Growing Up In The Dark Peaks : A Conversation With Simon Pott

When you step into the musical world of Simon Pott’s Isvisible Isinvisible, there’s a sense of wonder and mystery. It’s a wheezing, pulsating universe of buzzing circuits, synthetic rhythms, mechanical drones and vague nods to science fiction. Pott orchestrates these analog musical narratives mostly thru modular synthesizers(and seemingly lots of patience and trial and error, […]

Hutch

I’ll still catch myself checking old conversations and emails between my friend Mark and I. They weren’t as often as I wished they’d been, but what we had were insightful, funny, and I looked forward to them as if they were conversations with a long lost brother. Mark was six years older than me, the […]

I’m Sorry Mrs. Jackson(I Am For Real)

Didn’t we all have that friend in childhood that stayed in childhood? You know, it was usually a kid that lived next door or maybe two houses down from you. He wasn’t going to be a lifetime friend but was good for summer shenanigans; birthday parties, occasional sleepovers that involved movie rentals, frozen pizzas, and […]

“Just another mature, grownup hardcore kid” : A Conversation With Alone In The Woods’ Jon Dobyns

If you were lucky enough, you were able to grab a copy of Burning Witches Records’ Record Store Day release Communion a couple Saturdays ago. If not, maybe you snagged a copy online while the getting was good. Still no dice? Well shame on you. If I was a betting man(I’m not), I’d say Communion […]

Landing : Bells In New Towns

Connecticut’s Landing are a band that seem to evolve and reshape with every new album. On their 2015 El Paraiso Records debut Third Sight it was a slightly psychedelic, slightly ambient affair with hints of delicate dream pop thrown in for good measure. But the velveteen hushes on that great album were just a fraction […]

Speedy Ortiz : Twerp Verse

I’m not sure I’m smart enough to truly ever get into Speedy Ortiz. I mean, I listen to the Sadie Dupuis-fronted band and I hear really intelligently put together indie pop rock. The guitars are jangly, jagged, and possess angular riffing you’d hear in early Pavement, Archers of Loaf, and Sleater-Kinney. The songs are put […]

How Stuart Hamm Rewired My Brain(or the odd case of Dr. Gradus ad Parnasum)

For a long time now I’ve wondered what happened in my brain to where I’ve veered from loving the singer/songwriter to being almost exclusively a fan of instrumental music. I mean, from 16 or 17 years old until about 5 years ago I was all about great songs. The Beatles to the Kinks to Brian […]

Sleep : The Sciences

For the longest time Sleep were more legend than reality. A trio of young California stoners in the late 80s/early 90s that worshiped at the alter of Black Sabbath, fueled by massive amounts of the best bud little money could buy, started a whole new genre of music: stoner metal. Matt Pike, Al Cisneros, and […]

Steve Reich : Pulse/Quartet

Steve Reich is the kind of musical figure that lives within several different worlds. He began in tape experimentations, looping, and sound phasing while making social and political statements in the mid-60s. His piece “Come Out” is a dizzying and hallucinogenic piece of sound manipulation that also served as a voice for the civil rights […]

Stryper : God Damn Evil

It was the summer of 1987 and I was a rebellious teenager. I was looking for all kinds of ways to get into trouble and stick my middle finger up at authority. Staying up till 2am watching The Morton Downy Show, drinking way too many Capri Suns, and dropping Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola like there […]

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