Authors: Ryan Hall
Spoek Mathambo @ W Lounge
It took a lot to get Mr. Mathambo’s hype-heavy mash up of retro-futurist electronic music filtered through the cultural battlefield of post-apartheid Johannesburg to Salt Lake City. In fact, it took a superfecta of nightlife/fashion promoters to persuade Mathambo and Mshini Wam to make a pit-stop along I-80 to our dusty little spot on the map. … read more
National CD Reviews – December 2009
This month’s national reviews feature releases from Asobi Seksu, Beak>, Dead To Me, Evangelista, The Mary Onettes, The Prodigy, The Rakes, Skeletonwitch, Slayer and many more. … read more
Localized: Tiny Lights and My Dead Ego – April 2010
There is no excuse for missing SLUG Localized on April 16 at Urban Lounge. The line-up includes Lindsay Heath’s newly minted post-classical project, the ethereal, unearthly drones of Tiny Lights and opening band My Dead Ego. Five bucks at the door, be prepared to be floored. … read more
Localized – Menlo, Theta Naught and The Eden Express
Menlo’s intricately orchestrated indie-pop and Theta Naught’s improvised post-rock will be politely taking the stage July 9 at the Urban Lounge for only $5 with openers The Eden Express. … read more
The Book Arts Program: Technology Doesn’t Die, It Becomes Art
Walking into the Book Arts Program is like traveling into a decades old newspaper printing plant. Gigantic letterpresses and nipping presses dominate the front room where students and community members engage in the centuries-old process of inking large rollers to apply fresh ink on a poster, or tightening the clamp on a nipping press to bind a book. … read more
Envy: No Borders
Japanese post-hardcore giants Envy create brutally dense soundscapes that skirt the edge between hardcore and post-rock, and cut across language barriers. Their fifth album solidifies their full musical evolution into a peerless band incorporating the speed, intensity and emotional contact of hardcore and the expansiveness of post-rock. I spoke to lead singer Tetsuya Fukagawa about the how to express hope in heavy music and how to convey emotion without language being a factor. … read more
Top 5: Baths
When Cerulean came out on Anticon earlier this year, critics were quick to lump the 21-year-old Californian’s debut into the burgeoning (and largely made up) chillwave microgenre. Baths took offense to this—it is easy to see why. Instead of being ostensibly effects-driven and wrapped under a gauze of lo-fi consumer electronics, Cerulean is all beats. Crisp, sparkling, low-end rumbling beats are looped with such complexity that they are easy to lose in the shuffle. … read more
Cinema Franca: Salt Lake City Film Center�s Quest to Bring...
The Salt Lake City Film Center is committed to “building community through the power of film.” They do this by exposing Salt Lake City to films that it would rarely get to see any other way. The SLFC accomplishes this by screening films that have little or no theatrical distribution. Most of these screenings are free and are designed to bring Salt Lake City’s various populations into conversation with one another by showing films from a variety of voices. … read more
Velour
Years ago, traveling to Provo to see a touring band would have seemed unthinkable. When Corey Fox opened Velour, however, that all began to change. Fox began the all-ages venue almost five years ago with little more than a dream and some elbow grease. Fox’s hard work has paid huge dividends for Provo’s surprisingly diverse musical community by providing a cultural hub deep in the heart of Utah County. … read more
Copper Palate Press
A little more than a year old, Copper Palate Press has quickly gained a reputation for housing the vanguard of Salt Lake City’s burgeoning art scene by throwing killer screen printing parties and being an unmissable stop on any Gallery Stroll. More than this, however, the CPP communal philosophy is responsible for providing the ever-expanding collective with a black hole-like gravitational pull for all those fascinated with SLC’s art scene. … read more