If there is a crazy bum in my general area, they’ll usually head straight for me and spark up a conversation. It doesn’t matter if I have a skateboard or not—bums love to talk to me—but the attraction is especially strong with a skateboard. At first, I thought it was something about my personality. I just naturally emitted some scent or aura that drew crazy people to me. Eventually, though, I realized it’s something to do with being a skateboarder. … read more
The line between reality and fiction can get blurry while making a documentary. Having produced and worked on reality-based television series like MTV’s Made and A&E’s The First 48, Damon Russell is no stranger to the drama that occurs when cameras capture real events. When robbery boy and crack dealer Curtis Snow approached Russell to make a movie about his life, he jumped at the chance and spent the next year and a half filming documentary-style footage around Atlanta’s most dangerous neighborhood. … read more
This January, I did something I haven’t done in a long time—I got sober. I know what you must be thinking: This had to have been court ordered, right? No. There was no rock bottom, no moment of clarity, no family intervention and no admitting I was powerless over a liquid. It was just a simple New Year’s resolution to do a bit of self-reflection. Who knows, maybe I would save some money, too? … read more
Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful powder blue converted fixie. One day, the bicycle’s owner got super wasted at a local bar and, too drunk to bike home, decided to hail a cab instead. Left alone, its frame hugging the cold black curve of the bike rack, the bicycle cowered under the shadow of the night sky. … read more
Over 40 years ago, in the mid-’60s, a young artist named Lynn Hershman Leeson borrowed a camera to document the Feminist Art Movement, now dubbed by historians as one of the most significant art movements of the 20th century. Hershman Leeson captured their voices and took their stories straight to the silver screen with her documentary film, !Women Art Revolution, which made its debut at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. … read more
In the world of heavy metal, the music of Earth has become legendary. The deafening style of drone doom pioneered by Dylan Carlson in the early ’90s helped to shape an entire subset of metal. But if one were to blindly listen to Earth’s recent aural offerings, metal would not come to mind. “I’ve always thought of genres as something the audience or the marketers place on you,” says Carlson. “To me it’s always just been rock n’ roll, and that’s enough.” … read more
Salt Lake City has a new Arts Hub. Normally, an “Arts Hub” earns its name over months or years, but if you’re Derek Dyer, Executive Director of the Utah Arts Alliance (UAA), and your programs serve over 50,000 people throughout the year, and you just acquired a 30,000 square foot building, I think you have the right to call it an “Arts Hub.” … read more
The San Francisco-based Zerofriends creative collective has become known for their creepy art, largely inspired by classic horror movies. A friend recently asked Zerofriends artist Alex Pardee where the darkness of his art comes from. “I honestly don’t know—I never know how to answer that question. This is just something that has always been in me,” he says. It turns out that Pardee and Dave Correia just like scary shit. … read more
Xiu Xiu has been a facet of the indie music scene for nearly a decade, and has never ceased to be interesting. With work that ranges from morose and purposefully uncomfortable, to noise pop masterwork, Xiu Xiu continues to build a following. With their newest album, Always, coming out March 6, singer/songwriter Jamie Stewart set aside some time to discuss the album, piracy and water play. … read more
Crossroads Skate Shop & Park opened its doors in Ogden in 2008, providing a new indoor public space for skaters to keep skating during the winter months. Over the past three years, the shop has become a staple of the Ogden skate scene. What many don’t know about the shop is that it is an extension of Crossroads Academy and serves to provide work experience for boys enrolled in the therapeutic boarding school that hosts out-of-state youth for rehabilitation. … read more
Dear Dickheads,
On August 26, RadioActive aired a show asking the question “why are there not more female-fronted rock bands in Utah?” I called in and stuck my foot in my mouth, in a sense. I said that I feel it may have something to do with folks looking up to their favorite bands as idols rather than people just like themselves expressing their ideas through music. … read more
Zoo, twelve cuts of tuneful despondency, finds the band stretching beyond their “razor-to-the-throat” approach, listlessy incoporating strains of surf, post-punk and goth into their acrid blend of melody and bleakness. While the approach can whip Internet hardcore kids into a snotty-nosed, finger-pointing frenzy, guitarist Anthony Anzaldo says it’s just part of the biz. “We don’t go into the songwriting process and say, ‘Hey, let’s not write fast parts.’ It’s really not a conscious thing.” … read more
