LGBTQ+
May 30, 2014
Contributor Limelight: Christian Schultz
Christian Schultz started writing for SLUG in October of 2012, and his prose in all of his work is utterly spellbinding. He also joined the copy editing team this spring. His cerebral yet gracefully constructed sentences and his adept editing skills have been surefire signs that he’d make an excellent Digital Content Coordinator, and we’re beaming with pride to have Christian in this position! He graduated with a BA in English from the U in spring of 2013, and continues his penchant for literature, bookworming through postmodern works by Kathy Acker and by local U professor Lance Olsen, about whose work he’s written stellar reviews. Christian’s interview pieces are equally impressive, as he spoke with Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell and Sacred Bones’ Caleb Braaten, both of which turned out to be delightful reads. Christian loves a good pop, goth or punk show—anything from Chvrches to Perfect Pussy. He is the writer for our monthly Bad Kids Collective web column, Creature Feature, propagating queer youth culture and amplifying these performers’ voices. You may see Christian cycling around Downtown on his way to Eva Bakery, or working the counter at Gourmandise!
Articles by contributor
Reviews: Soft Metals – Lenses
We’ve seen nearly the same kiss before, on their self-titled debut, and, musically, they’ve made a similar statement—retro-synth explorations carved into Italo-disco driven pop songs. … read more
Reviews: Zola Jesus and JG Thirlwell featuring Milvox Quartet
Versions is existing Zola Jesus material reimagined with string arrangements by No Wave icon JG Thirlwell. … read more
Reviews: Maps – Vicissitude
James Chapman, the force behind Maps, began these songs at his Northamptonshire home, the place where his Mercury Prize-nominated debut We Can Create was recorded. … read more
Review: Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv
Young Guv = (Big Star x Prince / Cheap Trick) ± Kids On A Crime Spree … read more
Reviews: Ellie Herring – Kite Day
The greatest genius of Kite Day, Herring’s second proper release, is the subtle percolation of trends in avant-garde and pop electronics, hip hop production and current DJ/mixtape culture. … read more
Reviews: Gauntlet Hair – Stills
It starts with “Human Nature,” a fist-pumper with an awesome build-up to a glorious hook. What follows is a collection of songs that are grungy, crystalline, sexy and ugly. … read more
Review: Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp
Waxahatchee = The Softies x Lemuria x Cat Power … read more
Review: Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt
On her first album, American Weekend, Katie Crutchfield (P.S. Eliot, Bad Banana) sang personally devastating songs about the great universals—love and loss. There she showed off an enormous songwriting talent that was nurtured on cross-country tours. … read more
Review: Wet Hair – Spill Into Atmosphere
Wet Hair = Abe Vigoda + Mode Moderne
Wet Hair is the project of Night-People Records founder Shawn Reed, who has been a quiet but influential independent label maker for a decade. Wet Hair has shared releases with Naked on the Vague and Peaking Lights, toured with Zola Jesus, and Spill Into Atmosphere is their second full-length album. … read more
Review: Winkie – One Day We Pretended To Be Ghosts
Winkie’s inclination toward the melodic structure buried beneath the fuzz is what places them alongside their already established peers. Was mbv too full of love for your horizontal head? Eat at Winkie’s! … read more
Review: Vaadat Charigim – Sinking As A Stone
Vaadat Charigim = Slowdive / Ride / Mode Moderne / Do Make Say Think … read more
Review: Valleys – Are You Going to Stand There and...
The songs on this debut album beautifully capture that feeling its lengthy title evokes. On the album, Valleys reinterprets the rich heritage of melancholic shoegaze with their own vision. … read more
Review: Vaadat Charigim – The World Is Well Lost
The World abounds in primary shoegaze elements: swirls of lush guitar and nostalgic, monotone vocals. Tracks here move in and out of noise and meandering sonic contemplation, with a dark energy reminiscent of Slowdive’s Souvlaki. … read more
Review: Trust – Joyland
It’s dark there, where you are. A faint, crystalline whimper hums over the pitch-black day-glo. There’s this neon-glowing earworm creeping out from somewhere in your head, and it’s eager for an inch of the latest fake-goth sensation. … read more
Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Days...
Without much fanfare, The Pains’ classic lineup has gone (Peggy’s the DIY Editor at BuzzFeed!?) and been replaced by a rotating cast of indie pop vets. Sigh … is the indie pop revival that Kip Berman and friends kick-started in the late aughts finally having its bittersweet coda? … read more
Review: The Knife – Shaking The Habitual
Shaking the Habitual extends beyond the scope of the record—it’s a manifesto for a 21st Century pop culture ontology. … read more
Review: The Tower of Light – Self-Titled
This debut album has all of those things we like to associate with dream-inducing, cinematic doom: dark and brooding soundscapes; swirling, droning guitars; airy, repetitive vocals and drums that burst above the rising haze. … read more
Review: The Clean – Anthology (Reissue)
The Clean Anthology (Reissue) Merge Records Street: 07.15 The Clean = The Chills + The Bats Flying Nun Records. The Dunedin Sound. If these words don’t incite you to a jangle pop riot (or to buy this $44 quadruple LP), then here’s one last lazy description: The Clean are to indie rock what The Beatles
Review: The Blue Angel Lounge – A Sea of Trees
The Blue Angel Lounge A Sea of Trees A Recordings Street: 05.20 The Blue Angel Lounge = Screen Vinyl Image + Nico The influence of German-born singer Nico on The Blue Angel Lounge doesn’t stop at their name, which is taken from the venue in New York City where she first played in the U.S.
Review: The Drums – Encyclopedia
The Drums = (The Beach Boys x Wendy Carlos) + (The Smiths x Arcade Fire) … read more
Review: The History of Apple Pie – Feel Something
The History of Apple Pie = Lush + Garbage … read more
Review: The Aislers Set – Terrible Things Happen (reissue)
The Aislers Set = Marine Girls + The Softies … read more
Review: The Aislers Set – The Last Match (reissue)
The Aislers Set = Tullycraft + Beat Happening’s You Turn Me On + Chantal Goya … read more
Review: The Aislers Set – How I Learned to Write...
The Aislers Set = Belle & Sebastian + Black Tambourine … read more
Review: The Apartments – The Evening Visits… and Stays For...
