Music
Pac Div with Snoop Dogg @ The Depot 12.21
Watching Pac Div on stage reminded me why I love hip hop: They absolutely impressed the shit out of me and they were only 20 minutes into their set! Fun antics, probing lyrics, hyper energy and a beat you can twerk to—these are a few of my favorite things and Pac Div gave it to me, plus tenfold. … read more
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance company presents Three @ The Rose Wagner...
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company continued its countdown to the departure of Artistic Director Charlotte-Boye-Christensen, by presenting Three, which took the form of a retrospect of Boye-Christensen’s work, featuring pieces dating back as far as 1995 or as recently as earlier this season. The show gave a broad overview of the choreographer’s work, displaying not only her exploration of technologies and media, but also an unusually broad expressive range. … read more
Brentano Quartet @ Libby Gardner Hall 12.04
The evening turned out to be one of my favorite so far of the season, performing selections from Purcell’s Fantasia, and two-string quartet works by Beethoven. The performers took me on a whirlwind of an adventure that brought to mind imagery of exploring forests and climbing mountains, with a full range of emotions visited throughout, dancing between the depths of Hell and the Pearly Gates of Heaven. … read more
Joshua James @ Velour 11.29
Velour has been bustling this year after being named Utah’s best music venue in 2012 by Salt Lake Magazine. It has been hosting up-and-coming acts from around Utah and continued its tradition of being a launch pad for bands to move on to the bigger and better (think Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, Fictionists). Of all its successes this year, Joshua James’ triumphant CD release show(s) should be counted as one of the brightest. … read more
ROAD WARRIORS: Meet The Muscle Behind the Vans Warped Tour
FuseTV premieres their new, unscripted series, Warped Roadies, which follows pit reporters, stage managers, and the primary set-up crew responsible for keeping Warped Tour running without a hitch. Check out our interview with the Salt Lake based crew. … read more
National Music Reviews – December 2012
Reviews of new music from Dragonette, E.D. Sedgwick, Hostage Calm, Incantation, Indian Handcrafts, Night Moves, Sleep Maps, and many more are featured … read more
Top 5 Movies of 2012
Another year down and another Top 5 List for the film aficionados! Since we only have a small amount of time left before the volcanoes start erupting across the planet, here’s the list of 2012’s best and worst movie offerings … thus far! … read more
Turn Off the TV, Turn On the GV!
Welcome to GigViz, the live-streaming “virtual venue,” bringing the show to your screen in real time! There is no better birthplace than SLC, home to a thriving music and art scene. Sean Cochrane, the founder of GigViz, began formulating the project a little under a year ago. It was an invitation from a friend in Santa Monica to see a live show that ignited this mission. … read more
Top 5: White Lung
Where much new punk music is conflated with hardcore, stoner metal, indie, folk or pop-punk, White Lung have managed to pick up where mid-aughts bands left off, to push a straight-up punk sound into a different realm without interlacing their tunes with conventions from other genres on their sophomore release, Sorry. … read more
Top 5: Purity Ring
Shrines is a beautiful contradiction of icy, synthetic start-and-stops created by Corin Roddick, and the sugar-dipped ghost vocals of Megan James dissecting through the cold mass of chimes with awkward, gut-wrenching lyrics. Though the choppy hip hop beats, dubstep wobbles and breathy witch house elements initially draw the listener in with exterior superficiality, a few more close listens reveal a poetic push-and-pull between the instrumentals and songwriting that beg for deconstruction. … read more
Top 5: Japandroids
Celebration Rock is the musical equivalent of getting shitfaced with your friends and talking about past successes or ex-girlfriends, ending the night with drunken optimism about the future. Somewhere between post-rock and pop-punk, they are never trying too hard to be cool—it all seems genuine. … read more
Top 5: Evoken
“I will diminish those centuries and persecute those with quiet desperation,” bleeds a grumbled death roar from the title track off Evoken’s fifth album. Not only do the gloomy lyrics set the tone of the album with the starting song, but the music does as well. Atra Mors’ biggest success as an album is its gutsy equality of atmospheric, obliterating doom and brain-stem-carving memorability. … read more
