In rural Utah, where I grew up, winter meant a nearly three month skating hiatus. There were no parking garages or indoor ramps to skate. We would just hope the church parking lot dried up enough to pull out our flat bars and boxes, and we’d skate the snow gaps. Shoveling a spot to skate in sub-freezing weather shows dedication, and Bolts of Thunder founder Jon Hart is one of the most dedicated people I know. … read more
My dearest SLUG readers, I fear this could be my last column, as I am writing from my deathbed. I feel like I’m dying from slowly being poisoned by our past two months of The Inversion. March has finally arrived and with it comes a cleaner, clearer city, but the pollution still lingers in my body––I can feel it! I don’t know about you, but I seem to always forget about it during the 10-month period we’re Inversion-free. I have no doubt the effects linger long after. … read more
There are certain holidays that are pretty much catered to the boozing and bar industry. But there’s one designated drinking day that seems to suck the stupid out of people more than all of them: St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe it’s because I fancy a drink a tad bit more than the average American male, but I don’t need a holiday to tell me to drink. I probably got more hammered on Flag Day than I did on all of these “holidays” combined, and I don’t even know when Flag Day is. … read more
Every winter, but especially after a particularly wet one like this year, I promise myself it’ll be my last in Salt Lake. I really love this city––I just can’t handle pedaling or driving through all this extremity-numbing precipitation. What inevitably keeps me here is the fact that I can navigate my way around this godforsaken desert without Siri holding my hand. A city doesn’t become home until you can confidently give a stranger accurate directions to the nearest, local strip club. … read more
It’s not hard to find good art in Utah. Here are two of my picks of Utah’s art offerings. … read more
This split single is a fantastic introduction to two of Salt Lake’s finest bands, and the songs they’ve chosen have a great emotional contrast. Sure Sign of the Nail opens with “Flora and Fauna,” a slow, ambient, tranquil trip with a thick bass line, overlaid with beautiful humming guitar and deep vocals that remind me of some primitive, Gregorian chant, rattling the deep parts of your chest with its dark beauty. … read more
Ben Best & Karl Jørgensen are a local experimental duo with an appreciation for analog recording techniques, having recently released a nicely packaged cassette of their self-titled album. This volume of music contains a sonically warm series of untitled audio explorations that are almost aquatic in tone. … read more
Utah hip hop just keeps getting better. I mean it. I know many of these kids have been around for a minute, but they’re hitting their strides. Utah. Jazz. is just that—full of dusky, distant piano samples over bass-heavy boom bap. … read more
A Lily Gray has released a solid and highly enjoyable EP with The Fall. The album is ethereal and emotive, a bit more complex than most standard rock, but not quite stepping into any “progressive” territory, and has a strong foundation in the complementary sound of the music with singer David Lynn’s unique and far-reaching, clean vocals. … read more
Side A, Mooninite’s side, treads lightly in familiar ambient territory, owing much to the sampled instrumentation of Boards of Canada and the swirling arpeggios fancied by fellow compatriot OK Ikumi. The beats are slightly off, staggering with a seasick lurch. RS2090’s side is all absurdist rhythm patterns, pitch-shifted lecture notes, squiggly synths, bottom-scraping low-end and an angular, almost geometric approach to composition. … read more
This three-song EP is packed with delightful bounciness. Urgent piano riffs and a really rich female vocal execution stand out on the first track. Even the second song, which is more of a ballad, continues with a great rhythm. … read more
Porco Rosso is the chillwave project of Park City’s Davis Johnson, and the One Day As A Lion EP is on Bandcamp for a name-your-price deal. There is no other information about him online, but that’s fine, because the music is capable of speaking for itself. … read more