The Apartments = The Go-Betweens / (Blueboy + Ian McCulloch) … read more
Review: SISU – Blood Tears
Blood Tears is bristling with synths and heavy bass riffs, and in between, Vu’s voice creates melodramatic tension. Most of the tracks recall the current ’80s pop revival, but there’s something refreshing about the sleeker production here, especially on the awesome single “Harpoons.” … read more
Review: Stagnant Pools – Geist
I could probably fill most of the shoegaze reviews I write with half-hearted comparisons to Slowdive and be done with ’em. That’s what I thought here, at first, with the opening song “You Whir,” but a different narrative unfolded upon subsequent listenings. … read more
Review: Rllrbll – 4 Corners
Because of the risks taken throughout, there isn’t much cohesion to these 10 tracks, though “Hebrew, I Hate You,” a minimal, gothic, dub-styled tune, is where the approach pays off. If you’re up for a weird listen, here’s one for you. … read more
Review: R.M. Hendrix – Urban Turks Country Jerks
No, this isn’t an LDS-themed Jimi Hendrix cover band, though if you’re a Utah native, that probably doesn’t sound too odd. What we’ve got here is a mixed bag of indie rock, shoegaze and … gulp … psychedelia that casts a wide arc from nostalgia days to here and now. … read more
Review: Pillar Point – Self-Titled
Pillar Point is a new dance-pop project formed by Scott Reitherman of Secretly Canadian band Throw Me The Statue (indie-poppers keen to hand claps and toe taps; see “Lolita”). Though this debut album explores the glum themes of uncertainty and heartbreak, the songs are catchy and buzzing with danceable synth hooks and hummable pop structures. … read more
Review: Pharmakon – Bestial Burden
Pharmakon = Prurient + Cremation Lily + Eraserhead Original Soundtrack … read more
Review: Pale Blue – The Past We Leave Behind
Pale Blue = Chris & Cosey / The Field / Suzanne Ciani … read more
Review: Orrin Campbell – Nocturnal
Orrin Campbell, an 18-year-old rapper from Brooklyn, recorded this debut album in his NYU dorm. It’s downtempo hip hop set to atmospheric spacey beats—call it minimal seapunk, if you like. … read more
Review: Orthy – E.M.I.L.Y. EP
Ian Orth’s edits, meant for Austin’s electro dance Learning Secrets, ended up as the four songs on this EP and are typical electro-pop of the moment—but I feel as if there’s nothing super enticing or even pleasantly generic about them (though a Baio remix of the title track provides a nice twist on the EP’s singular sound). … read more
Review: Perfect Pussy – Say Yes To Love
Say the name five times fast, snicker, then fuck off: Perfect Pussy is out to eviscerate your woeful self-critique with heart, humor and critical punk-rrrriot. … read more
Review: Odonis Odonis – Hard Boiled Soft Boiled
Hard Boiled Soft Boiled is the second album from this Toronto-based band Odonis Odonis. It’s fitting that this self-described “industrial surf-gaze” group has more to their double name than any singular sound—HBSB is two-sided and explores noise-pop from two different approaches. … read more
Review: Peter Murphy – Lion
Peter Murphy = David Bowie + Morrissey … read more
Review: Nots – We Are Nots
Nots = Wax Idols + Good Throb … read more
Review: Nic Hessler – Soft Connections
Nic Hessler = Sonic Flower Groove–era Primal Scream x Kids On A Crime Spree x The Ropers x The Kinks … read more
Review: Merchandise – After the End
Merchandise = Echo & the Bunnymen + The Chameleons … read more
Review: Metal Mother
A project of Oakland native Taara Tati’s confident musicianship and dark-wave occultism, Metal Mother’s second album, Ionika, will surely make waves in that burgeoning ethereal-witchy-gothic-pop, post-Internet scene you either love or hate by now. … read more
Review: Merchandise – Totale Nite EP
This new EP is very much a companion piece to last year’s Children of Desire, and very much pushes Merchandise’s sonic palate further. “Anxiety’s Door” is an awesome rock n’ roll epic adventure that showcases Dave Vasalotti’s guitar skills. … read more
Review: Mode Moderne – Occult Delight
For their third LP, Vancouver outfit Mode Moderne have embraced their goth pop style wholeheartedly and created their most confident album to date. … read more
Review: Marching Church – This World Is Not Enough
Marching Church = {Iceage x Merchandise}^Nick Cave … read more
Review: Lust For Youth – Compassion
Lust For Youth = (Pet Shop Boys x Depeche Mode) / New Order … read more
Review: Lust For Youth – Perfect View
Swede Hannes Norrvide’s third Lust for Youth album is more accessible and more confidently produced than anything that’s come before it. It’s no small wonder that this group is at the fore of the current dark wave of Northern European synth-punk bands. … read more
Review: LowCityRain – Self-Titled
As jangling new wave inspired chords cascade, driving bass and drums pump the track full of energy, a modest female vocal croons the title of the song and in these first three minutes, I’m left gasping. … read more
Review: Literature – Chorus
Sifting through the flavors of indie pop on Literature’s debut album might be as bad as calling the whole bloody thing the dreaded “T” word, but there’s a history here. … read more
Review: Joanna Gruesome / Perfect Pussy – Astonishing Adventures Split...
Joanna Gruesome / Perfect Pussy = Los Campesinos! + Alice Glass … read more
Review: Joanna Gruesome – Peanut Butter
Joanna Gruesome = Veronica Falls x Perfect Pussy x Martha … read more
Review: King Dude & Chelsea Wolfe – Sing More Songs Together…
What can I tell you about this two-track collaboration that you aren’t already certain of? TJ Cowgill sounds like Michael Gira; Chelsea Wolfe is un-fuck-with-able, and the combo is, for a second time now, nothing short of incredible. … read more
Review: Hungry Cloud Darkening – Glossy Recall
Hungry Cloud Darkening = Angelo Badalamenti / Julee Cruise x Dirty Beaches … read more
Review: IO Echo – Ministry Of Love
IO Echo are the L.A. duo of Ioanna Gika and her partner Leopold Ross (brother of Atticus, the Trent Reznor collaborator). After years relying on goth-pop-leaning singles to define themselves, Ministry of Love is their debut full album. … read more
Review: Heavenly Beat – Prominence
Prominence expands on the downtempo aesthetic of Talent by incorporating darker, introspective lyrics into the same exuberant sound. Peña’s airy falsetto floats through the tracks here, cozying up with lush loops of nylon strings, steel drums, and New Order–styled harmonica. … read more
Review: Grimes – Art Angels
Grimes = Purity Ring^Vengaboys / Mariah Carey^Miley Cyrus … read more
Review: Gold-Bears – Dalliance
Dalliance, Gold-Bears’ follow-up to 2011’s Are You Falling in Love? on the incomparable indie label, Slumberland, exudes a shiny indie-pop presence under a fuzzy, folk punk veneer. … read more
Local Review: The Circulars – Ornamental
The Circulars’ year-long presence as a four-piece in the Salt Lake music scene was the sort of magical run that will be remembered by wide-eyed youths long after our time has passed. … read more
Local Review: Michael Biggs – Gold
Salt Lake’s dark side is finally coming out of the woodwork. … read more
Local Review: Foster Body – Landscapes
Foster Body are a punk combo comprised of four of SLC’s hardest-working millennials, happening an alternative scene around their friendships. Landscapes, their debut EP, captures the group at a brilliant moment of process—merging strong musical sentiments and live performance practice into a compelling vision for contemporary post-punk. … read more
Local Review: Fossil Arms – Only Ever Have Nightmares When...
