SLUG Contributor Limelight
April 3, 2013
Contributor Limelight: Madelyn Boudreaux
Our resident Goth aficionado, bred from the wetlands of Louisiana, Madelyn has been on our staff since 2009, reviewing everything dark and dismal that shuffles through the SLUG offices. Don’t let her penchant for doom and gloom fool you, though––she’s also an avid foodie with a soft spot for ethnic cuisine, and her warm descriptions of the food she reviews always have us drooling. Grab a napkin and check out her review of Plum Alley in this month’s issue to see for yourself. In addition to music and food reviews, Madelyn is also a talented photographer, an amateur naturalist, a beginner Magic: The Gathering player and, if you’re lucky, you might catch her DJing a goth-infused set here and there under the name d j . d r o w n. Oh yeah, did we mention she has a Masters in Public Folklore? Madelyn is one-of-a-kind, and we’re happy to claim her as SLUG staff!
Articles by contributor
Reviews: Ministry – From Beer to Eternity
I still think Ministry’s best stuff is the ‘80s new wave dreck that they only released so they could get a label deal, but this last hurrah was impossible to pass up. … read more
Review: Wovenhand – Star Treatment
Wovenhand = (Iggy Pop + Southern Death Cult) x Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds … read more
Reviews: Front Line Assembly – Echogenetic
Returning somewhat to their early 1990s sound, but with a detour through dubstep—it’s sort of impossible not to get that particular peanut butter wub in your electronic chocolate these days—Echogenetic is a very workable, even strong bit of electronic industrial/ebm. … read more
Review: The Legendary Pink Dots – The Gethsemane Option
Legendary, indeed. The CD is comprised of seven experimental tracks of dreamy and hypnotic textures (which may signify mystical intent, or may just be what they had—it’s hard to know with this band). … read more
Review: Mick Harvey – Delirium Tremens
Mick Harvey = (Combustible Edison + The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy) x Barry Adamson
… read more
Review: Mick Harvey – Four (Acts of Love)
Not the fourth album, but continuing in the vein of naming by numbers, Mick Harvey’s (Crime and the City Solution, The Birthday Party) latest work is 14 tracks dedicated to that most human of emotions: love. … read more
Review: Lux Interna – there is light in the body,...
The fifth release by Joshua Levi Ian and Kathryn Mary, this beautiful album recapitulates dark neo-folk without dragging along the negatives that subgenre often implies, marrying it to the gothic Americana sound of bands like Munly or Wovenhand (whose keyboardist Jeff Linsenmaier guests here) with touches of 1990s darkwave. … read more
Review: John Cale – Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
John Cale
Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
Double Six
Street: 10.01.12
John Cale = Bauhaus + The Velvet Underground x Brian Eno
Stand back, kids … at 70, sporting pink dye in his white hair, legend John Cale (The Velvet Underground and too many others to name) is rockin’, and not in a rockin’ chair, son. This album is chockful of his smooth and unmistakable voice––like the voice Jim Morrison might have grown into––his standard drone and his louche lyrics that rival Leonard Cohen’s for their depth. You don’t so much listen to Nookie Woods as you get grabbed and bodily hauled in for some very shifty adventures, indeed. The opener, “I Wanna Talk 2 U,” a collaboration with hip-hop producer Danger Mouse, explodes out of your speakers. The masterful “Hemmingway” rattles you with its building intensity, while “Face to the Sky” is a gorgeous melding of electronic and organic elements, a swooping, woozy nod to Dali’s Car and Bowie. But lest all this ancient name-dropping makes you think the album is a throwback, worry not: there’s nothing old-fashioned about it. Cale seems committed to moving forward with music, playing around with over-processed autotune on “December Rain,” but he’s not afraid of organic acoustic sounds, as on “Mary.” If you don’t already know Cale, it’s time you met him, and a trip to the Nookie Woods is a fine place to start. –Madelyn Boudreaux … read more
Review: Judy Kang
A comparison to Bjork is not the way to my heart; her music is like listening to a fax machine have a nervous breakdown. … read more
Review: How to Destroy Angels – Welcome Oblivion
With a name referencing an early Coil song and featuring industrial (hair)god Trent Reznor, how could this not be good? … read more
Local Reviews: Night Sweats
