Music
The Melvins, Honky 08.13 @ Club Sound
The Melvins are on tour to celebrate 30 years of avant-garde metal, countless member changes and an extensive discography that branches out into amazingly diverse side projects, including those with Mike Patton and Jelo Biafra. The original 1983 lineup reunited for Tres Cabrones, scheduled for release in November, hopefully to resurrect some amazing OG evil sounds. I missed their tour last year as Melvins Lite for their 2012 release Freak Puke, so I was super stoked to see them again after almost three years. … read more
An Interview with Doyle
Since 1980, the hulking monsterman Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein has been leaving his giant, bloody footprints in the dirty landscape of punk and horror-inspired rock. His band recently rechristened themselves (previously Gorgeous Frankenstein) as Doyle after their monstrous ringleader and released their first album under the name, Abominator, in July. Doyle is also currently on tour with former Misfits bandmate Danzig, performing a set of Misfits classics at each stop of the Danzig 25th anniversary tour. SLUG had the opportunity to speak with Doyle about the new album and the tour. … read more
Whirr: Loudest Band in the World
Whirr is the loudest band in the world. Or, at least, they aspire to be. “We want to be the loudest band in the world,” singer and guitarist Nick Bassett says. “Mogwai, Swans, My Bloody Valentine, Manowar––that’s kindergarten. We blow them out of the water.” … read more
Kurt Vile & the Violators @ Urban Lounge 08.13 with...
The great cut from Smoke Ring quickly got the crowd tuned back in, as they began to move and nod their heads to the beat. The next tune “Wakin On A Pretty Day,” the longest and one of the best from the new record, set up what was to follow the rest of the night—pure fucking bliss. … read more
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, Hillbilly Herald, Zengrez
If you grow up playing guitar as I did, Guns N’ Roses, and thus Slash, are essential reference points for your musical cultural education. What’s more was that my dad came of age during the height of butt rock, so driving in his Jimmy, I became well acquainted with Appetite for Destruction and GNR’s covers, like “Nice Boys,” which would shape my sense of guitar listening. With that sense of rock tradition, I was stoked to share this experience with my dad. Needless to say, I was MEGA STOKED to see Slash’s stylings on the axe. … read more
My Ticket Home with Sights Sounds, I Am King, Night...
For SLUG’s end-of-the-year wrap-up last year, I chose My Ticket Home’s To Create A Cure as one of my Top 5 albums, and I’ve been watching the news for a while, waiting for my chance to hear them live. There’s just something about them that I loved right away, especially after watching the video for “New Breed.” Plenty of bands do the heavy-and-light mix, but I thought there was a genuine passion in their take, an earnestness that stood out to me. Touring to promote their new album, Strangers Only, they finally announced a Salt Lake show in the second half, bringing along Night Verses and I Am King to round out the bill. … read more
Wavves with Koala Temple
Wavves sound meaner live than on record, more taut, as if they’re being jerked around by strings suspended from the rafters. Audience members lap it up. There’s a vibe here. My girlfriend calls it “snotty indifference” but I’m not so sure. They’re with it—they’re bashing it out hard. It seems genuine. They’re saying to us, “You fuckheads really wanna know what happened to Milo Aukerman? He didn’t go to college! He moved to Tijuana and started huffing a bunch of copier toner! Then he killed his girlfriend and buried her in the desert! BWAHHHH.” … read more
Reviews: Judicator – Sleepy Plessow
Everything on this album seems to be just a step away from something really special. In a sense, it seems like it was only partially finished, hampered by flat production and a rote, repetitive take on typical power metal riffs. … read more
RUSH @ USANA 07.31
Nearly 20,000 faithful devotees put their lives on hold Wednesday night to gather together in a very large venue to sing praises to three men whom many hold in near diety status: the RUSH concert at USANA Amphitheater. … read more
Gogol Bordello, VIZA @ In the Venue 08.05
The lights went out and the stage was flooded with blue light. Then, I saw the silhouetted figure of Eugene Hütz, followed by the rest of Gogol Bordello, walk out on the stage and take their places. Hütz started singing into the mic and with compliance from the audience and the rest of the band, Gogol lit up the stage with “Wanderlust King.” From then on, the madness continued throughout. … read more
Soft Metals @ Kilby Court 07.31 with Beachmen, Kyle Luntz
Portland’s electronic pop duo Soft Metals, after a recent move to L.A., have just released their second full-length album, Lenses, on Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks imprint and have embarked on a massive American tour to support it. They played a short but entrancing set last Wednesday at Kilby Court. … read more
Spitting Iconic Fire
“We have so many good nights out with our friends, we write about when we have so much fun that we never want the night to end. You love your friends and you kind of just want them to feel what you feel,” Caroline Hjelt says of the inspiration behind the killer, upbeat dance tracks that the Swedish pop duo Icona Pop has been producing over the last few years. … read more
