past due. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Wajma (An Afghan Love Story)
What begins as a series of secret flirtations in a society that prohibits contact between the sexes before marriage turns into the worst scenario imaginable: Mustafa, professing his love for Wajma (Wajma Bahar), pressures her into a forbidden romance despite her reserved protests. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Toy’s House
I knew this movie was going to be painful to watch as soon as the ‘70s or ‘80s power-pop intro song started. It seemed out of place, forced—As did most of the dialogue in the film. A couple of high school friends, Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and Patrick Keenan (Gabriel Basso) decide that their parents are such a drag that the only option is to build their own house in the forest and live there. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Upstream Color
It’s going to take me a few more viewings of this film to full grasp what the hell is going on and what it all means, but let’s try this: Larvae infect a plant, kids harvest and process the blue dust on the infected plant and they make a drink out of it which gives them mental, physical and spiritual connection. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Hell Baby
From the creators of Reno 911! comes a wickedly funny horror-comedy that explores horror film conventions in such an over-the-top and self-aware way that I’ll never be able to take a haunted house, exorcism or demonic baby films seriously again. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Magic Magic
Everybody around Alicia (Juno Temple) is acting weird. Nobody is making any sense and there is an undercurrent of maliciousness behind everyone’s smiles. Alicia, an American girl travelling in Chile, is driving with her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning) and Sarah’s friends to a cabin in remote southern Chile. … read more
OCTOBER, The Circulars, Jason Dickerson, Amy Childress @ Bar Deluxe...
A dollhouse set ablaze, the fumes of burning paint and polyester choking my lungs until the flames are smothered with shot glasses of tears and piles of broken vanity mirror glass and skittles until a smoldering mass remains, the ashes blown away with a faint sound of wind chimes. This is how it feels to hear Amy Childress read from her photocopied zine on the Bar Deluxe stage on Wednesday night, April 17. … read more
Everything Is Terrible! @ Brewvies 09.14
As part of the Two Head Cleaners and a Microphone Tour, the guys from EIT stopped by Brewvies Cinema Pub to show their two video collections: Comic Relief Zero and Everything Is Terrible! Does the Hip-Hop! It’s like getting really stoned and hating it, but you end up looking back on it fondly the next day—you value the “experience,” man. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Locke
I can’t believe I watched 85 minutes of a man driving a car, at night, by himself, without getting bored. Ivan Locke, played by Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises)—the sole visible actor in the film—begins driving home from a construction site the night before the biggest job of his career as a successful construction foreman. If I had known this film was just a guy in a car, I wouldn’t have seen it. The writing, directing and acting were all spot-on. I could have ridden around with Hardy and listened to him talk for another half-hour, at least. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Alive Inside: A Story of Music &...
In Alive Inside, Michael Rossato-Bennett follows social worker Dan Cohen, who uses the connective power of music to reach otherwise unreachable people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. With first-hand footage, we see the music of Louis Armstrong, The Beatles and others bring people essentially back from the dead—their loved ones and fellow patients marvel as the subjects recall memories and emotions that have been blacked out for years … read more
Sundance Film Review: R100
Gradually, the campy thriller turns from weird to bizarre as the protagonist finds himself over his head in the world of S&M. When a dominatrix called Queen of Saliva spits gallons of smoothie-flavored phlegm on our bound and gagged protagonist while dancing to disco music, you’ll think the film has reached its peak of insanity. You’d be wrong, though—just wait till the Queen of Gobbling shows up. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Camp X-Ray