Usually, an EP will comprise a few songs representing a short body of work by a band. In the case of Night Sweats’ Red EP, four songs make up over 30 minutes of dark yet poppy electronic indie music. I keep seeing references to them on my Facebook feed. Red makes it quickly obvious why they’re on every tongue and fingertip. … read more
Local Reviews: The Rose Phantom
The latest release by Salt Lake’s own Ted Newsom, Abandon represents a new direction as Newsom turned his back on his other projects to focus two years’ time on the Rose Phantom persona and work. Marrying lush dramatics and intricate electronica, the album’s 10 tracks of careful and succinct industrial-tinged darkwave would not be out of place in a goth club or in an alternative radio station’s rotation. … read more
Review: Depeche Mode – Delta Machine
After 35-plus years of making sly and danceable new wave electronica, a band might be forgiven for letting it get a bit stale. … read more
Review: Davey Suicide – Self-Titled
I don’t know when the metal kids started making industrial music, or when the rivets started headbanging. Maybe it was always so, but I swear, when I was in school, the twain never met except to fight. That is no more, and there’s no better proof than on this eponymous album: 14 tracks of nuclear metal crossed with industrial distortion and quite a few bad words, oh my! … read more
Review: Dash Rip Rock
In the almost 30 years since they formed, Louisiana Music Hall of Famers Dash Rip Rock have been making rollicking swamp-rock with equal doses of punk and country and even a little metal. … read more
Review: Crime and the City Solution – American Twilight
Critics’ darlings who never quite made the mainstream grade back in the early 1990s, Crime are back with their first release in 20-plus years. … read more
Review: Binary – Amber EP
Deeply layered and grungy post-goth indie-rock, this five-track EP is like a postcard from a downgraded northern town in England, postmarked 1989. … read more
Local Reviews: Sleep Slid IN
Tragic and big gothic rock doesn’t happen anymore. It’s just not ironic enough these days. Apparently, Sleep Slid IN didn’t get the memo, and thank the gods for that! … read more
Local Reviews: Riverhead
I’ve known guitarist Michael Burgess for years, but if I had not looked at the band name, I’d never have guessed this gorgeous, fantastically dark pop album was a local product. Synthy trip-hop tracks like “Revolver” and “Protection” worm their way into your head and stay there for days. … read more
Local Reviews: DulceSky
Locals DulceSky pack a “doubleplusgood” punch with these nine songs. Although they’ve played the Dark Arts Festival and the packaging is reminiscent of ‘90s industrial, this is straightforward indie rock with a dark, intelligent, politicized edge. … read more
Local Reviews: ZODIAC
Crash-landing in your backyard with proof that Salt Lake is actually in outer space, ZODIAC is here to take revenge for what you did to him in Roswell. That revenge is taking place in your eardrums. … read more
Local Reviews: Replica Mine
It’s always a pleasant surprise to hear good, interesting dark music made locally. While we have plenty of good bands, industrial is rare at best. Sandy-based Adam Harmon, former guitarist and keyboard player for Carphax Files, is the force behind this meandering industrial experiment, a follow-up to $ra, their 2008 5-song EP. … read more
Local Reviews: Roses and Exile
Yet another project by local Christopher Alvarado (Twilight Transmissions, Little Sap Dungeon, Harsh Reality), Roses and Exile is on its way out with this bang of a final album. … read more
Local Review: Little Sap Dungeon
Six years since their previous album, Kevin Cazier (Perception Cleanse Perception) and Christopher Alvarado (Twilight Transmissions, Roses and Exile, Harsh Reality) are back with seven (no, eight! There’s a hidden one!) tracks, marrying their dismal dystopian visions to harsh yet beautiful, heavy post-punk industrial noise. … read more
G Tom Mac at Salty Horror International Film Festival
Gerard McMahon (pronounced McMann), or G Tom Mac, as he’s more recently known, is one of those artists you may think you’ve never heard of.
Battles@ Urban Lounge 07.20
While the crowd surged and bounced and shouted, Battles delivered a solid and fascinating mixture of electro-jam and arty experimentalism, like an organic Daft Punk minus the helmets. The music drew from widely varied sounds and influences. I heard Cuban rhythms, reggae and ska licks, Philip Glass minimalism, James Bond heroism and early Oingo Boingo excitability. … read more
Voltaire, Hellblinki, This Way to the Egress @ Area 51...
