Authors: Taylor Hale
Local Review: Brother Chunky – And Stuff
Brother Chunky drives the beat, all bluesy and SRV-ish with his guitar.
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Local Review: Brad Hart & The Lopez Massacre – Sego...
Armed with a buoyant singing voice falling somewhere between Tim Rutili and Thom Yorke, Brad Hart and his conspicuously named backing band The Lopez Massacre’s debut album… … read more
Review: Doug Keith – Pony
Namely, the best track on the album, “Pure Gold in the ’70s,” rips at the seams midway and bursts open with a J Mascis guitar solo, and from there, the track is a pure slacker anthem, a salute to the children of the ’70s. Pony also has more than enough warmth and attitude to get me through winter. … read more
Review: Courtney Barnett – A Sea of Split Peas
Like a collection of Cheever shorts cut to Lou Reed, this “Double EP” features the most invigorating songwriting since Joni Mitchell’s Blue. … read more
Review: Breathe Owl Breathe – Passage of Pegasus
Breathe Owl Breathe = Destroyer + David Bowie … read more
Film Review: Sunset Strip
From the days of Mickey Cohen and the Wars of the Sunset Strip to the riots of the mid-’60s, the Strip has always attracted creative types: rock stars, writers, coke heads, mobsters and prostitutes—and John Belushi, who was all of those things at once. … read more
Julianna Barwick @ Kilby Court 11.18 with Grizzly Prospector and...
From where I’m standing, Julianna Barwick is a perfect silhouette. A projection of a slow moving video of white forests and breaking ocean waves frames her figure in the background, and the 50 or so people in the audience are in a trance, strewn out across the floor, some lying, some sitting, some standing, as her voice builds and reaches crescendo like a gothic one-woman choir. … read more
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin @ Kilby Court 11.22...
From the get-go, the small cluster of people to my right, all huddled beside the large speaker hanging from the ceiling, are in their thrall. Two kids with jet black hair are laboring over a sharpie mural on the plywood wall, only stopping intermittently to do something that resembles a dance, but is more likely some ancient satanic ritual, their possessed bodies twisting along with those sweet bass lines. … read more
The North Valley @ Kilby Court 01.10 with Golden Sun,...
It’s hard to think of a local band with more potential for longevity than The North Valley. Their first full-length, the release of which was marked by tonight’s show, sparked a fire in my heart that I still haven’t put out, content to live with a charred, murmuring and hollow organ if it means I can spend one more goddamn moment here, letting my ears bleed, and my eyes roll back in my head, and the vibrations break my ribs in a million little pieces. … read more
The Pack A.D. @ Kilby Court 02.14 with Super Moon,...
I always say that women make better punks than men, or at least I do now. Just ask Patti Smith. Or ask her doppelganger Becky Black, the lead singer of The Pack A.D., a two-piece garage rock outfit from the ‘Couve. This band is chained to The White Stripes on every website they’re featured on, but I don’t see it. In fact, the only thing they have in common that I can see is a female drummer. … read more
Real Estate @ Urban Lounge 03.08 with The Shilohs
Atlas has been described as their most mature album. In the past they’ve been described as the soundtrack to summer, but now they might be the soundtrack to the first day back from school after summer, when reality came crashing back and all the memories of summer fade, all the people you met and friends you made return to their realities. It’s still pretty chill though.
SXSW Film Festival: Animals
Sometimes a film or a work of art or a piece of music tries to tell you something, in a whisper, barely audible so you have lean in real close, and really listen. Other times it shouts what it wants to tell you from 3 feet away so that nobody could misunderstand or mishear it. I prefer the former. No need to shout, I’m a good listener, I can understand what you’re saying without hearing a word. Pandering to your audience is a good way to win awards, sure, but what I really want when I watch a movie is something that challenges the way I think and exist.
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