Kristen Stewart plays Amy Cole, a small-town girl who joins the Army to do something important with her life and is assigned to Guantanamo Bay. Despite orders not to treat the prisoners, er, detainees as humans, Cole forms a kind of friendship with Ali (Payman Maadi), one of the imprisoned Jihadists. Camp X-Ray is worth seeing, if not for its criticism of US military practices, then for the only film performance by Stewart that I think doesn’t suck—although she still bites her bottom lip about a hundred times. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Concerning Violence
Lauryn Hill’s powerful narration forms text over images of African shantytowns, white colonists’ immaculate bocce greens, African workers abandoned on a roadside for striking, white missionaries admitting to forcing their ideals on the natives. In a plea for a new mode of living after decolonization, Olsson/Fanon/Hill begs, “Let us try not to imitate Europe.” After viewing this compelling Malcolm X-meets-Adbusters film, that’s the last thing I want to do. … read more
Sundance Film Review: We Come as Friends
A young Sudanese girl wonders why she is beaten at school when she wears her native clothing; Texas evangelists set up a colony on Sudanese land to save the souls of the naked, godless locals and build a “New Texas.” We Come as Friends is a powerful, troubling and possibly life-changing look into the real people involved in this monumental disaster, and the real consequences of economic and cultural imperialism. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Drunktown’s Finest
In Gallup, New Mexico, aka Drunktown USA, three Navajo protagonists battle alcoholism, peer rejection and the whitewashing of their Native roots. Although Drunktown’s Finest has moments of believability, most of the acting falls flat, and the direction feels clunky and forced. This is a film with heart and it tells a sympathetic story, but it lacks the quality that separates an engrossing film from a valiant attempt. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Listen Up Phillip
I haven’t laughed as consistently through an entire film as I did with Listen Up Philip. Alex Ross Perry uses a fast-paced vérité approach, narration, a cool jazz soundtrack and super-witty, literary dialogue to examine the meaninglessness of a cliché young, misunderstood writer’s life. Every line from every character is perfect and the acting is flawlessly believable—this is one of the best narrative features I’ve seen at Sundance, or anywhere, for that matter. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Land Ho!
Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson), a crass, lovable retired surgeon from New Orleans surprises his former brother-in-law Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) with an all-expenses-paid trip to Iceland to help him get over his recent divorce. Mitch’s frequent “doobification” and non-stop sexual references in his booming Southern drawl contrasts with Colin’s serious, uptight Aussie voice of reason—the two varied personalities make a wildly entertaining, comedic dynamic on screen. … read more
Sundance Film Review: No No: A Dockumentary
I didn’t know who Dock Ellis was until last year, when I read about him in Mike Brown’s SLUG Magazine article about athlete drug use—Ellis was famous for pitching a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while high on acid in 1970. Ellis, along with the rest of the Pirates, broke barriers and set precedents for black American athletes and developed a reputation for the Pirates as one of the wildest teams in the major leagues. … read more
Against Me! @ Murray Theater 03.22 with Laura Stevenson &...
Being an Against Me! fan is exhausting. Against Me!’s mix of “fuck society” politics, self-examination and stripped-down revolt against punk paradigms filled the hole in my punk heart. Then they signed to a major label and I felt betrayed. I’ve since grown up a little (I hope) and realized that a band can do whatever they want and it has absolutely nothing to do with me. … read more
Phantogram @ In The Venue 04.16 with TEEN
“FAAAACK!” I scream as I trip over the exact same invisible stair I tripped over when we arrived. I recuperate instantly and we escape outside. Walking down 600 West to our car, we discuss the last few hours and come to a couple agreements: Phantogram is awesome but a little over the top, and TEEN is, like, the coolest new band right now. … read more
Beehive Distilling Launch Party @ The State Room 08.02
Partners Matt Aller, Chris Barlow and Erik Ostling, who have worked in Salt Lake’s design, advertising and photography industries, officially started producing at Beehive Distilling in January of this year and their visual skills show on both the bottle’s great label design and their promotional materials. The precious liquid inside the bottle, though, outshines its appearances—Jack Rabbit Gin is some fine-tasting liquor. … read more
Ty Segall @ Urban Lounge 09.27 with La Luz, Max...
