Music
▼ Local Reviews
Local Reviews: Big Sky Tribunal
Big Sky Tribunal, while often sounding like the unique vision of band leader Brian Oakley, is made up of a veritable who’s-who in established and up-and-coming SLC artists. … read more
Local Reviews: Beta Chicks
When did Cache County become Dance Rock Capitol, U.S.A? If skinny ties, keytars, and tight grooves that follow lock-step behind killer electronic production aren’t synonymous with Logan, UT, The Beta Chicks are on a mission to change that. … read more
Local Reviews: Armorie
While the arrangements of the songs on Pew Pew feel a little spastic, a little schizo, giving this record repeated listens helps to understand what the band was going for as a whole. I mean, this sounds like a few different guys getting their ideas down on a recording, experimenting with abandon and developing minor themes into entire songs. … read more
Local Reviews: Anthony Phan
50% of this album is 100% awesome. Where has Phan been hiding? Seriously, Stet is bursting at the seams with covetable musicianship and originality. “Reggae Macabre” could be a chill Mr. Bungle song, where Phan and his friends (there are a lot of contributers on this album) brilliantly fuse jazz and a latin dance feel with enough quirks to keep the listener not just listening, but grinning. … read more
Local Reviews: American Hollow
I have to give American Hollow a lot of credit for their ambition. I love the fact that they have done their best to make an album that attempts to flow together seamlessly and the structures in the songs are actually some of the more creative and progressive around the local Utah scene. … read more
Local Reviews: Yaotl Mictlan
After you listen to some albums, they leave you in awe, overwhelmed by the nature of greatness that has just laid claim to your auditory passages. Yaotl Mictlan’s second full-length Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac is one of those albums. Dentro ups the extremity and pure enveloping blackness that was harshly and beautifully displayed on their debut album, but with more direct and potent songwriting that demands attentiveness to its listening experience. … read more
Local Reviews: Wren Kennedy
Kennedy (often seen slinging joe with Joe at nobrow coffee, or in his band Bluebird Radio) lays down some of the tightest vocal harmonies I’ve heard from a Salt Lake project. The lyrics are also of note and the recording itself, done by Kennedy, turned out great in a lo-fi way. … read more
Local Reviews: Various Artists
Rock, pop, indie, ambient, hip hop, singer-songwriter, jazz, metal––it’s all here, and it’s all as local as the lake-effect, but way better. For 2010, The Rock Salt has given us a damn canorous cornucopia (thanks dictionary.com). … read more
Local Reviews: Reviver
Reviver is indisputably one of the hardest-working bands in Utah, and their dedication shows in this latest EP. Potential Wasteland is a hardcore tribute to doing exactly what it is that you want to do without letting the totalitarian structure and guilt of the surrounding system hold you down. … read more
Local Reviews: Parlor Hawk
Hoarse & Roaring is an impeccable record, but whether that’s a good thing depends on the listener. On one hand, Joshua James did a great job producing (and apparently inspiring the band’s sound). The downside is that this album sounds like the equivalent of that guy at a party who looks like he spent a little too much time on his outfit—it makes me suspicious. … read more