Fossil Arms = New Order + Ian Curtis … read more
Local Review: Chalk – Self-Titled
Chalk creates a sound that is total ‘90s indie rock nostalgia—there’s Britpop, indie pop, a bit of twee, plenty of Rivers Cuomo (especially on “Joke or Numb/Flare,” for the Weezer fans)—it’s a grab bag of the sounds of an alternative ’90s childhood. … read more
Local Review: Baby Ghosts – Maybe Ghosts
For the past two years, Baby Ghosts have been the darlings of the Utah music scene. For that length of time, they’ve been crafting some of the finest, hooks-iest tunes in the West, and they’ve been slinging them relentlessly from gig to gig across the valley and the country. … read more
Review: Communions – Self-titled
Communions = (The Stone Roses x The Drums) + (The Cure x Merchandise) … read more
Review: Gary Numan – Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)
Numan’s latest album, Splinter (Songs For A Broken Mind), the 19th full-length released under his own name, has expanded his exploration of heavy industrial pop music, the sound he’s embraced since the early ’90s. … read more
Review: FF – Lord
FF = Nirvana + Sonic Youth + You’re Living All Over Me-era Dinosaur Jr. … read more
Review: Flowers – Do What You Want To, It’s What...
Flowers = Aberdeen + Pam Berry … read more
Review: Eraas – Initiation
Initiation, Eraas’ second full-length album full of trip hop beats, kraut rock tempos and ethereal vocal samples, is remarkably hermetic and cohesive. Like Chelsea Wolfe, Eraas infuse their vocals with haunting echoes to create a kind of ominous atmosphere, especially on the sinister tracks such as “Old Magic” and “Above.” … read more
Review: Equateur – The Lava EP
Equateur = Washed Out + Daft Punk … read more
Review: Evans the Death – Expect Delays
Evans the Death = Shrag + Flowers + Girls Names … read more
Review: Echo Lake – Era
Echo Lake = (Tamaryn / The Raveonettes / SPC ECO)^Deerhunter … read more
Review: Document – Reset Your Mind EP
Tel Aviv seems to be abuzz with great indies of late who, perhaps tired of political baggage, are making their music make a scene. Unlike fellow Levantines in the ‘90s-vibing shoegaze band Vaadat Charigim, though, Document’s Nir Ben Jacob sings in English. … read more
Review: Crystal Stilts – Nature Noir
Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts are a tough band to pin down. At various times, they’ve used post-punk, psychedelic garage rock and indie pop jangle, often in the same song. … read more
Review: Camera Obscura – Desire Lines
Tracyanne Campbell and friends have done it again! Desire Lines is perfect indie pop—an album that you’ll want to listen to while riding your bike through town on a sunny day, or while doing the wash outside your two-flat, or while strolling though the hills above your midsize British city contemplating the next Johnny-come-lately who’s gonna sweep you off your feet.
… read more
Review: Cancers – Fatten the Leeches
Cancers = Potty Mouth + Veruca Salt … read more
Review: Blood And Sun – White Storms Fall
Blood and Sun White Storms Fall Pesanta Urfolk Street: 11.11.13 Blood and Sun = Death In June + Sol Invictus White Storms Fall is a neofolk gem that presents itself without any of the political baggage of the movement’s controversial pioneers Douglas P. and Boyd Rice. That’s not to say that Blood and Sun isn’t
Review: Big Freedia – Just Be Free
Big Freedia = Diplo + Lil Wayne … read more
Review: Belle and Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To...
Belle and Sebastian = (ABBA ± Saint Etienne) x Nick Drake … read more
Review: Austra – Olympia
2011’s Feel It Break was essentially Katie Stelmanis’ bedroom project. For their second album, Stelmanis was inspired by touring with Austra and created Olympia in a studio setting with her bandmates. … read more
Review: Bailterspace – Trinine
Let’s get easy comparisons out of the way—Bailterspace are often compared to certain American alternative bands from the angry alt ’80s and it’s not difficult to hear why on Trinine—Alister Parker’s monotonous singing and vicious guitar playing sounds so close to both Thurston Moore and J. Mascis. … read more
Review: Austra – Habitat
Austra = Trust + Grimes … read more
Review: Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire For No Witnesses
She’s still hanging her voice on vintage Americana hooks—“I feel so lonesome I could cry,” she sings on “Hi-five”—though this is her first release with a backing band, which envelops her fiery warble in warm, complementary tunes. … read more
Review: Amen Dunes – Love
Love is songwriter Damon McMahon’s latest release as Amen Dunes on Sacred Bones Records. … read more
Review: Alcest – Shelter
With drummer Winterhalter, Neige has left all ties to black metal behind with this release. From honey-laced harmonies on “Opale,” to meandering compositions on “Voix Sereines,” to the Halstead sung, Souvlaki-esque ballad “Away,” the album is filled with lush musical contemplations and triumphant melodies start-to-finish. … read more
Review: Allo Darlin’ – We Come From The Same Place
Following their debut’s charming pop smarts and Europe’s astonishing poise, Allo Darlin’ have returned with their third full-length, We Come From The Same Place, brought to the U.S. by indie powerhouse Slumberland Records. … read more
CONTRIBUTOR LIMELIGHT: Alexander Ortega – Editor
Since 2010, Alexander Ortega has risen through SLUG’s ranks, assuming the titles of Contributor Writer, Senior Staff Writer, Copy Editor, Junior Editor, Editorial Assistant, Managing Editor and now Editor. … read more
Localized: Angel Magic
Released in November 2015 on Utah’s premier electronic label, Hel Audio, Fall Through is a complete vision of Angel Magic’s elegant combo of raw, beat-driven electropop and soft, tranquil vocals. … read more
Metric Wants It All
On the dancefloor-ready heels of their sixth studio album, Pagans in Vegas, Metric return to The Depot on Feb. 17 as strong as ever in their 17-year career. … read more
Localized: New Shack
Industrious and resilient, Provo-based synthpop duo New Shack have burst into a bright existence in the last year and a half. … read more
Review: Patagonia Houdini Jacket
Intended as a shell for blocking out the elements during runs and other active conditions, Patagonia’s Houdini ($99) has become my go-to light jacket. When a week’s worth of unusually wet weather hit the Wasatch Front, the Houdini kept me dry as a dad joke during my slick and drizzly commutes. … read more
Review: Homemade Gin Kit
Ever stare down a bottle of Beehive Gin and wonder how many distinct ingredients are at work in such a spirit? Or maybe you’ve thought to yourself, “Gee, could I ever make something that tasty for myself?” Well, with the help of W&P Design’s Homemade Gin Kit, you can master the art of making your own gin—in 36 hours, no less. … read more
Review: kekemomo
Sisters Kellie Heap (keke) and Morgan Heap Zavala (momo) are the purveyors of the scentsational products of kekemomo. … read more
Review: The Smelly Goat Soap Company
With a name like Smelly Goat, my mind first drifted to piquant goat’s-milk cheeses, but bar soaps and bath products are what The Smelly Goat Soap Company trade in. … read more
No Sun: Shoegaze Hidden Gem
Just in time for winter’s dropping temperatures, Salt Lake’s No Sun are set to release Warm, an EP of lush, atmospheric shoegaze. The three-track EP, which the band will be releasing on cassette Dec. 5 at Diabolical Records, swells with walls of reverb and texture, walls that are densely built yet blanketed with subtle graces—everything requisite of beautiful, dreamy shoegaze. … read more
Occult Contemporary: Pictureplane’s Tips for Total Technomancy
Brooklyn-based electronic artist Pictureplane wants you to rave to the buzz of your own technology. … read more
Top 5 Indie Pop Albums To Pin To Your Anorak
We get it—it’s not just a winter jacket, it’s a suit of armor for your shy sensibilities and tender emotional life. This list of pure, perfect indie pop albums from 2015 would make for perfect badges to decorate it with. … read more
Review: Olio Beard & Co. – Olio Beard & Co....
