Month: February 2016
Review: TEEN – Love Yes
TEEN Love Yes Carpark Street: 02.19 TEEN = St. Vincent x Chairlift Love Yes, TEEN’s third album, finds the female quartet swimming in similar waters as their contemporaries, making big, glossy pop songs. The seductive prowess of Little Dragon’s neo soul is easy to recognize on “Please”, and the influence of Annie Clark’s vocal style
Review: Sorcier des Glaces – North
This Québécois group has had something special and unique going on since the ’90s, and despite being underground in most regards, they’ve never put out a mediocre album. I first heard them through their split with Monarque, another under appreciated yet highly skilled and awesome band from the same side of our Northern neighboring country. Have Sorcier des Glaces lost their touch of frosty, sinister, Canadian black metal with this album, you ask? … read more
Review: Savages – Adore Life
Clad head to toe in black, Savages strove for uncompromising authenticity as they brought the impatient and thunderous heart of post-punk back, topping off their unforgiving album with singer Jehnny Beth’s 36-line manifesto, which sharply decried a world of far too many voices and distractions clamoring for our attention. … read more
Review: Rotting Christ – Rituals
Whenever your band has a big name and reputation in the metal/extreme metal scene, there are expectations with each new album. For me, Rituals meets those expectations and goes above and beyond. … read more
Review: Pop. 1280 – Paradise
Pop. 1280 establish Paradise as an unoccupied city filled with breathtaking buildings and perfectly paved streets. What a waste, considering that the album’s ironic title and industrial cityscapes create an ideal community for humankind’s damned. … read more
Review: Pinkshinyultrablast – Grandfeathered
Russian shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast have quickly followed up on last year’s debut, Everything Else Matters, with Grandfeathered, an album that races off into the same horizon that the prior did. … read more
Review: Mothers – When You Walk A Long Distance You...
When You Walk is achingly good: the pierced-heart, splintered-bone, blurred-eyes kind of good. That it is only Mothers’ first full-length album is a wonder. … read more
Review: Canopy Canvas – R e a l m
With a catchy, quick intro song, and then straight into a downtempo beat with chimes and bells galore, this release from Canopy Canvas is an addition to the growing ambient section of the vast EDM world. … read more
Review: Chairlift – Moth
My first introduction to Chairlift was to their single, “I Belong in Your Arms,” off their 2012 release Something. The simplistic message and the catchy chorus was what drew me into Chairlift initially, and the dark, almost 80’s inspired electronics in some tracks held my interest. … read more
Local Review: Villain – Self-titled
Villain are the real deal. Bridging the gap between mid-paced, ’90s-style hardcore and the modern day, Villain’s four-song debut is 100-percent all the way through. Give me an amazing four-song EP any day over 10 songs of mediocrity. … read more
Local Review: The Boys Ranch – Self-Titled
This beachy EP from SLC natives The Boys Ranch is a collection of four tracks that hearken back to the clean, surf pop sounds of yesteryear (complete with the standard boom-tat-tat-boom-tat drum lines). Unlike the recent trend of beach-goth artists, The Boys Ranch use more classic, lighthearted guitar tones. … read more
Local Review: T.E.V. – Études
Études, with its minimalistic black cassette and yellow and green tracer-covered linear notes, gives a fairly unassuming first impression. Yet, upon further inspection, one will find that, first impressions aside, Études is a mystic and entirely varied listening experience. … read more