This is better than when I saw Ty Segall play here in Fuzz and that was one of the best performances I can remember. Holy cow, this is amazing. How can he play so well and so hard, non-stop? … read more
Getting Back Up: Tempt One Writes Again
In 1980s Los Angeles, Tony Quan, aka Tempt One, was one of the pioneers of a distinct LA graffiti style. But in 2003, Tempt was diagnosed with ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which left him almost completely paralyzed, unable to eat, breathe or even speak on his own—writing graffiti was obviously out of the question. … read more
Palace of Buddies
Nick Foster and Tim Myers have made music in Salt Lake in many incarnations over the last 12 years. Palace of Buddies, the current musical incarnation of Foster and Myers, plays an infectious assembly of electro-pop and dance-rock. Make sure to put on your blue dress and join Palace of Buddies as they get the party poppin’ at SLUG’s Blue Dress Birthday Bash on Feb. 17 at The Woodshed. … read more
Home at Last: Signed & Numbered Frames the Future
Over the last four years, Signed & Numbered has lived a nomadic existence. What began as a tiny basement poster shop on Broadway expanded into a custom frame shop, necessitating various moves to locations around the Salt Lake valley. Now located at 2320 S. West Temple, and enough room to fit the entire operation under one roof, the shop has evolved into the creative home base envisioned nearly two decades ago. … read more
Local Reviews: Max Pain and the Groovies
Tortilla Gold, the latest release from the Groovies, is seven tracks of jangling, bluesy rock n’ roll. This band plays a great live show, always getting the crowd thrashing around. Fast rockers such as “Electro Cosmic Chronic Jam” and “Doin Time” capture that energy, while the slow groove of “Piano” and “Good Olds Blues” show a more melodic, tightened-up side of the band. … read more
Heeeeeeere’s Johnny! The New Face of Moab Brewery
Chances are, you’ve noticed a couple new beers in the cooler at grocery stores and gas stations. The bold red, white and blue bull’s-eye of Johnny’s American IPA and the vintage, checkered turquoise-and-white Rocket Bike American Lager stand out on the shelf, both in appearance and size. If you looked closer at the four-pack of 16 oz tallboys, you may have been surprised to see that they were from Moab Brewery. … read more
Midsummer Crunch: Crucial Fest Strikes Again
Crucial Fest is Salt Lake City’s own badass rock festival thrown by Exigent Records. Making its debut last summer, Crucial Fest presented an exposition of amazing local and regional talent in a five-day, multi-venue musical orgy. At this year’s festival, running June 20-23 and June 27-30, there will be more bands and more shows spread over various Salt Lake venues, with all-day Kilby Court extravaganzas complete with art, vendors, food carts and skate demos on both Saturdays. … read more
Mommy’s Little Monsters on Punk Rock Halloween
Three years ago, Minor Threat, Black Flag and the Misfits played in the basement of an abandoned building somewhere in Salt Lake City. Of course, it was actually Utah’s xCOMMUNICATEDx, Pass-A-Fist and Youth Descent, impersonating and playing cover sets of some of their favorite punk bands in a Salt Lake tradition: Punk Rock Halloween. “It’s the idea of dressing up and being someone else for Halloween, but, instead, bands are doing it,” says Robin Banks, the local artist and SLUG Mag contributor who helps organize the event. … read more
Handcrafted Hacking: The Transistor and Make: SLC
The word “hacker” often connotes a lone, bespectacled computer villain sitting in a dark room, breaking code to alter the White House’s homepage or gain access to people’s personal account information on Amazon. For the people who actually do it, however, hacking is more about taking something that was made for one purpose and integrating it into your own creation to do something else. The Transistor and Make: SLC are part a community of people around the globe who see something cool and think, “Hey, I could make that!” … read more
La Barba’s DIY Coffee Operation
On the West Coast, high-end coffee roasters and cafes long ago ditched the Irish crème and the breakfast blend, instead focusing on the flavors of the (gasp!) actual coffee itself. This new school of coffee emphasizes a lighter roasting style, which highlights the different flavor profiles of coffees from particular regions. Salt Lake’s own La Barba Coffee Roasting is roasted in a modified barbecue grill in a Rose Park backyard, and it’s on par with some of the roasters that inspired it. … read more