Now, there are a variety of beard oil companies on the market in Utah, but none with as much variety as Olio Beard & Co. … read more
Beehive Distilling: Out of the Bathtub, Into the Barrel
Beehive Distilling has been slinging their aptly named Jack Rabbit Gin and its barrel-aged variant in Utah’s burgeoning booze scene since 2014. … read more
Review: Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
For Sleater-Kinney fans, Modern Girl’s stride hits when Brownstein plunges into the riot grrrl movement with full force. … read more
Review: Garwood’s Ginger Beer
Garwood’s Ginger Beer Ginger Beer, 12-oz. bottles facebook.com/garwoodsgingerbeer Thomas Garwood and Ashlee House Kickstarted the market in Salt Lake for fresh, organic ginger beer in early 2015, and have been the valley’s sole local supplier of the gingery, effervescent beverage ever since. Garwood’s flagship ginger beer is a mouthwatering concoction—made from a potent amount of
Review: CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye
CHVRCHES Every Open Eye Glassnote / Virgin EMI Street: 09.25 CHVRCHES = [Speak & Spell–era Depeche Mode x Purity Ring x Grimes]√Tegan and Sara In an era of revision for revision’s sake, sticking to one’s guns has become something of a gamble. Such is the case with Scottish synthpop band Chvrches, who exploded onto the
Review: Rose McDowall – Cut With the Cake Knife
As one half of the Scottish new wave group Strawberry Switchblade, Rose McDowall’s persona in contemporary consciousness is synonymous with the unbridled decadence of 1980s fashion. … read more
Review: New Order – Music Complete
Overall, the sheer variety of dance, electronic and post-punk flavors on Music Complete is a bold statement for a band that could easily stick to their roots. … read more
Melanie Rae Thon: The Landscape of Language
Imaginative experience is a tenet of author Melanie Rae Thon’s written work, which examines the subtle, complicated and profound beauties of life through animated, lyrical storytelling. As a professor of Creative Writing and Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and an author of four novels and three short story collections, Thon has committed her
New Order: World In Motion
There are bands that leave a mark on their generation, and then there is New Order. Igniting a career of perseverance following the suicide of Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis, New Order wound post-punk alienation and the pleasure of the dancefloor into always unconventional pop songs, crafting themselves the musical pulse of their time. Cautiously
Friends @ Urban Lounge with SSION, House of Ladosha
Brooklyn friends SSION, House of Ladosha and Friends crossed tour paths Wednesday night and treated Salt Lake to a wild night of electrifying pop music. Brooklyn has been the center of music culture for over a decade, and NYC always remains at the top of its game by constantly mutating and attracting fresh musicians and artists from across the land. … read more
In Synthpop We Trust: Interview with Robert Alfons
Trust, the alter ego of Toronto artist Robert Alfons, who wrote and produced his debut album, TRST, with Austra’s Maya Postepski, is that archetypal band that will make your parents confront you about that gaping hole between their pop music and yours. … read more
The Faint @ In The Venue 11.09 with Trust, Robert...
Still in line and mere feet from the door, I heard the distinct hazy synth opening of “Shoom” and my goth pop melancholy went into overdrive. … read more
The Babies @ Kilby 11.25 with Super 78!, Sariah’s Kiss
I had been looking forward to seeing my friends Sariah’s Kiss play their first show, and I was really excited to hear that they and Super 78! were going to be opening for the Brooklyn indie pop band, The Babies. … read more
Nero (DJ Set) @ Park City Live 01.17 with DJ...
Sundance is perfect people watching, best partaken in the gaudy parties and concerts that tend to cater to warm weather visitors, aka, girls wearing bikinis in frigid Utah temperatures. This year’s opening night brought acclaimed electronic duo Nero to Park City for a pricey, open to the public, sold-out, classic Sundance dance party. … read more
Lightning Strikes in Salt Lake: An Interview with Joey Arias
New York City cabaret/performance art/drag icon Joey Arias is performing in town with fellow East Village art scene veteran Kristian Hoffman as part of a West Coast tour called “Lightning Strikes.” I spoke with Joey about trending performance art, Z chromosomes and alien pop stars. … read more
Joey Arias and Kristian Hoffman @ Urban Lounge 02.28 with...
