Drink the long draught, for the Hip Priest : R.I.P. Mark E. Smith

People only need me when they’re down and gone to seed – Mark E. Smith I can’t say I’ve been a Fall fan my whole life. I’ve really only gotten to know the world of Mark E. Smith the last 9 years or so. But in that time I’ve gotten to love this ever-curmudgeonly Brit with a […]

Ty Segall : Freedom’s Goblin

Ty Segall is not the type of guy to sit on his laurels. He doesn’t put out an album and then sit, lay back and just coast on good reviews for awhile. It seems that usually by the time he puts a record out he’s already onto the next record, project, music obsession, etc. For […]

Mayhem!….Bloody Mayhem!

Occasionally I like a good dose of tongue firmly planted in cheek when it comes to horror/action/violent cinema. You get too much of that serious, brooding, bloody cinema and I think it starts to affect you. Like, you only want to eat organic food and drink purified water and you forget the pleasures of a […]

Birthday Les and the Hubner Boys Jamboree

Primus were one of those bands that even in the throes of my relentless fandom in the early 90s I still wasn’t sure what it was that I loved about them. I seem to have that problem with music that comes across both funny and prodigiously. Primus did both in spades. Les Claypool played the […]

Pink Fink : Pink Fink

Can someone help me? I seem to be stuck in some strange dimension called the 80s. I, I think I’m in a hallway. The walls are covered in neon paint and the floors seem to be black and purple squares leading me to a dank, dark room where strange noises are emanating. The noises are […]

Going Sølo : Nicklas Sørensen Talks Influences, Scat, and His New Solo LP

If you’re familiar with the Danish rockers Papir, then you’re quite familiar with Nicklas Sørensen. Sørensen is the guitarist for the three-piece psych rock outfit out of Copenhagen. His style is fluid, groove-filled and nuanced. He can go from heady post-rock passages that float on crystalline clouds to buzzing, fuzzed-out freak outs at the drop of a […]

“Farewell”

My son came home from school Thursday and told me that his best pal is moving to Colorado. His buddy Nathan hadn’t been at school the last two days and on Thursday sent my son an email titled “Farewell”. In it Nathan explained, vaguely(he is a 13-year old boy, after all), that he was moving […]

Mythic Sunship : Upheaval

Mythic Sunship are a band that waste no time with subtleties. There’s no tip-toeing around whether things are gonna get loud and intense, as you know right as the first song begins to play on any of their albums that things are gonna get pretty damn loud. And pretty damn intense. But that’s not to […]

Nicklas Sørensen : Solo 2

Nicklas Sørensen most recently blasted dreamy, psychedelic swaths of guitar on Papir’s 2017 record V. Within that Danish three-piece psych rock outfit, Sørensen can go from post-rock stoicism to 60s fuzzed-out freak out in seconds flat. He’s erased those boundary lines that seemed to box in the “guitar hero”. Jazzy introspection, distorted wah wah, and progressive lines […]

No Age : Snares Like A Haircut

Randy Randall and Dean Spunt have always come across as a couple art house punks with a hell of a lot of conviction. This Los Angeles noise/art/punk/rock duo known as No Age have never sounded like they’re particularly adept at their instruments, at least at the beginning. They came across as a couple sweaty punks […]