Music
▼ Music
Review: Blue Matches – Starting Over
Going for a throwback to the ‘90s with this one, with femme rock fit with fuzzy guitar riffs that briefly breach into a more hardcore, alt-punk pop along the same lines as Pink or maybe Good Charlotte. … read more
Review: Banner Pilot – Souvenir
Normally, I really enjoy softer forms of punk rock—as long as there is enough emotion in the lyrics and music, it always keeps me enthralled. Unfortunately, this album doesn’t grab me in the same way that Off With Their Heads or The Riverboat Gamblers did when I first listened to them. … 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: Andrew Jackson Jihad – Christmas Island
Like their previous albums, Andrew Jackson Jihad has created a disturbed eulogy to a candy-coated world view. … read more
Review: Amen Dunes – Love
Love is songwriter Damon McMahon’s latest release as Amen Dunes on Sacred Bones Records. … read more
Review: ACxDC – Antichrist Demoncore
Having established themselves as a nascent pillar of the California punk n’ hardcore community with a smattering of splits, EPs and insane live shows (check the Google machine for their set in Pomona 2011), ACxDC’s full-length debut offering might literally be their opus to masochistic, satani-violence with a conscience. … read more
The Naked and Famous @ The Depot 05.26 with Strange...
Powers leaned into the microphone and said, “Did you think we could leave without playing ‘Young Blood’?!” as Xayalith said, “We just like teasing you!”—I knew it! … read more
Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival 2014
Punk Rock Bowling invites the positivity of the punk community, allowing everyone and anyone to see bands that they can knock off their bucket list. This festival invites a vast and diverse array of people influenced by this subculture. One can see skinheads, rockers, crust punks and of course the spiky hair punk rockers that make up the popular novelty postcards. … read more
tUnE-yArDs @ Urban Lounge 05.27 with Sylvan Esso
Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs can do it all. She loops vocal harmonies and noises on the spot, drums and plays an electric ukulele. The latter instrument is unique, but it’s nothing compared to her strongest instrument—her voice. … read more
Momentum Of Sound: An Interview with Michael Gira of Swans
I recently described the sound of a Swans record to a friend as being between that of a great mythological beast crashing toward the ocean while the sun explodes, and the feeling of absolute awe—articulated through volume. The experience of listening to their music is a potentially immersive one for the listener, where it is absolutely possible to become lost within an expanding perception of time and one’s surroundings. To Be Kind, Swans’ third album since regrouping in 2010, came out May 12. … read more