Called the “demigod of the demimonde” by Time Out New York, Joey Arias has made a career out of following the twists and turns of drag and performance culture since 1976, when he drove from L.A. to New York with dreams of performing. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+ | Show Reviews
The Soft Moon Interview
Raised under the blistering sun of California’s Mojave Desert, Luis Vasquez creates shape-like sounds under a design of minimal darkwave. Vasquez began The Soft Moon as a process of expelling memories of a rotten upbringing. After a decade of working as a graphic designer and playing in various punk inspired bands, snarling post-punk and industrial synthpop felt like the perfect mode of expression. … read more
Trust @ Urban 03.12 with Eraas
Trust has been incredibly influential for me this past year. Their debut album, TRST, has nourished my babybat maturation and been a setting for the transgressive happiness that I look for in post-punk expression. … read more
Creature Feature: Cartel Chameleon Fenice, Public Trans
Within younger generations, drag culture is at a crossroads; our age is a chameleonic one, and post-Internet, we’re in a remarkable moment of subcultural revival. Cartel and the Bad Kids are bringing their mutant message to Salt Lake’s divided communities, straight and queer. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Merchandise @ Kilby Court 04.03 with Parenthetical Girls, Wet Hair
From a wash of reverb, Merchandise’s lead guitarist Dave Vassalotti strummed the opening chords of an honest pop song called “Time.” Carson Cox’s melancholic croon shone through the band’s wall of sound, peaking at (my favorite Merchandise line), “I’m really just an animal/made with human parts.” … read more
Jeff Mangum @ The Depot 04.04
Neutral Milk Hotel’s story has long ago been folded into the tapestry of indie rock legend—a songwriter with a burning vocabulary makes one beautifully haunting collection of song and memory that’s instantly called perfection, then recluses himself and dissociates from its fame, perhaps crushed with the silly fear of never writing anything one-hundredth as good. … read more
SpaceGhostPurrp @ Kilby Court 04.05 with Raider Klan, DopeThought
I’m a Purrp fan not for his hip hop roots, but for his connection to a somewhat dissimilar genre—goth. The boundaries between any genres can be overcome in our post-Internet lives—witch house, a basic blend of goth, R&B and hip hop, is paving the way for such genre experimentation. Witchy is an apt description of Purrp’s music. … read more
Purity Ring @ Urban Lounge 04.09 with Blue Hawaii
Minutes before the experience of Purity Ring began, Corin Roddick lifted the black veils (literal, figurative) from over his unusual instruments—Roddick triggers his percussion and drum kits through lighted orbs; Megan carries a lantern and bangs a glowing bass drum, as if to guide her audience through the performance. … read more
Angel Olsen @ Kilby Court 04.15 with Villages, The Awful...
Angel Olsen’s songs uncover a bygone era of folk and country Americana, when music was simpler, or at least less cluttered with electronics. … read more
Charli XCX @ In The Venue 05.13 with Marina and...
Marina Diamandis and Charli XCX look and sound similar enough to successfully pull off a Parent Trap-style swap—beyond being British teen idols (well, Marina is Welsh, actually) they’ve recorded together, they have the same bratty ’90s pop aesthetic and yes, they really do look alike, especially when you’re drunk and bouncing up and down in a packed venue. … read more
BAD KIDS Present: Gods, Goddesses & Monsters Pageant @ Metro...
Pre-Pride weekend 2013 kicked off deliciously under last Thursday’s gorgeous sunset at Salt Lake’s Metro Bar as four founding members of Salt Lake’s alternative drag scene, the Bad Kids, hosted a pageant for its expanding fanbase. … read more
Creature Feature: Femmale Fatale, An Interview with Sophia Scott
Amid a group of performers whose goal is stylized femininity, Sophia Scott took to the stage in a suit, which he took off during the performance to reveal a gorgeous black dress, all while singing, rather than syncing. SLUG sat down with Scotty to talk about embracing his “femme-male” identity and about living and performing in Salt Lake City. … read more
Utah Pride Recap
Utah Pride is the weekend genderqueer people of the Western states wait all year to come out for. Because of the massive turnout and absolute madness, it is a weekend where the planets of the LGBTQQ community collide and become one constellation of beautiful people. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Camera Obscura @ Urban Lounge 06.26 with Marissa Nadler
Camera Obscura began with “Do It Again” and “Break It To You Gently,” two new pop tunes that prove that they’ve still got a vitality to their songbook, a feeling that evolved with confidence as they delivered half of their newest album. … read more
An Interview with Wire @ Pitchfork Music Fest
With their new album, Change Becomes Us, Wire revisits unrecorded material from the late-’70s, and reworks it into something new and exciting. I spoke with members Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Matthew Simms about the new album, debunking oddball political accusations and playing Pitchfork Music Festival for the first time. … read more
Pitchfork Music Festival 2013
Another Pitchfork Music Festival has come and gone, leaving in its summer wake a fantastic tangle of performances, pictures, #hashtags, tweets, Instagrams and glistening memories. … read more
Soft Metals @ Kilby Court 07.31 with Beachmen, Kyle Luntz
Portland’s electronic pop duo Soft Metals, after a recent move to L.A., have just released their second full-length album, Lenses, on Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks imprint and have embarked on a massive American tour to support it. They played a short but entrancing set last Wednesday at Kilby Court. … read more
Creature Feature: A Conversation with Willard Cron
Willard Cron came into Salt Lake City to fill the dark corners of its alt. nightlife with everlasting light and kitschy attitude. Willard helped initiate the Bad Kids performance group and became an insta-celebrity, towering over crowds at his height of 6’4” (7’ in homemade creepers). Who is Willard? Who are the Bad Kids? Willard answers these and other pressing questions. … read more
Fall Contemporary Preview at the UMFA
Under this intellectual canopy lies an exhibition of a diverse collection of prints from the postwar and contemporary moments, entitled Under Pressure: Contemporary Prints from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, and down the hall you’ll find a gender-crushing retrospective of Martha Wilson’s career, among others. No, you aren’t reading about New York City. Rather, this is the fall lineup for Salt Lake’s own humble Utah Museum of Fine Arts. … read more
Guerilla Girls Lecture @ UMFA 09.12
For nearly thirty years, artist activists The Guerilla Girls have been a thorn in the side of the art establishment, working methodically, humorously and anonymously to cast light on the dismal fortunes of women and minority artists. Two of the groups’ founding members, Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo, guided Utah audiences through the Guerrilla Girls story. … read more
Staging The Self with Martha Wilson
How does one begin, in this progressive moment, to speak of the work of Martha Wilson? How to explain the beauty of the work’s relentless exploration of selfhood and its defiant feminist declaration of the body as the site of art to an audience whose ideas of art have been formed by technological saturation—a material reliance on electronic screens and an everything all at once attitude towards, well, everything? … read more
Stars @ Urban Lounge 09.21 with High Highs
Montreal-based band Stars are legends of melancholic, sincere indie pop music. Their music captures all the curious feelings of being alive in the current state of the world—with an anti-apathetic approach towards romance and politics and by a relentless appreciation of their craft. Last Saturday night, for the first time in this long and successful career, they played Salt Lake’s Urban Lounge. … read more
Exceptional Shoegaze: Juval Haring of Israel’s Vaadat Charigim
“The idea for the album’s name and glue that sticks the songs together came from stargazing. I thought a lot back then about how there really is no present time. About the paradox of perception that happens when you look up at stars and are actually looking into an image of the past. The album deals with displacements like that one, with the feeling that there is no now.” … read more
Our Beat Is Heavenly: Interview with John Peña
Heavenly Beat is the sort of band name that sticks to a project perfectly. John Peña’s Balearic indie pop arrangements balance classical guitar, steel drums, harmonica and mellotron to make lush, serene, heavenly songs. … read more
Coldwaves and City Rain: Interview with LowCityRain’s Markus Siegenhort
LowCityRain is the solo project of Markus Siegenhort, member of German post-metal band Lantlôs. On the album, Siegenhort’s post-punk baritone shifts through such brooding sonic pathways—cold synths, heavy bass, melancholic guitars—through similar thematic territory: urban nights and modern indecisions. SLUG spoke with Siegenhort about the album and some of his favorite coldwave tracks. … read more
Creature Feature: Mae Daye and Bad Kid Maenia
For its fifth Creatire Feature installment, SLUG spoke with camp queen Mae Daye about her humble descent into drag, her friends and supporters and why the Bad Kids’ brand of performance is a breath of fresh air for Salt Lake’s queer nightlife. … read more
Sharon Needles: Nightmare Before Xmas @ Metro Bar 12.14 with...
