Yves Tumor : Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

Yves Tumor was one of those names I’d heard in passing over the last few years, but truth be told never made it to my ears. I thought maybe it was the name of a rapper, or some strange avante garde pop artist like Arca. Turns out I was wrong and sort of in the […]

Unknown Mortal Orchestra : V

Ruban Nielson arrived on the indie music scene back in 2010 with his Unknown Mortal Orchestra project in an air of mystery. This lo-fi project made songs that sounded as if they’d been locked in a storage locker for 40 years; musty, muffled tracks that were equally built for grooving and for dropping out. Garage […]

Andy Shauf : Norm

I think it was 2017 when I came across Andy Shauf. Binging Canadian power pop dynamos Sloan, Shauf came up as a recommendation. The Saskatchewan-born Shauf’s music was this baroque pop singer/songwriter fare; sadsack tunes that borrowed from cats like Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and early Rufus Wainwright. Shauf grew up around lots of instruments […]

White Hills : The Revenge Of Heads On Fire

White Hills are the quintessential New York rock band. They’re loud, gritty, can wear a pair of leather pants like nobody’s business, and paint musical visions of stark cityscapes and shadowy worlds that only make their presence known when the sun dies over the lower east side. Dave W and Ego Sensation are the minds […]

Kevin Hambrick : Talking Birds

Kevin Hambrick has been a staple in the Midwest music scene for 20 years, leading the indie rock charge in both The Orange Opera and as a solo artist. Regardless of which project Hambrick is writing in and for, the sound is decidedly Hambrick. With his solo work Kevin Hambrick handles all the band duties […]

Edena Gardens Unleashes “Hidebound”; Debut Album Drops In October On El Paraiso REcords

Listening to Edena Gardens brand new single “Hidebound” I feel as if I’m being carried away in some cosmic slipstream. It’s a slow drift of a song that lives in glorious 70s Komische light; touches of echoing guitar, psychedelic keys, and a rolling, endless groove of percussion. The cosmos passes by as you stare out […]

Preoccupations : Arrangements

Preoccupations, formerly Viet Cong, are a Canadian four-piece that rose from the ashes of indie rock darlings Women. Where Women was more in the vein of bands like Deerhunter and Pavement, Preoccupations went for a more darker, propulsive sound. From their ‘Cassette’ ep debut to their self-titled full-length as Viet Cong to name change to […]

The Black Angels : Wilderness of Mirrors

Austin’s The Black Angels have done quite a unique thing in that throughout their nearly 20-year career as a psych rock band they’ve remained relevant. They’ve never tried being anything more than what they are, which is a dark, looming rock band. No forays into ballads, EDM, pop rock, or the like. Their records are […]

Ty Segall : Hello, Hi

Ty Segall might be the busiest man in indie rock. He’s certainly one of the most prolific, dropping something new seemingly every 6 months. Whether it’s solo albums or with one of his many side projects, Segall seems to have a mind that runs 24/7. Albums spanning garage rock, psych folk, wonky synth workouts, and […]

Tim Heidecker : High School

I never would have taken Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric fame to have been such a prolific songwriter, but here we are with his third album in three years. With What The Brokenhearted Do and Fear Of Death, released 2019 and 2020 respectively, Heidecker showed he had a knack for classic singer/songwriter fare. Introspective […]