Jerry Cantrell : Brighten

When I think of Jerry Cantrell I think of a little rock and roll dive club in Niles, MI called The White House in the summer of ’92. It was this literal old white house in the outskirts of Niles that had the best cover bands in the Michiana area. There were some bad ones, […]

My Morning Jacket : The Waterfall II

It’s been over five years since My Morning Jacket have released an album. That album was The Waterfall, a solid set of pop and rock tunes that followed in the footsteps 2011s Circuital. Circuital seemed to be looking for a middle ground musically between the shoot-for-the-moon audacity of Evil Urges and the band’s earlier, more […]

Real Estate : The Main Thing

New Jersey’s Real Estate have been reliable harbingers of breezy, jangly indie rock for a decade now. Despite the simplicity in the sound of their songs, there’s a depth in the longing they sing about. Songs about longing for those backyard parties, garage band shows, and haunting suburban streets long past curfew. In the decade […]

CITYGIRL Drop Debut Track “Hollow Future”

We’re at the end of 2019, folks. Twenty years ago we were all getting ready for the end of the world with Y2K. I was nervously watching my Compaq Presario and the power grid waiting for the robots and appliances to take over. Fortunately(or maybe unfortunately?) the year 2000 only saw another Bush and a […]

Jay Som : Anak Ko

Melina Duterte makes beautifully restrained pop music as Jay Som. There’s the intimacy of Sufjan Stevens and Youth Lagoon, but with the adventurous experimentalism of late 80s Adrian Belew, Lindsey Buckingham, and Cocteau Twins. Her first collection of demos and home recordings Turn Into showed great promise, establishing Duterte as an artists to watch. Her […]

Drown It Out : A Talk With Ohio’s Penny Wishes

Penny Wishes are a three-piece indie/alternative rock band out of Lima, Ohio. They’re a band fronted by bassist/singer Siera Lynn, with Nolan Klock on guitar and Jesse Martin on drums. The music these three create is thick with urgency and buzzing guitar jangle. Listening to their full-length self-titled debut from last year I’m reminded of […]

Primus : The Desaturating Seven

When Primus put out their musical tribute to the Gene Wilder classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the aptly-titled Primus & The Chocolate Factory with the Fungi Orchestra back in 2014, everything about the Bay area prog/funk/freak trio seemed to make perfect sense. Les Claypool, the elastic bass genius and singer for the band has […]

Cymbals Eat Guitars : Pretty Years

I can remember hearing “…And The Hazy Sea” for the first time back in 2009 and being completely floored. Cymbals Eat Guitars had created this musical world that encapsulated all those wonderful elements that made the early 90s indie rock movement so magical. Bombastic guitars, quiet moments, tinkling keyboards, wobbly vocals that go from fragile […]

Nothing : Tired Of Tomorrow

Nothing seem to float in this very unique musical cloud of both inescapable beauty and sharp ugliness. The sounds are both pastoral and urban. Domenic Palermo’s sometimes gritty upbringing in the streets of North Philly comes through in the sounds that come through the speakers. A youth soundtracked by both hardcore and shoegaze comes through […]