Out of the crop of RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants that Metro Bar has hosted in this post-Pride season—including Manila Luzon, Honey Mahogany and JuJuBee— Sharon Needles is most certainly the Baddest. … read more
Salt 9: Jillian Mayer
Jillian Mayer, a south Florida–based artist and Sundance Film Festival alum, is the ninth artist to be featured in the Utah Museum of Fine Art’s ongoing Salt series, which highlights contemporary work from emerging artists. Much of Jillian Mayer’s work investigates the fragmenting consequences of Internet usage through some of its most ubiquitous media—catchy pop songs, humorous YouTube videos, chat rooms and ephemeral linkages. … read more
BADKIDS @ the UMFA
Look who is at the museum—The Bad Kids! As multi-media selfie-installations and gender integrated performance art, I think they’ll feel at home here. … read more
Art | Art and Fashion | LGBTQ+
Youth Code @ The Shred Shed 02.07 with Coming, Baby...
Last Friday, L.A.-based industrial duo Youth Code and avant-punk band Coming, both fresh off of a stint supporting AFI on a cross-country tour, played passionate, frenetic sets with a small audience at The Shred Shed. … read more
Ghouls and Dolls: Bad Kids Pageant Preliminary #1 @ Metro...
Faced with an overwhelming response upon the announcement of their second yearly pageant, the Bad Kids decided to give every applicant a chance to compete, splitting the pageant into two preliminaries before the actual main event, to be held on June 5. … read more
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks @ Urban Lounge 04.03 with...
Let me hit you with some cold, hard SLUG truth: Stephen Malkmus looks like the lovechild that Peter Murphy and Aaron Carter spawned after a heady night of blazin’, snackin’ and talkin’ sports. Goofiness aside, The Jicks and openers Speedy Ortiz entertained a packed crowd of seasoned slackers and young fans alike at Urban Lounge last Thursday night. … read more
BE MORE EXTREME: INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR LANCE OLSEN
Lance Olsen is the literary astronaut we dreamt of being as children—turning far-out worlds abuzz with the difficult imagination, surviving re-entry with stories to share. Author, traveller, and teacher of narrativity and innovative writing at the University of Utah, Olsen wonderfully shares what it means to be alive now, here. SLUG spoke with Olsen about recent projects and the secret handshake ecology of innovative writing practices … read more
CHVRCHES @ The Depot 04.22 with The Range
Glasgow-based synthpop trio Chvrches are a bombastic, bleedin’ indie-at-heart spectacle. Their hooks and heart soar song after song on their 2013 debut album, The Bones of What You Believe, and they’re not stopping short in any part of their global pop ascendancy. They passed through Salt Lake City on their U.S. tour to played a sold-out show at The Depot last Tuesday. … read more
Creature Feature: The Bearded Femme
“People who are too comfortable freak me out. I feel so uncomfortable and indecisive all the time, so I’m always questioning myself,” says The Bearded Femme. … read more
Perfect Pussy @ Kilby Court 05.20 With Potty Mouth, Fossil...
“Whoa dude, did you see that?” I hadn’t been to a show at Kilby Court in a while, and this is what I hear from the handful of fashionable high school kids in reaction to local goth cuties Fossil Arms, as if they’ve dropped down secretly from the grey skies of some distant British storm cell. … read more
Ghouls and Dolls: A Bad Kids Pageant @ Metro Bar...
Another year of Utah Pride festivities (un)officially kicked off at Metro Bar Thursday night.
10 contestants, each of whom earned a spot in the competition after a tough preliminary round, performed for Bad Kid Collective titles: Wicked Kid, Ardent Kid, Avant Kid and Baddest Kid. … read more
Creature Feature: Tony C Berrow
With the amount of bling already bedazzled to his body, it’s no wonder that Tony received the crown. “To win the pageant was shocking,” Tony says. “The pleasure of the whole pageant is that you get to meet so many other creative minds that are the same level as you, as far as being artistic in their different ways, which is fun.” … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Compared to What? The Improbable...
The doc serves up Frank in all of his Wildean wittiness, showing how he could demolish his political adversaries in hilarious, rapid-fire debate, while never backing down from his convictions. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Appropriate Behavior
This Brooklyn-20-something-hipster comedy sparkles with Lena Dunham–like wit and relies heavily on the kind of unapologetic humor made famous by Girls, so it’s fitting that the film’s Iranian-American writer, director and actor, Desiree Akhavan, will join the show’s cast for its upcoming fourth season. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Lady Valor: The Kristen Beck...
