Kurt Vile : Philadelphia’s been good to me

Kurt Vile has built a solid musical career out of jangly, classic rock vibes with a touch of outsider weirdness. It’s like Tom Petty meets R. Stevie Moore with a brush of John Prine and JJ Cale for good measure. His quietly genius guitar playing and stream-of-consciousness lyrical style feels both relatable and alien at […]

Boards of Canada : Inferno

Boards of Canada’s music has always felt relevant, commenting on society thru ghostly voices and nostalgically-tinted electronics. Music Has The Right To Children, their first full-length from 1998, sounded like walking back in time with its faded audio clips and analog electronics and instrumentation. It felt familiar and foreign simultaneously. The follow-up, Geogaddi(2002), was seeped […]

The Lemon Twigs : Look For Your Mind!

The Lemon Twigs, aka Long Island-bred brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, have made a musical career out of mining the best of twee power pop from the 60s and early 70s. Borrowing from The Zombies to The Beatles to The Raspberries and The Association, they have a gift for melodic turns and twists while perfecting […]

AE Paterra : VCO 025 :: Alone In Your Dark

AE Paterra is the drummer extraordinaire of the electro synth prog duo Zombi, along with Steve Moore on bass and synths. They’ve carved a niche for themselves over the last 20+ years(debuting in 2004 with Cosmos). The band tows the line between prog rockers and classic 70s/80s horror film scores, somehow bringing the worlds of […]

The Black Keys : Peaches!

I’m sure you’ve been sitting around waiting for your favorite corporate, Bud Light-sponsored blues rockers The Black Keys to drop a brand new by-the-books blues-infused record. Filled with competent Delta, Country, and boozy Midwest blues rock that will surely pepper your rock radio fumblings on the way to the next Coliseum gun and knife show. […]

Corrosion of Conformity : Good God/Baad Man

Corrosion of Conformity started out in the 80s as pretty much a punk band, with Blind giving them serious cred in the hardcore and metal community. But with 1994’s Deliverance the sound and vibe shifted with the addition of vocalist/guitarist Pepper Keenan. Keenan brought a heavy 70s hard rock vibe, along with Sabbath vibes to […]

Toadies : The Charmer

Toadies roared out of Texas in the mid-90s with a sound that combined post/punk, grunge, and jagged alt rock that saved Gen X ears from the likes of 3 Doors Down, Tonic, and Semisonic overtaking alt rock radio. Their debut Rubberneck was an angry collection of guitar-driven rock and punk. Their biggest hit “Possum Kingdom” […]

Weird Nightmare : Hoopla

Alex Edkins was the guitarist and vocalist for Canadian post/punk band METZ for well over a decade. When the noisy trio decided to go on hiatus a couple years back Edkins side project Weird Nightmare became his main gig. METZ was loud, abrasive, and savored the dissonance of guitar squall, fuzzy bass lines, and brash […]

Manual : True Bypass

Musician and producer Jonas Munk has remained pretty busy these last few years. Between releasing music with Causa Sui, ambient solo works, and putting out records with Auburn Lull’s Jason Kolb as Billow Observatory, he’s leaving a wide swath of sonic endeavors for us to get lost in. And let’s not forget running record label […]

Thundercat : Distracted

Stephen Bruner, aka bass extraordinaire Thundercat, is either you flavor or not. Anybody that digs the futuristic pop/jazz/funk flavors of an album like Drunk or Thundercat’s maestro playing on albums by Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, Justice and Tame Impala will no doubt continue to worship at the alter of Thundercat’s immense bass contributions […]