Music
SLUG Magazine’s collection of reviews covering the latest and greatest of Utah-based music, covering all varieties of genre, style and type.
Local Reviews: J.P.Whipple
I popped this bad boy in on the way to/through southern Utah recently. It’s sometimes folk-country music made for great road trip music, mixing with the increasingly redder rocks—and the “Mexican” elements of the music manifested what it might be like taking the same trail down to Las Vegas a-carousing back when honky settlers were exploring the southern deserts of this country. … read more
Local Reviews: Invdrs
The only things you really need to know about the Invdrs’ Electric Church is it makes you feel alive yet doomed, and you need to own this album. With drum hits that sound like bones snapping and popping under the immense weight of the distortion-maximized guitar and bass, you will welcome this sonic atrocity to melody. … read more
Local Reviews: I Hear Sirens
E. H. Gombrich said, “To talk cleverly of art is not difficult, because the words critics use have been employed in so many different contexts that they have lost all precision.” So is writing a review about a post-rock record. … read more
Local Reviews: The Hung Ups
Dripping sexual frustration as teenage pop-punk is prone to do, there’s no more to Red Rocket than twelve songs about girlfriends, pizza and alcoholism. The songs blast through with such haphazard high energy that they are almost indistinguishable. … read more
Local Reviews: Heterodactyl
These local boys deserve credit for coming up with charismatic instrumental parts which complement each other nicely, but the overall production feels overdone in a smooth jazz kind of way. I couldn’t connect with Fourier because I felt so far away from what was going on. … read more
Local Reviews: Hearsay
Poppy punk chops are fun to listen to and that’s all there is to it. Doesn’t matter how high-pitched the vocals, how emo the subject matter, or how derivative the melodies. Those things are secondary. Hearsay is about playing power drums and rock guitar with energy. Perfectly moshable rhythms, staccato fills, and guttural bass punctuate the tightly structured songs. … read more
Local Reviews: The Fully Blown
How do I relate to you the greatness found on this record? In complicated words I could say, The Fully Blown is a heavy hard rock band with post-punk influences and lightly dusted with hardcore inflections, with touches of psychedelic guitar work. Simply put, they fucking rock. … read more
Local Reviews: Citizen Fate
Local CDs are always a mixed bag. 95 percent of the time they suck, and once in a while they 100 percent suck. Unfortunately for my ears, Citizen Fate fell immediately into the latter category. … read more
Local Reviews: The .bLARE”
Every unpaid music critic dreams of writing a critical review of a band’s early release that prompts them to make prescribed changes and then go on to great glory. I know this is a mirage, but still …The .bLARE”, let’s chat. Like any first time director, you have a great first act, but have no clue how to follow that up. … read more
Local Reviews: Arsenic Addiction
Any band that has a song titled “Bruce Campbell” is cool with me, even if it’s only a minute long. In all seriousness, Salt Lake City’s Arsenic Addiction leave listeners wanting more instead of less with their EP Requiem of the Fallen. The band plays a nice, modern metal melodic/heavy mix with no damn chugga chugga breakdowns, thank goodness. … read more