In 2013, former Navy Seal Christopher Beck came out as Kristen, a transgender woman. After 20 years of serving in combat missions in war zones across the world, her new mission—to find inner happiness and to raise awareness of trans issues in the military—has been one of her most exhausting and most challenging. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: To Be Takei
Even if you’ve never seen a Star Trek episode in your life, Sulu’s … ahem … George Takei’s visage and deep voice is surely seared into your memory nonetheless—he’s a gay national treasure and a damn fine social activist, too. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Tom at the Farm
Tom at the Farm, Xavier Dolan’s fourth feature (preceding this year’s Mommy), retains the striking visual storytelling and smart dialogue of his other films, yet takes them into a different realm altogether—that of the psychological thriller. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Dual
On her last shift working as a shuttle driver in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tina (Nina Rakovec) meets Iben (Mia Jexen), a quirky Danish traveller stranded on her way to Greece. Over the next day, the two quickly develop an intense and cryptic relationship over cakes, beer and kittens. … read more
Creature Feature: Chartreuse
“A lot of people don’t feel like [cis] girls shouldn’t be doing [drag], as females performing as females. I feel I should be able to perform as my own gender if that’s what I want.” … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: The Way He Looks
While the world watched a bunch of sweaty men kicking around balls in Brazil, I was watching this coming of age story of a rebellious, blind and gay Brazilian teenager. Leonardo (Fabio Audi) desperately wants to get away from his loving yet overprotective parents; his best friend and sidekick, Giovana (Tess Amorim), desperately wants to turn their friendship into something more. … read more
Damn These Heels Film Festival: Mala Mala
This gorgeous and well-made documentary pulls its audience right into the heart and soul of the contemporary Puerto Rican trans* community, through intimate portrayals of nine of its members, including a diverse cast of genderbending drag performers, transgender sex workers, business owners and activists. … read more
Desire Will Set You Free: Interview with Director Yony Leyser
Yony Leyser’s new film, a feature-length narrative that mixes autobiographic and docu-fictional elements, follows a cast of outsiders through a subcultural landscape that is uniquely outsider—Berlin. SLUG spoke with Leyser about writing, directing and acting in the film, and the Kickstarter campaign that he hopes will help bring the film to Utah’s film festival circuit. … read more
Creature Feature: ODGE
“We try to exude fear and anxiety and the stress of being human. When we do perform as Odge, we usually go from a point of fear and move to a more hopeful thing; they each have their little moment to speak when we perform.” … read more
A Love Letter To The Outsider: Interview with Jonny Pierce...
“Fans are telling us that they love the record—people are really connecting with it,” says Pierce, the band’s lead singer and lyricist. Encyclopedia, The Drums’ third album, was released on Sept. 23—the band is currently two weeks into a North American tour in support of it. “That was really our ultimate goal when we started the record—to make this one really, truly meaningful,” he says. “We wanted a really potent album of really meaningful, and beautiful, songs.” … read more
The New Pornographers @ The Depot 10.10 with The Pains...
Last Friday brought the most exciting double bill in pop music to The Depot in Salt Lake City—The New Pornographers, in support of their latest album Brill Bruisers, and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, in support of theirs, Days of Abandon. … read more
Creature Feature: Lisa Dank – Drag Thing
Lisa Dank was born in Ogden and, three years ago, came to Salt Lake with wide, white eyes and a Trapper Keeper full of bright, bratty personality. Dank, who prefers male pronouns in and outside of performance, was soon spotted onstage at Pure (now Hydrate) by Cartel Chameleon Fenice, who was recruiting performers for a fledgling performance collective affectionately called the Bad Kids. … read more
Being Human is Not a Crime: Interview with Kristin Beck
Living a life against the grain has been the norm for Kristin Beck since her teenage years. In high school, Kristin sported a mohawk and listened to punk and hardcore bands such as Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and Circle Jerks. … read more
Making Fiction Making Trouble: 40 Years of FC2
For 40 years now, the literary press Fiction Collective has been the ardent antennae of innovative American writing. Entirely not-for-profit, author-run, untethered to government funding, dedicated to constantly updating the possibilities of what can happen between two covers and to keeping its titles in print, FC2 is a bastion for wild literary innovation. … read more
Creature Feature: Ladie Lilith – Smashing Gender Expectation
Lilith describes her/his performance style as gory and raw. “I enjoy that my art makes people talk,” she/he says, likening her performance to political theater. One visceral example was when she smashed a model LDS Temple on stage at Metro Bar, which elicited strong responses—both complimentary and derogatory—from onlookers. … read more
Art | Arts | LGBTQ+ | Performance & Theatre
Creature Feature: Derek Perry
When one thinks of Salt Lake’s Bad Kids Collective, certain images come to mind—wild, frenetic performances and elaborate, often fantastic costumes. No Bad Kid embodies this lifestyle more than Derek Perry, Salt Lake resident and Club Kid extraordinaire. There’s just one thing that sets Perry apart—he’s never performed onstage. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Birds of Neptune
Free to mature under each other’s care in their childhood home in the Pacific Northwest, the sisters have developed their own ways of coping—demure Rachel (Britt Harris) retreats into making music, while Mona (Molly Elizabeth Parker) escapes into performances of wild characters, such as the “Nazi androgynous cabaret dancer,” who wears a 10” strap-on dildo. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: 20 Years of Madness
The doc’s director, Jeremy Royce, deftly illuminates the tensions that arise between the veteran cast members, using footage from the original show to unearth the anxieties that dissolved the group in the first place. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: On Her Own
Director Morgan Schmidt-Feng begins on a happy note in 2009, showing the Prebilichs benefiting from the well-earned fruits of hard labor. With help from Cindy’s husband and three young kids, Nancy struggles to keep the farm afloat in the face of debt and loss. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Across the Sea
While the All-American Kevin is eager to learn about Damla’s roots, she is just as eager to avoid them, and when local fisher Burak reappears in her life, tensions begin to arise as her old life catches up to her new one. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Concrete Love: The Böhm Family
It’s a documentary that drafts an adroit portrait of the renowned Pritzker Prize laureate Gottfried Böhm, his architect wife Elisabeth and their three sons, Peter, Paul and Stephen, each of whom is also an architect. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: High Performance
Rudi’s a corporate professional, all business, while Daniel’s a bike-riding (aspiring) avant-garde theater actor, who isn’t that guy in the soda pop commercial, he insists. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Female Pervert
Though the film deals with subjects of a sexual nature, Phoebe is perfectly drawn as an unlikeable yet confident character who’s assertive when it comes to her sexuality … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Body
One cold and uneventful Christmas Eve, three girlfriends band together, smoke some pot and break into a stranger’s unattended house. The carefree night takes a turn … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Alpha
Cue Alpha: a modern dystopian tale from the birthplace of democracy, inspired by one of ancient Greece’s archetypal myths—Sophocles’ Antigone. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: My Fathers, My Mother and Me
Throughout the film, Robert and his mother Florence navigate their own relationship in relation to the philosophy and structure of the commune in open and honest conversations, revealing Florence’s idealism and her son’s trepidation as one children raised under it. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Wendell and the Lemon
Wendell (Todd D’Amour) picks up the lemon on the street, shortly after a breakup, and he quickly incorporates the lemon into his daily routine. He’s cast as a sort of neurotic, overly anxious character, also adopting an eye patch to cover a twitching eye—though he can’t remember which eye has the problem.