It’s an hour or so after the sun has gone down on a crisp October evening, and practically everyone I know is at Area 51 to see Voltaire. … read more
Carphax Files @ Metro Bar
Around 100 local members of the Salt Lake industrial scene poured into the glitzy Club Metro on Wednesday night for a free, one-hour long performance by COP International artist Carphax Files, and they were not disappointed. Carphax Files is an explosion of unholy rage at the political machine, but underpinned by a sensitivity to the plight of the people. A new Carphax Files t-shirt declares that they are the 99%. … read more
Puscifer, Carina Round @ Capitol Theatre 11.09
Not everyone at the Capitol Theater for Puscifer’s SLC stop was scruffy, pierced and topped with a beanie. Sure, there were those, but despite Maynard James Keenan’s understandable appeal to the working class dirtbag in us all, the crowd was diverse, including gents in suits and several older couples. … read more
Photowalking Utah: 5th Annual Studio Lighting Photowalk 02.25
After a good deal of “will she/won’t she” deliberation on my part, I headed down to Draper on a Saturday morning for Photowalking Utah’s 5th Annual Studio Lighting event. About 175 photographers crowded into the Gateway Community Church, along with 11 models, a makeup artist and 10 different studio lighting sets. … read more
Wovenhand @ Urban 02.03 with LIGHT/BLACK, INVDRS
Edwards, whether performing a role as prophet or actually communing with God on these occasions, is a riveting performer. He shakes and quakes, rolls his eyes back into his head, quivers his feet, and seemingly speaks in tongues. … read more
Chant @ The Depot 03.28 with Legion Within, KMFDM
Folks who waited to show up late made a real mistake. Austin, Texas’ two-piece Chant blew both of the following bands out of the water. … read more
Watsky @ Kilby Court 04.19 DJ Dstrukt, Dumbfoundead
With boundless energy and more talent and charisma than any one person should have, Watsky had the crowd eating out of his hand from the second he stepped in the door. … read more
Something Wicked This Way Came: The Dark Arts Festival @...
Celebrating its 12th anniversary, Utah’s Dark Arts Festival once again brought all manner of spooky, introspective and dark fun to club Area 51 last weekend. … read more
Luna Blanca Taqueria Soft Opening 06.15
With its quaint, simple stars-and-moon motif repeated in signage throughout the restaurant, and even cut into the artfully rusted fence that surrounds the patio seating, Luna Blanca immediately establishes its identity: playful, upbeat and mindful cuisine appropriate for families yet sophisticated enough for discerning diners. … read more
Gathering the Flocks: Star City Games Open Series Magic: The...
Two hundred and sixty-four players on Saturday and 152 on Sunday vied for top honors and cash prizes at the Star City Games Open Series Magic: The Gathering tournament. Flipping over little rectangles of cardboard may seem like the province of 90-pound weaklings and the nerdiest of the nerds, however, MTG players cover a lot of territory—from athletes who have suffered injuries to middle-aged moms who got into to the game while supporting their kids’ interest to professional players who travel from event to event and make significant money from the game and its related industries. … read more
Stargazing at Stoneground
After over a decade of providing gourmet thin-crust pizzas and pastas in their second floor digs overlooking the Salt Lake Public Library on 400 South, Stoneground is unveiling a new face to the world—and looking up to the sky. … 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
Cinamon: The High Cost of (Being) Death
Picture death personified. Maybe you imagine a skull-faced reaper with a cloak and scythe or a terrifying angel on his pale horse. Or maybe, if you’re of the right age and background, death is a perky goth girl with a penchant for Mary Poppins and an Eye of Horus spiral on her cheek.This incarnation of Death, introduced in a 1989 issue of the DC/Vertigo comic The Sandman, (or rather, the woman who inspired her appearance) also happens to be a Salt Lake City native. … read more
Black Unicorn Confidential: An Interview with Voltaire
One of the most beloved artists in the goth scene over the last two decades has been the unusual, Cuban-born Voltaire. With his first club hit, “When You’re Evil,” from 1998’s The Devil’s Bris, goths got something they desperately needed: an artist with a sense of humor. Voltaire’s wickedly biting humor conveyed something that few artists had managed at the time: He was comfortable enough with his goth cred that he could make fun of it. … read more
Local Reviews: Perception Cleanse Perception
