Zombi : Shape Shift

Listening to the heavy synth band Zombi is like zoning out to the opening credits of some imaginary sci fi or horror film. As you listen to the synth strings well up and overpower the mix, and the Neil Peart-like precision of the drums you can almost picture some imaginary scene of intense space flight. […]

Protomartyr : The Agent Intellect

Over the last fifteen years there have been many bands to emerge that wore the post-punk moniker proudly. That’s not to say they deserved to wear that moniker, mind you. That’s also not say they picked that moniker out themselves. It seems music critics(I’m not one as I don’t get invited to their soirees, nor […]

Windhand : Grief’s Infernal Flower

Windhand sound like the kid brother to Sleep’s bleary-eyed, paranoid big brother. They make music that creeps and crawls slowly along. Maybe they’re stoned, or maybe they’re just cautious purveyors of doom. Their dirges of fuzz and thunderous metal would remain in the doldrums if it weren’t for singer Dorthia Cottrell. Her vocals add a […]

Deafheaven : New Bermuda

Never in my life did I ever think I’d like a so-called “black metal” band. Up until a few years ago I didn’t know what black metal really was. The black metal genre was something I looked at from a distance and thought better to indulge in it. I got the Gothic stuff. The sludge-y, […]

Kurt Vile : b’lieve i’m goin down

Kurt Vile comes off as a bit of a mystery at first. You listen to the guy as he mumbles and shrugs his way through a song, surrounded by some really great music. You wonder is this guy for real? You listen some more and little details, shaded nuances, and sly phrases begin to make […]

Battles : La Di Da Di

Listening to Battles is like plugging into the mainframe of some futuristic generator. You are instantly pulled into this stream-of-consciousness robot groove that acts as some sort of virtual yellow brick road to meet the fantastical Oz. But Oz isn’t some little man that flew in on a hot air balloon. No, Oz is this […]

Youth Lagoon : Savage Hills Ballroom

Trevor Powers has the kind of fragility in his voice that when you hear it you feel at any time during a song he may just disappear into thin air. A pin hole leak in a balloon that slowly releases air into the world. Any kind of pressure or pushing will cause a bevy of […]

Slayer : Repentless

One of the scariest moments I ever had at a concert(besides that Petra concert at the Notre Dame ACC when I was 17…long story) was the Clash of the Titans tour in July of 1991. My older brother and I headed down to Noblesville, Indiana and for $7 we were granted access to the lawn […]

Brian Ellis Group : Escondido Sessions

As soon as the first notes begin to play on “Via De Mi Rancho”, the opening salvo on Brian Ellis Group’s Escondido Sessions, you know you’re in for something special. There’s a hypnotic urgency in the organ/sax/drum combo. A slow build into chaotic energy that can barely be contained within the parameters of space and […]

Beach House : Depression Cherry

Did you ever hear an album that feels like an emotional punch in the gut? Something that squeezes your innards until you want to collapse into a puddle of overwrought, bawling mess on the floor? Sure you have. Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, and The Zombies have all done it to me in the […]