… read more
Creature Feature: Lukas Robin Hood
No, Lukas Robin Hood wasn’t named after that Robin Hood, if that’s what you’re thinking. He’s named after his grandpa, Robin Hood (brother to “Little” John and “Maid” Marian). … read more
Creature Feature: Arousalind
Hannah Montgomery, who grew up in Salt Lake City, was introduced to the Bad Kids through her friend and Chalk Garden Co-op coworker Willard Cron. In the spring of 2013, Willard invited Montgomery to a performance by New York–based cabaret singer Joey Arias at Urban Lounge. … read more
Vaadat Charigim – Hummus and Heidegger
On their 2013 debut, The World Is Well Lost, Israeli shoegazers Vaadat Charigim took listeners beyond the shroud of Levantine politics and shattered perceptions of their home with a universal-sounding and instantly classic shoegaze album. … read more
Merchandise: Interview with Dave Vassalotti
Tampa, Florida’s Merchandise have spent the majority of their time together agitating all entrenched notions of punk, pop, noise and rock n’ roll. With albums Children of Desire and Totale Nite, the group developed a knack for writing sonically diverse, engrossing songs—songs on which Dave Vassalotti’s and Carson Cox’s songwriting dazzles like a Morrissey-fronted Jesus and Mary Chain covering The Replacements. … read more
Eighties Fan: A Conversation With Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell
“I think I’m always optimistic,” says Tracyanne Campbell from her flat in Glasgow. “It might not seem like that, but I think I’m always, ultimately, trying to look on the bright side.” As the leader of the Scottish group Camera Obscura, Tracyanne Campbell needs hardly any introduction at all—she’s one of the brightest-shining indie stars of the last decade. From a diverse body of influences, ranging from classic country to melancholic British indie-pop, Campbell and her bandmates have built a stellar body of work, replete with catchy tunes and supremely bittersweet, sardonic lyrics. … read more
Halloween is Ruined: Performance Life with Klaus von Austerlitz
Halloween is ruined. Its most treasured sensibilities are under attack. Goths have turned the occult into ridiculous camp and queers have turned ridiculous camp into a cult. So, if Oct. 31 is the only day of the 365 that you’d think of dressing yourself up outrageously, you might be a lamebrain. For local performance artist Klaus von Austerlitz, every costume is a performance, and every performance a carefully constructed vessel of artistry and social critique. … read more
Review: KeepCup
KeepCup KeepCup Brew us.keepcup.com If you ever wanted to catch the eye of your favorite barista, get your coffee or tea in one of KeepCup’s chic and ingenuous reusable cups. I took my glass KeepCup Brew ($32) on daily treks to SLUG HQ’s favorite caffeine haunt, The Rose Establishment, where it was the envy of
Collected By Himself: Captured Tracks Founder Mike Sniper on New...
Under the direction of Mike Sniper, Captured Tracks has grown from a small, independent music label based in Brooklyn to a sonically diverse, aesthetically vibrant vision for the state of millennial music. Today, with a full roster, Sniper has his sights on an even more expansive assembly of sounds with label group Omnian Music Group.
Lines from the Inside of Death By Salt V
SLUG’s Death By Salt V release parties happen June 12 and 13 Urban Lounge and Diabolical Records, respectively. The record features some of the best garage and psych that Utah has to offer, and we reviewed each track of this compilation in the liner notes.
A Ringing Sound: The Jesus and Mary Chain on Psychocandy
“We wanted to make a record that was going to be around for a while. At that time, we were listening to stuff from 20 to 30 years before us, and we kind of thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if, 27 years from now, there were bands in Texas that were making music because of Psychocandy?’"
Top 5: Foster Body
Foster Body’s debut album, Landscapes, which was released on cassette and digitally in March, captures the Salt Lake City–based, punk combo at a brilliant moment of process—merging strong aesthetic sentiment and live performance practice into a compelling vision for contemporary noise-punk. With eight tracks lashing across the album’s 20-minute duration, Landscapes is a quick yet thrilling listen. … read more
Iceage: Punk’s Achilles’ Heel
After two albums of the kind of scorched-earth, blackened punk that thrust a teenage band from Denmark into the global limelight, the savant-as-ever Iceage have finished their third and most accomplished album yet. … read more
Hive Mind and the Guest Writers Series: Antennae of the...
Now in its 20th season, the series brings in a handful of writers from outside of Utah, typically one or two per month throughout the academic year. … read more
Kilby Court Celebrates 15 Years of Musical Charm
The hidden gem of a venue that is Kilby Court has long been hailed as the heart of Salt Lake music culture. Most of us can remember our first expedition there: the sharpness of Salt Lake’s Granary District, all industrial gray and rusted, the expansive asphalt of 700 South flanked by long-abandoned businesses—unused train tracks ripping up 400 West, ragged plants the only signs of existence. What awaits music devotees at the end of Kilby Ct. is one the longest-running independent all ages venue in the U.S. July 18 marks a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the beloved venue. … read more
The Heaven We’ve Got: Slumberland at 25
Vinyl records and great tunes are a few of Mike Schulman’s favorite things. Slumberland Records (SLR), the label that Schulman and his friends started in 1989 around those things, has grown into one of the most beloved labels of the “pure, perfect pop” community. SLUG chatted with Schulman about indie pop culture, favorite records and running an independent label for 25 years. … read more
Creature Feature: The Bad Kids Collective Enters Their Terrible Twos
Since the summer of 2012, the Bad Kids Collective has shaken up Salt Lake’s drag scene, made connections with the global genderfuck community and established a home for queer artists at Metro Bar. Now, at “terrible” 2 years old, SLUG catches up with founding braintrust Cartel Chameleon Fenicé and performers Jezebel Jet and The Bearded Femme about where they’ve been, where they’re headed and why their approach to gender-integrated performance art is a vital force in queer Utah. … read more
¡Vinyl Vive! Sacred Bones’ Caleb Braaten on Record Stores, Reissues...
Founded in 2007, Sacred Bones Records has grown from a small, independent label based in Brooklyn into a diverse community of international artists—with a range that includes the avant-pop star Zola Jesus, the psych-kraut of Psychic Ills, the dismantled post-punk of Pop. 1280 and The Men, coldwave outfits VÅR and Lust for Youth, and industrial noise fright Pharmakon. Though difficult to categorize, Sacred Bones releases are hooked through with fervent, often unsettling dedication to the craft and communal life of music. … read more
Creature Feature: Jezebel Jet’s Bad Kid Origins
SLUG’s bi-monthly online column, Creature Feature, has followed the Bad Kids from their raw, youthful days to the brilliant, thriving queer constellation it continues to be. They are a vital force for queer voices in the face of today’s hesitancy toward all things goofy and sexy and weird and fun. For its sixth installment, SLUG spoke with Jezebel Jet about becoming her comic book alter ego and being the Bad Kids’ first female performer. … read more
I Dream of Wires: Modular Synthesis with Solvent
Modular synthesizers have played an integral role in both the popularization of electronic music and avant-garde sonic experimentation, and are now, more than ever appreciated among musicians. In the independent documentary film I Dream of Wires, Canadian-based electronic musician Solvent (Jason Amm) traces the history, demise and resurgence of this modular mindset with its peculiar subculture’s leading artists and manufacturers. … read more