Music
Local Review: Spirit Tribe – A Common Tragedy
Spirit Tribe are a ‘70s-style jam band with a modern twist. Influences such as CREAM, Led Zeppelin and countless other iconic bands can be heard. From the effortless guitar solos to the tone-setting drums and haunting lyrics, Spirit Tribe have major talent. … 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: Twilight Transmissions -vs- Void of Realms – Between...
This experimental electronic release is two artists showing their creativity by writing and remixing each other’s work, and it is amazing. The Twilight Transmissions tracks have a lighter feel to them, while Void of Realms have a much darker and sinister ambience to them—a perfect mixture. … read more
Local Review: Brett Knickerbocker – Lost Signal EP
Singer/songwriter Brett Knickerbocker embodies a country-rock cowboy. Lost Signal EP is an almost all-acoustic set that sounds country-rock in its instrumentation with excited and emphatic strums. … read more
Local Review: Christopher Alvarado – The Eye of Imagination
Ambient music can be interpreted in many different ways; it all depends on what a person’s mindset is and what they are feeling at the moment, if anything. What one person hears may be drastically different from what another hears. … read more
Local Review: Former Tides – What We Are EP
The post-hardcore scene has been dwindling as of late, but these guys brought some serious crashing guitar riffs to the studio just in case you forgot. The title track gets the EP started and really displays the overall sound Former Tides are going for. … read more
Local Review: Entomb the Wicked – Mortem
Vocalist/lead guitarist Tyler Bromberg has intriguingly diverse vocal abilities that come through in the slower tune, “Despondency,” which has a very Alice in Chains “Rooster” vibe to it. However, the rest of Mortem consists of faster, mosh-worthy death metal. … read more
Local Review: Dead Bod – Self-Titled EP
You and everyone subject to your sound system should note and thoroughly enjoy the sheer, brutal and deadly brilliance of Dead Bod. This self-titled EP beautifully captures a contemporary form of the late-’70s L.A. punk explosion, which inspires nostalgia for the movement. … read more
Local Music Reviews January 2016
SLUG’s team of talented local reviewers put together this list of albums that reinforced our faith in the local music scene during January 2016. … read more
Local Review: Militant – Father Figure
I find it funny, and maybe a little annoying, when bands get uptight about genre. To me, it feels like a non-issue that distracts from a discussion of the actual music. When I opened Bandcamp to listen to Father Figure, I noticed that Militant had tagged the album as “not metal.” … read more
Local Review: Alter Ego – Ego
Ego begins with “Hook It,” a heavy, psych bass line flooded with an opulence of funk. The moment the first wah pummeled my eardrums, I was thrashing my brain about and jerking my shoulders so hard that they were sore for two days after. … read more
Local Review: Eyes on Kites – New Lens
Eyes on Kites’ most recent release, New Lens, is able to constructively take aim at a certain nostalgia—not necessarily in sound, but in feeling—and remind us of a more innocent, purer time in our lives. … read more
