After some awkward attempts to navigate the otherwise barren streets surrounding the venue, my friend and I got there at 8 thinking we would arrive well into the hefty five-band lineup. As far as we could tell, they hadn’t even done a sound-check yet. Amps and instruments...
Reviews
Album Review: Primitive and Deadly – EARTH
[LISTEN] [Label: Southern Lord] [Date Released: September 2, 2014] [Genre: Experimental / Doom Metal / Drone]
Tones bright as bells ringing in a hazy distance comfort as the path winds down from the mountain into the valley dark below. Sonic glory.
On...
Album Review: Les Sins – Michael
[LISTEN] [Label: Company Records] [Date Released: November 4, 2014]
[Genre: Electronic / Dance]
This month marks the release of Chaz Bundick’s first full-length album under the title Les Sins. Although he has been quietly releasing music under this name for the past four years, this is the first...
Show Review: Mac Demarco @ Rio Theatre 11/14/14
First of all, I’ve always liked Mac Demarco’s song writing from the first time I heard his sophomore album “2.” There’s a sort of sentimental quality to his songs that is at once nostalgic for the times when music was purely about emotion rather than stoic or...
Album Review: Pom Pom – Ariel Pink
[LISTEN] [Label:4 AD] [Date Released: November 17, 2014]
[Genre: Lo-Fi, Indie Pop,Synth Pop ]
Every realm of music can call to mind a certain oddball character—a court jester or sound clown that helps round out the soundscape by mixing in a healthy dose of eccentricity and irreverence...
Show Review: Twin Steps, Genuis, & Pregnant @ Third Space 11/5/14
Third Space Art Collective was the venue, a cozy, unassuming warehouse shortly off campus. Inside a traffic cone chandelier hung from the rafters splashing the stage with an orange hue, and Christmas lights were vibrantly tangled along the stage floor. How’s that sound? Daniel Trudeau of Sacramento-based...
Album Review: For the People – Various Artists
[LISTEN] [Label: Jakarta Records] [Date Released: October 16, 2014] [Genre: Hip-Hop]
European producer Brenk Sinatra found a unique and altruistic way to pursue his musical ambitions as the head of his newly released project, For the People. The digital album is composed...
Album Review: Run the Jewels 2 – Run the Jewels
[LISTEN] [Label: Mass Appeal Records] [Release Date: October 24, 2014] [Genre:Hardcore Hip Hop]
Only one year removed from the original release of Run the Jewels, the duo of El-P and Killer Mike has since been picked up by Mass Appeal with heavy tour backing and amassed the...
Album Review: VI: Flora – Botanist
[LISTEN] [Label: The Flenser] [Release Date: August 11, 2014] [Genre: Green Metal]
Representing a different sort of black metal from their elitist Norwegian forerunners, San Francisco's group Botanist conveys a message that is inherently not destructive but productive or even regenerative, making it more akin to "post-black metal" one...