Music
Local Reviews: Muscle Hawk
I like to dance, and Muscle Hawk clearly like to make my booty shake. Their music is relatively straightforward techno in the vein of European greats like Justice or Daft Punk: The bass is heavy, the beat throbbing and the samples dramatic and super-polished. … read more
Local Reviews: Wake Up Nebula
Wake Up Nebula Never Fall In love With Birds Self-Released Street: 02.12 Wake Up Nebula = Metro Station / Shiny Toy Guns Emo-electro has had its ups and downs in terms of popularity—maybe there are still some die-hards out there still listening to Playradioplay!. There always seems to be somewhat of a whiny, perhaps nerdy
Local Reviews: Ferocious Oaks
Things have never quite been the same after Arcade Fire’s Funeral. The Montreal collective’s quiet-and-restrained-to-ramshackle-and-blisteringly-loud dynamic has imprinted itself all over this ambitious yet frustrating EP by Orem’s Ferocious Oaks. … read more
Local Reviews: Sinthesis
You’d think that a fusion of hip hop and blues would be a musical trainwreck, but Phaust and Phingaz, who make up Sinthesis, blend the two genres nicely––especially considering they wrote and recorded Horseshoes & Handgrenades in a little over a week. … read more
Local Reviews: YYBS
Park City kids YYBS (Young Yet Brilliant Sleuths) cover a range of styles over the course of this four-song EP—going from alt-country picking to aught indie yelping in seconds—yet manages to never sound contrived. … read more
Local Reviews: Young Sim
Young Sim is known in Salt Lake City as a humble guy who conveys his message to his listeners in a vulgarity-free and violence-free manner. He does this by refraining from adding curses and glocks into his rhymes while keeping the essence of hip hop in his music. … read more
Local Reviews: Searching for Celia
I reeeeally enjoy Searching For Celia’s sound. I love strings, and I love them even more when they’re moody, frantic and excitable. I love them most of all when their undeniably classical sound is mixed into a modern interpretation, paired with electric guitars, bass and hearty drums. … read more
Local Reviews: Starmy
If you have been living in a cave and don’t know shit about local music, Starmy are Salt Lake legends. When I first moved to Utah, I remember seeing them often and thought, ‘Man, if these dudes weren’t wasted they would fucking kick ass.’ Well guess what … They’re probably still drunk, but they sound soooo fucking good now. I caught them at Urban a while back after a year or more of not seeing them, and they were top-notch. … read more
Local Reviews: Salt Lake Spitfires
Salt Lake Spitfires aptly synthesize thrash guitars and mid-tempo punk rock right off the bat with “Mountain” in the Chaos Baby EP, and pin down exactly what it would be like at a rock n’ roll show in the ’70s. The Spitfires succeed in varying their songs yet retaining their own sonic signature. … read more
Local Reviews: Riksha
Longevity in local artists is somewhat uncommon. I remember hearing about Jesus Rides a Riksha back when I was in high school and my brothers were going to the University of Utah. They were members of a fraternity that had the band play at one of their parties. Strangely enough, Night Begins is my first instance in actually hearing the band. … read more
Local Reviews: Palace of Buddies
Salt Lake is lucky to be home to these experimental, shoe-gazing badasses. Taking a turn from their first album, which was more rock based, Summertimes has an electro-pop, retro feel—heavy on seductive bass lines and salivating keyboard. … read more
Local Reviews: MAD MAX
A hip hop record that uses all-live instrumentals usually falls to one end of the spectrum: either really awesome or really bad. Combinations of rock music and hip hop are even less reliable—certain elements of live rock seem to clash with some of the other components of hip hop, like clear vocal delivery and danceable rhythm. … read more
