Umberto : Alienation

Umberto’s Alienation feels like a cross between New Age, a giallo score, and a soundtrack to some strange early 80s sci fi film. Previous albums like Confrontation, Night Has A Thousand Screams, and Prophecy Of The Black Widow all took their cues from the Gothic and dark world of horror films from guys like Argento, […]

Landing : Third Sight

Landing seems to inhabit a musical space that resides in dreams. They create these musical patchworks that form a beautiful and surreal world where natural light and free thought connect and open doorways to ethereal universes. Of course, you have to be ready and primed to allow the music on Landing’s newest album Third Sight […]

Middle-Aged Melancholy : Two Dudes, The Cure, and the Windy City

I was never much of a Cure fan in high school. In fact, I wasn’t a fan at all. I didn’t get it; the make up, jet black hair teased to the sky, mopey guys, and the doom and gloom. None of it clicked with my Midwest, meat-and-potatoes, not really Presbyterian upbringing. If there wasn’t […]

Ridiculous Vinyl Purchases : Nostalgia Gets The Best Of Us All

I guess you could say I’ve been on a bit of a nostalgia kick lately. On a trip to my local record store recently I was given access to leaf through an as-yet put out collection of records and see if anything tickled my fancy. Within this “like, totally” 80s dive I located some truly […]

The Claypool Lennon Delirium: Monolith of Phobos

I know what you’re thinking if you haven’t yet heard the Sean Lennon and Les Claypool collaboration called The Claypool Lennon Delirium. You’re thinking you have no interest in hearing this band. You’ve heard Primus and all the other nautically-themed records Claypool has put out over the last 20 years on his own and with […]

Acid Crusher/Mount Swan

I’m still a little groggy from a three-day weekend that was for all intents and purposes a success. A success in that rest was had, art was created, and music and beer was consumed. There were also good foods made and devoured(including some homemade calzones and a plethora of grilled meats that would bring a […]

A Life In Albums : Part Two

Thelonious Monk Quartet : Monk’s Dream I really can’t remember the reason why I bought Monk’s Dream. I was 21 years old and living in an apartment with my girlfriend at the time(summer/fall of 1995 to be exact.) We both had good jobs at the same company but worked different shifts, so while she would […]

Purple Skies and Bleeding Ears

When the forces of nature that are Heavy Blanket and Earthless come together you’d think this is going to be an earth-shattering, mind-melting moment in time. You’d believe that the earth’s lava-rich core would certainly spout forth and create a chasm of molten rock like the universe has yet to see. You would also expect […]

A Life In Albums : Part One

I usually don’t like those list things. You know, where you have to rank things you love which makes other things you love seem as if you love them less. Year end lists are okay, but when you’re talking “TOP 20 MOVIES OF YOUR LIFE” or “TOP 10 BURRITOS I’VE EVER EATEN”, it kind of […]

Chris Cohen : As If Apart

Chris Cohen is a guy that has offered up his musical skills to many over the last 15 years or so. Deerhoof, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, and Cass McCombs are just a few of the many musical worlds Cohen has delved in over the years. But not until his Captured Tracks debut, Overgrown Path in 2012, […]