There’s something inherently funny about a band called I Plead Irony spending ten years making an album about contradiction. You could accuse them of taking the joke too far, but then This Monologue Conversation arrives and makes a rather persuasive case for letting them have the last laugh. The third album from Farnborough trio I
Awake & Dreaming come stomping out of the Waterloo night with ‘Cold Shoulder’ sounding like a band ready to tear down the walls of every suffocating office block in North America. The Ontario outfit takes the tense swagger of mid-2000s post-punk revivialists and turns it into a blistering reclamation of personal freedom. What starts as
Waterloo Alt-Rockers Awake & Dreaming Ignite a Riotous Street Dance on ‘Cold Shoulder’ Read More »
There are certain phrases you probably shouldn’t say immediately before making a potentially dangerous decision. “I’ve got a great idea” is one. “Trust me” is another. But perhaps the most relevant is: “What could possibly go wrong?” That’s the question Norwegian alternative rock project Gubbe asks on its new track of the same name, primarily
Gubbe Turns Bad Ideas Into Good Alternative Rock on ‘What Could Possibly Go Wrong’ Read More »
CIRCA 99’s debut album Lost In Space is the kind of record you’d imagine being made by someone in a bedroom studio with way too much free time and not nearly enough self-control over cool sounds once they’re discovered. With over 10 tracks, the album weaves elements of psychedelic pop, electro-funk, synth-heavy production and ambient
CIRCA 99 Blends Psychedelic Pop and Electro Funk on Debut Album LOST IN SPACE Read More »
Being in your twenties is basically an extended software update that never finishes installing. You think you have a plan, then life introduces a new problem, a new person, a new bill, or simply the horrifying realization that everyone else also has no idea what they’re doing. Arii Lopez’s “undecided” understands that having absolutely no
Arii Lopez’s “Undecided” Is About the Significantly More Realistic Alternative Read More »
For decades, whiskey has traditionally been a crutch for country songs in solving their problems. For many reasons, it often has just as many shortcomings as helpful benefits and “Medicine” by Adonys Fallz accepts and acknowledges this premise with a different question: What do you do to make it through the night when life is
”Medicine” Finds Adonys Fallz Blending Country Storytelling With Hip-Hop Swagger Read More »
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Protected: YGB’s The Indictment Finds the Person Behind the Street-Rap Persona Read More »
Romance is a deeply embarrassing activity. You spend years developing emotional defenses, learning boundaries, becoming independent and generally convincing yourself that you are a fully functioning autonomous human being and then somebody smiles at you in the right way and suddenly you’re reconsidering the entire architecture. Shelita’s “Open To You” is about that catastrophic administrative
Shelita’s “Open to You” Makes a Case for Emotional Vulnerability Being Worth the Risk Read More »
The opening clang of Jimi Fiano’s “Hey Joe (Not Your Father’s Hey Joe)” doesn’t so much announce itself as it throws a rusty, amplified gauntlet at your feet, immediately drenching the space in a humid haze of overdriven tube amps and a general sense of impending musical mayhem. This isn’t the kind of track that
When eight Hamburg musicians step into a studio with decades of sweat and stage smoke behind them you expect grit, but Simple Things by 5th Avenue catches you completely off guard with its pure heart and breezy melody. Ever since their legendary appearance at the inaugural Wacken Open Air back in 1990 this northern German powerhouse has
Hamburg Rock Veterans ‘5th Avenue’ Deliver Pure Unfiltered Joy on ‘Simple Things’ Read More »