At the end of his decade-long experiment, KJ Cazier (Little Sap Dungeon) closes with inVERSIONS. Citing the instability of the project and the mixing of genres within it, Cazier decided to end PCP with an album mainly composed of remixes of previous material. … read more
Local Reviews: Twilight Transmissions
Possibly one of the most aptly named bands out there, Twilight Transmissions is like something you’d hear on some 3 a.m., non-commercial radio show dedicated to space music, but with a twist of something darker than a black hole. … read more
Local Reviews: Christopher Alvarado
Local ambient-industrial sound artist Christopher Alvarado (Twilight Transmissions, Little Sap Dungeon, Harsh Reality) is at it again with 10 tracks of atmospheric trance soundscapes. … read more
Local Reviews: Gerschweyn Matthews
With titles like “Strategies of Redistribution Regarding Devil Worship in the New World,” it is clear that this six-track album is going to be unusual, maybe even pretentious. … read more
Local Reviews: DulceSky
Locals DulceSky pack a “doubleplusgood” punch with these nine songs. Although they’ve played the Dark Arts Festival and the packaging is reminiscent of ‘90s industrial, this is straightforward indie rock with a dark, intelligent, politicized edge. Oliver Valenzuela’s guitars occasionally recall early U2, but his vocals are far darker, and at times almost Joy Division-morose. … read more
One Sorted Affair: An Intimate Evening with David J
A sleepy suburb in Utah County, somewhere south of Provo, is not where one would expect to encounter one of the great gothfathers. And yet there we were on a strangely muggy Friday evening—40 or 50 folks folks, mostly middle-aged and bearing the unmistakable marks left by a youth spent (but not misspent) pursuing music on the left of the dial, along with a few kids wearing t-shirts for reunion tours of bands that formed when I was their age, sitting ringed on the tasteful beige carpet around David J Haskins. … read more
Monsters of Industrial: Skinny Puppy at The Complex 12.13 with...
Huge, cavernous and with the worst floor in the history of forever, the Complex SLC played host on a rainy night to the largest gathering of people in black I’ve ever seen in Utah for this four-band extravaganza. … read more
National CD Reviews – January 2012
New and recent releases from The Cure, The Devil’s Blood, Errors, Kepi Ghoulie, Laura Gibson, Majestic Downfall, Mickey Moonlight, The Slackers, Tim “Love” Lee and many more are reviewed. … read more
Food Review: Mahider
When I first moved to Salt Lake City from rural Louisiana, one thing I loved about “big city life” was the vast variety of cuisines to sample, but I was disappointed that one of my favorites—Ethiopian—was missing. I made it a point to eat at Ethiopian restaurants any time I traveled because it is a wonderful and unique style of food, so I’m pleased to announce that we finally have our very own full-service Ethiopian eatery right here. … read more
Food Review: Pig & a Jelly Jar
Pig & A Jelly Jar is a fresh eatery serving breakfast and lunch seven days a week, and a three-course dinner on Sundays in the west Liberty Park neighborhood. … read more
Food Review: Mazza
A Utah staple since 2000, Mazza is arguably the best Lebanese and Middle Eastern restaurant in town. Mazza started as a family eatery, serving their food on paper plates out of the small 15th and 15th location. By 2007, demand was high enough for owner Ali Sabbah to open a second restaurant—an upscale, fine-dining establishment at 9th and 9th. … read more
The Wheels on the Cart Go ’Round… Sometimes
In the mid-2000s, the food cart hit America’s streets in earnest. UrbanSpoon lists 22 local trucks and carts as of this writing, serving everything from discount ramen or horchata to gourmet Asian sliders for a fraction of the cost of sit-down restaurants. I tried to hit four carts, but it wasn’t easy. Finally, with only a few excuses, I was able to make it to three: World Dog, The Curryer and Union Street Eats. … read more
Food Review: Plum Alley
After the rockin’ success of The Copper Onion, it came as no surprise when chef/owner Ryan Lowder and his superb staff branched out and around the corner with another restaurant. Plum Alley serves Southeast-Asian Fusion based on the same locally sourced, seasonal, simple and homey (yet excellent) cooking ethics. The restaurant has experienced a little upheaval in personnel and menu shifting as they found their stride, but it’s only gotten better at each turn. … read more
Rebel Rouser: David Eugene Edwards of Wovenhand
The latest album by Denver’s Wovenhand, Refractory Obdurate, is full of both surprising and expected elements as another fascinating chapter from singer/songwriter and visionary David Eugene Edwards. … read more