Quadruple Your Fun: Utah’s Four Freshest Brewpubs
When I reached the legal drinking age, I joked about aspiring to have a beer gut. I have always been a real scrawny guy with the metabolism of a hummingbird, so I figured I’d never consume enough beer to develop any visible bulge in my midsection. Half a dozen years later, the Utah craft beer scene directly correlates with my budding beer belly. Always eager to try new booze, the Kirkland brothers hit the road to see what’s brewing out in the desert of eastern Utah, on the edge of the Great Salt Lake and up the hill in the Avenues. … read more
Top 5: Danny Brown
Right from the first track (“Side A [Old]”), it’s obvious that this ain’t that old Danny Brown shit. He takes us there, into his old life—his mom braiding hair on the front porch (“25 Bucks”) and a crackhead burning off his lip doing stove hits (“Torture”). But this is new territory for Brown. Old strays from the minimalist and vocal-centric emphasis of XXX and the ’90s-worship of The Hybrid, and shows that Brown is as versatile and conceptual as ever. Old is more put-together, more focused around each song’s vibe or story. … read more
Getting To Point B
Point B, starring the late David Fetzer, is “a stylized sci-fi comedy about four grad students who accidentally develop a crude teleportation device,” says Cannon, the film’s producer. … read more
Localized: JAWWZZ!!
This month’s Localized is a cross-section of SLC punk: the visceral, dissonant hardcore punk of openers Foster Body, the surf-soaked party punk of JAWWZZ!! and the acerbic, bittersweet pop punk of Problem Daughter. The convergence of punk dexterity happens Nov. 8 at the Urban Lounge at 9 p.m., emceed by Ischa B. and sponsored by Bohemian Brewery. It’s $5 to get in if you’re 21+. If you’re not, watch it online at gigviz.com. … read more
Tales of the Beer Cocktail
At its simplest, a beer cocktail is merely this: a drink with beer in it. Since there are no known texts on beer cocktails and no formal taxonomy that I know of, I’ve developed three categories of them.
Artisan or Perfection: Alpha Dominche Steampunk
The Steampunk may initially seem like the nail in every barista’s reclaimed-wood coffin—what will we all do, if not stand and pour water into a French press, AeroPress or Chemex? Perez, though, sees the Steampunk as a tool for baristas to achieve brewing excellence.
Follow the White Rabbit: A Journey Into UFO Country
Before dawn on the morning of Feb. 12, 2012, security guard Corey Serawop was halfway through a graveyard shift at a Fort Duchesne alcohol abuse treatment center when the power went out. Serawop saw red-and-blue flashing lights outside the building. Assuming the police had arrived in relation to the power outage, he went outside to meet them. Instead of a police cruiser, Serawop saw something unimaginable—something he had only seen in movies. … read more
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Everything Is Terrible! @ Brewvies 09.14
As part of the Two Head Cleaners and a Microphone Tour, the guys from EIT stopped by Brewvies Cinema Pub to show their two video collections: Comic Relief Zero and Everything Is Terrible! Does the Hip-Hop! It’s like getting really stoned and hating it, but you end up looking back on it fondly the next day—you value the “experience,” man. … read more
Black Light Art Show @ Copper Palate Press 10.18
The theme that Brian Taylor created for the participating artists was for each artist to choose a band and screen print a black light poster about said band—some of the artists stuck to the theme and others went their own direction. The idea also molded into a collection of several artists’ versions of the quintessential psychedelic black light poster. The show was an intimate gathering of the who’s who of the printing community, and those of us that did attend sure as shit wished they had a draft card to burn. … read more
Against Me! @ Murray Theater 03.22 with Laura Stevenson &...
Being an Against Me! fan is exhausting. Against Me!’s mix of “fuck society” politics, self-examination and stripped-down revolt against punk paradigms filled the hole in my punk heart. Then they signed to a major label and I felt betrayed. I’ve since grown up a little (I hope) and realized that a band can do whatever they want and it has absolutely nothing to do with me. … read more