Last Second Dropout have managed to bottle the fizzing anxiety of the modern age and serve it up with a side of jagged riffs on their explosive track Aspartame. The song hits with the immediate rush of a sugar high and keeps that momentum going until the very last second. It feels like a wake-up […]
A Carbonated Rebellion Against Corporate Gaslighting Read More »
There’s a whole subgenre of inspirational music that runs on the concept of if you think hard enough, the universe will reward you with achievement, bliss and the inevitable epic sunset during the montage sequence. Actual persistence is rarely as cinematically inclined. However, it’s usually waiting; waiting for an email to drop in your inbox,
For an artist who has spent the better part of six years releasing genre-hopping indie projects, Dorian seems surprisingly uninterested in hewing to the contemporary dance-pop blueprint. From a bouncy bassline, pristine synth textures, layered backup vocals, a singalong-ready chorus that seems expressly designed to compel you to the nearest dancefloor-but what distinguishes OOO from
Dorian Manages to Spin Awkwardness Into Pure, Ecstatic Euphoria on OOO Read More »
Jeff Hodges’ I Believe enters the world with a press release full of signifiers. This is an Americana-country ballad with all of the typical modern saints in mind spanning Zach Bryan, Chris Stapleton and Leon Bridges, arriving complete with respectable streaming numbers, a burgeoning live performance series dubbed the N4KED MAN Sessions, and a biography
There’s only so many times you can mention that you really miss the ’90s before people begin to ask if you’ve considered buying a flannel shirt and playing Singles in a loop. Grunge nostalgia is an entire industry now. Half the bands who do it sound like they’re painstakingly replicating a museum exhibit titled ‘Kurt
There are two types of independent artists who record at home: The sort that spends 80% of their energy trying to convince you they’re actually living a millionaire’s lifestyle on the sly. And then there’s the sort that takes their existing lives-family struggles, career anxieties, rising pressure and doubts about the future and says, “That
Hope and Need Provides the Truest Picture Yet of Who Gibbz Is Beneath the Mythology Read More »
Fear is funny. Not “ha ha” funny though, rather the kind where your mind gets so used to being anxious, or in constant mode of being ready for anything, the fear itelf becomes the norm, or rather, comfort. Kind of like the really irritating person who just doesn’t want to leave your place, although they
About seven million rock tunes about broken relationships-that’s not a dig. Humanity has been trying to hurt the ones we love for a good several thousand years and rock just brought it to scale. In truth, the real challenge isn’t finding fresh angles to sound off to about the pain, but making an audience care
Kings County Brings Murkiness Into Unexpectedly Positive Relief on “What Now” Read More »
Let’s be honest, there’s a specific type of musician out there who genuinely sounds like they believe rock and roll has all the answers to the world’s problems. But I don’t mean the huge political, or economic kind of problems. We’re talking about more personal ones. The sort of problems that involve regret, wasted time,
There is something deeply funny and unexpectedly charming about releasing a song called “When I’m With You” in 2026 and managing to make it feel neither ironic nor exhausted. Because let’s be honest: this is one of the oldest titles in the history of songwriting. Entire civilizations have probably written some variation of when I
Nick Pappalardo’s “When I’m With You” Is the Feeling Read More »
