Of Montreal : Innocence Reaches

Kevin Barnes has played many roles in his nearly 20 year music career. There was the folksy pop guy, the jilted lover, the struggling husband and father, the party monster, the transvestite hooker, the avante garde composer, and the rock and roll warrior. But the role Barnes plays best is Kevin Barnes. The guy that’s […]

Simon Belmont Blues

I remember it like it was yesterday(or maybe last week.) I spent a week at my uncle Mark’s house in the summer of 1987. I went straight from the last day of school to his place where we’d hang out, eat junk food, and play video games. What I didn’t know was that my older […]

“She’ll Kill You”

In just a mere two minutes and change the track “She’ll Kill You” from the upcoming volume one of the Stranger Things S/T pulls you from your daily grind and puts you into some other realm. It’s full and dense synth cavalcade washes over you and fills your ears with a pulsating melancholy that’s part Night Flights and […]

For The Love Of Kevin Barnes : A Few Words On Of Montreal’s Svengali

I’m sitting in my living room after a couple beers and maybe a shot or two of Johnnie Walker Red and I’m on my second spin of the new Of Montreal long player Innocence Reaches. I’m once again in awe of the mighty and ADD-afflicted Kevin Barnes. This album seems to encapsulate all that is Kevin […]

MSTRKRFT : Operator

So let me start out by saying I’m not an aficionado when it comes to electronica. I’m really just an outsider looking in that finds himself drawn to the beats and noisy synths. I feel EDM, techno, and house music like I feel jazz, hip hop, and classical music; that is to say I feel […]

Cliff Martinez : The Neon Demon S/T

I think the first movie soundtrack that made a real impact on me was The Exorcist. Nope, it wasn’t Star Wars, Superman, or Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hell, it wasn’t even Halloween. The first one that made a visceral impact on me was “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield from The Exorcist S/T. As a […]

Family Values : Revisiting ‘Sukierae’

I guess on some level the idea of a father and son collaboration has been romanticized in my head. I can’t help but think how cool it would be to play in a band with my son(or daughter for that matter.) A collaboration between father and child just seems like that perfect connection of heredity, […]

The Spice of Life

It was nearly two years ago that I happened upon an article about Visions of Dune, an album by a mysterious artist named simply Z that was getting the reissue treatment. Now what caught my eye was that this album was a heavy synth concept album based on Frank Herbert’s Dune. The idea of a […]

Monarch : Two Isles

Ahh, Southern California sure knows how to mold and shape guys and gals into laid back, jammy musicians. There’s this breezy, hazy vibe that comes from a city like San Diego that you can’t get anywhere else in the country. In-particular, psych rock has had somewhat of a resurgence in that area, with heavy hitters […]

Mogwai : Atomic

I have to admit, it took me a while to find my way to Mogwai. Even after seeing them in 2004 during an ear-shattering assault that left a good friend of mine and I stunned and shell shocked at the Curiosa Festival I still just could never bring myself to dig deeper into these Scottish […]