Issues: Issue 241 - January 2009
Local Reviews: Adam and Darcie
Adam and Darcie Sanders are a serenading couple from Provo. In their beautifully simple (but not without accoutrement) Valley CD, the indie acoustic duo’s voices melt over one another in smooth layers superimposed upon acoustic guitars and banjos. … read more
Local Reviews: Chelsea Grin
Chelsea Grin, like most of their deathcore contemporaries, employ super low guitar tunings, plenty of breakdowns and brutal lyrics that put Hostel or Saw to shame. The handful of tracks on their self-titled EP display walls of chunky guitars that, while slightly monotonous with heaving dissonance, sound pristine. … read more
Local Reviews: Codi Jordan
Codi Jordan knows how to drop some flow. On Vacation, he lets it all loose with his amazing lyrical abilities. It’s fascinating how a kid from Eden, Utah can have such a rich, amazing perspective on life and such a fantastic interpretation of rap reggae. … read more
Local Reviews: Gorlock
Gorlock’s debut EP consists of six songs and unfortunately only lasts 16 and a half minutes. Luckily, those minutes seem like hours. This is a trip into a psychotic wonderland of demons and pure abstruseness. There are elements of basically every extreme metal sub-genre within, but the end result could only be defined as experimental. … read more
Local Reviews: Lexi Sayok
This music is engineered to hit right on the money for all people born in the 90s. The fact that the songs longer than three minutes were shoved to the end of the album makes me think that the average Lexi Sayok fan has a gnat’s attention span (what’s new with music written for those under 21 these days though?). … read more
Local Reviews: Mana Poly All-Stars
Mana Poly All-Stars are some cool, smooth cats. I can’t believe how pimp this reggae is. If I smoked tweeds, I would totally want to roll a big ol’ thang and chill out to the calming relaxed vibes of these eight fine musicians. … read more
Local Reviews: The Naked Eyes
There’s something undeniably cool and timeless about blues-influenced rock and roll. As long as whiskey, cigarettes and broken hearts are en vogue, bands like The Naked Eyes will be around to provide the soundtrack to perfectly hazy nights. … read more
Local Reviews: Nathan Spenser
Nathan Spenser has put together a nice little collection of folk/rock songs, and for the majority, it’s an acoustic album. While most albums like this tend to reek of the “it’s been done before and done better” curse, Spenser seems to understand he’s not here to reinvent the genre. … read more
Local Reviews: Nine Worlds
Nine Worlds takes the pace of super slow doom/ambient metal and speed it up just enough too keep you connected. I get undeniably impatient with 12-minute-plus songs that fade into nowhere, but here I found a satisfying four-song EP with all tracks in perfect timing. … read more
Local Reviews: ODS
The appealing aspects of that band ODS didn’t like the vaguely negative review I wrote about their EP a few months ago, so I’ll be a lot more blunt about this one: it sucks. Well, that might not be an entirely accurate reflection of my feelings. I sure as hell don’t like this album, but I also don’t hate it. In fact, it stirs no emotional response in me whatsoever. … read more