Sample Tracks @ Sugar Space 04.05

Cortney McGuire and Leah Nelson DelPorto performing a piece entitled my space.

Sugar Space is tucked away on 616 Wilmington Ave. in Sugarhouse, which provides for a sense of stealing away to a small mountain town, and lends her performances an intimate tone. Leah Nelson Del Porto and Cortney McGuire of fivefour kicked off the showcase with their piece, “my space is sometimes yours.” An older piece in their repertoire, “my space is sometimes yours” is honed and polished. The program previewed that the piece was devoid of musical accompaniment, which turned out to be an excellent choice, as the under-the-breath mutterings between Nelson and McGuire proved to be not only entertaining, but underpinned the conceptual content of the piece, which was negotiating space with another person and the shifting boundaries. … read more

Jeff Mangum @ The Depot 04.04

Jeff Magnum playing live music at The Depot.

Neutral Milk Hotel’s story has long ago been folded into the tapestry of indie rock legend—a songwriter with a burning vocabulary makes one beautifully haunting collection of song and memory that’s instantly called perfection, then recluses himself and dissociates from its fame, perhaps crushed with the silly fear of never writing anything one-hundredth as good.  … read more

SpaceGhostPurrp @ Kilby Court 04.05 with Raider Klan, DopeThought

I’m a Purrp fan not for his hip hop roots, but for his connection to a somewhat dissimilar genre—goth. The boundaries between any genres can be overcome in our post-Internet lives—witch house, a basic blend of goth, R&B and hip hop, is paving the way for such genre experimentation. Witchy is an apt description of Purrp’s music. … read more

One Way System with Mass Terror, All Systems Fail, Desolate, Discoid A @ The Salt Haus 04.08

For most of Salt Lake City, Monday night was a cold, wet and somewhat snowy night—one last night (hopefully) for hot cocoa, sweaters and watching that Magic School Bus box set you mom got you in December. Those of us foolishly brave enough to venture out to the Salt Haus got a quite the treat. Hosted by the Pyrate Punx SLC, the bands Discoid A, Desolate, All Systems Fail, Mass Terror and One Way System played quite the show.  … read more

This Momentary Bliss – Soilwork Interview

Snap back to the late ’90s, and Soilwork was bursting on the scene as a band part of the second wave of Swedish melodic death metal. While their debut full-length, Steelbath Suicide, felt more like a thrash record than melodic death metal, Soilwork took everyone’s breathe away with Chainheart Machine with its technical prowess and its new take on what melodic death metal could be. Before their SLC show on April 11, I had the opportunity to talk to the band’s singer, Bjorn “Speed” Strid, about things current, past and the in-between. … read more