Music
Local Review: FORMAL – Self-Titled
FORMAL seems to have ’90s indie punk running through their veins, but that doesn’t stop them from being unpredictable. … read more
Local Review: The Dog – Slow and Sweet
Slow and Sweet is a mix of everything from a little grunge to some bubblegum pop and vocals that sound like a gritty Marc Bolan. … read more
Local Review: Cubworld – Life Is Music
Cubworld (aka Jake Kongaika) brings us a part acoustic, part party-groove album with Life is Music. … read more
Local Review: Creature Double Feature – A Ghost Story
Dreamy, ambient folk is performed throughout this piece. … read more
Local Review: The Circulars – Self-Titled EP
The Circulars’ sound, while comparable to several bands from a bygone era of earnest and dark, jangley pop music, could be properly suited to nearly any time—simply based on the fact that the songs are good, the musicians are talented and there’s no air of pretense to deflate the mood. … read more
Local Review: Brother Chunky – And Stuff
Brother Chunky drives the beat, all bluesy and SRV-ish with his guitar.
… read more
Local Review: B & Company – The World Is Your...
B & Company is Brandon “B” Barker, the bassist for local project Babble Rabbit, who recruited an assortment of skilled musicians and noise-makers (Djembe, megaphone, typewriter) to put together this delightfully funky 11-song album. … read more
Local Review: Anthems – Bridges
Immediately opening with the aggressive “Bridge Burner,” which uses the imagery of a burning bridge to announce secession from a certain corrupt nation, Bridges is a five-song anthem against political hypocrisy and our national apathy. … read more
Local Review: Andrew Goldring – Forgotten Harvest EP
A lot of this album has the casual buzz that was prominent in the early ’90s, though Goldring uses it wisely, favoring more refined production and carefully composed layers instead of the loud, experimental noise you might find in earlier alternative acts (looking at you, Sonic Youth). … read more
Top 5: Pharmakon
Margaret Chardiet crafts industrial noise music under the project name Pharmakon. Over the past few years, she has slowly built a name for herself (and her friends) in an isolated music bunker located in the Far Rockaway, NYC. Chardiet’s work is intended to be experienced live, but for those of us who have not had this opportunity, the Abandon EP is a substitution. … read more
Top 5: my bloody valentine
Twenty years of rumors, side projects and silence after my bloody valentine’s Kevin Shields announced the band’s progress on a follow-up to their shoegaze genesis, Loveless, my bloody valentine self-released m b v along with a deep sigh of relief. Though the band is the brainchild of Irish teenagers in the ’90s, my bloody valentine’s m b v stands out as an organic output incubated into perfection and birthed at just the right moment to head our generation’s reclamation of ’90s attitude and aesthetic. … read more
Top 5: Light/Black
When talking shop over recordings, you sometimes hear of bands “catching lightning in a bottle” with their music. If that analogy rings true, Light/Black didn’t just bottle it, they christened their amps with it. Make no mistake, the way they wrote and structured this album was no accident, nor did they cater to any minor niche group who may not like a certain kind of tone. This is a fucking good, heavy rock album. … read more
