Bumbershoot Festival 2013 Live Show Review: Gary Numan, Baroness, Kendrick Lamar, !!! (Chk Chk Chk) & More
Bumbershoot Festival signifies a lot of things for Seattle, but the main mark of Bumbershoot is that fall is upon us. The annual Labor Day arts festival in downtown Seattle traditionally comes with both good weather and the need for umbrellas, aka a bumbershoot. Bumbershoot’s place in music festivals across the nation includes one big...Read...
STRFKR – While I’m Alive Music Video (w/ Director David Terry Fine Interview)
Los Angeles-via-Portland’s STRFKR are a band people love to hate, but I like to give props where props are due. “While I’m Alive”, from the band’s latest album, Miracle Mile, may be my favorite song of theirs yet. Groovy basslines and sweet echoes of, “I love my life,” are posi-well, but the track’s prime attraction...Read...
FYF Fest 2013 Live Show Review: Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, Charles Bradley, Classixx, More (& Photo Gallery)
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, FYF Fest brought together an impressive group of bands once again, always managing to make it seem like it's a family reunion with its mix of veterans (My Bloody Valentine, Charles Bradley, Roky Erickson, and Flag), newcomers (Lemuria, Fear Of Men, and Poolside) and even that one eccentric, but awesome uncle...
Dawn of Midi – Dysnomia Album Review (w/ Track-By-Track of Astronomical & Mythological Implications)
When the American trio Dawn of Midi released their accomplished 2010 debut album, First, the world had gained another practitioner of minimalist free jazz. Two years in the making, and at a reported cost of thirty thousand dollars, Dysnomia is the follow-up to that promising debut, and builds masterfully on First, delivering an exciting blend...
Saman Kesh Music Video Director Interview & Retrospective (w/ Placebo, Vitalic, !!! and More)
Music video director and writer Saman Kesh is a man with a digitally-enhanced vision. A master of weaving curious theories and tales in with his fast-paced music videos, Kesh uses playfulness and modern technologies as a vehicle for pushing forth interesting ideas. His latest music video for Placebo‘s “Too Many Friends” is an interactive mystery...Read...
Horse the Band, Rolo Tomassi Live Show Review (Berlin, Germany)
After their Earth Tour of 45 countries in 90 days, you might think the members of Horse the Band would loathe each other to the point of disbanding. After such a frenetic pace of travel, the close quarters of their interactions, and the meager financial compensation paid to them, what incentive is there to endure?...Read...
Forest Swords – Engravings Album Review (Tri Angle Records)
Producer Matthew Barnes' first full-length on Tri Angle Records, Engravings, takes airy vocal samples and spaghetti western guitars and stretches them out over an expansive skyline, evoking an aerial view of monochrome industrial landscapes and overcast rocky beaches long abandoned by human investment or presence.
Spectral Hypnosis August 2013: Dustin Wong, Forest Swords, Camp Counselors, Helm, Hands In The Dark Records
Spectral Hypnosis is a recurring series, featuring mesmerizing songs for one to lose sense of time and space, mind and body. This post blurs through the ins-and-outs of electronic psych, with and without vocals, courtesy of Dustin Wong, Camp Counselors, Forest Swords, and Helm. Also featured are another track by Redder and a compilation by...
Aural Devastation August 2013: Russian Circles, Touché Amoré, Modern Life Is War, Dead in the Dirt, Weekend Nachos
AURAL DEVASTATION is a regular column about heavy rock music. This month, Russian Circles teases with a new song from a new album, Dead In the Dirt introduces themselves to the world with a fury, plus new songs from Weekend Nachos, Touché Amoré and Modern Life Is War.
Symbiosis Gathering 2013: Win A Free Ticket to See Polica, Mount Kimbie, Active Child, Lapalux, Adam Freeland, Max Cooper & More
Earlier this summer, we published an exciting article about the wonders of transformational festivals, which offer concertgoers a choose-your-own-adventure experience of music, workshops, yoga, art, and so on. In these lands of endless possibility, Northern California’s Symbiosis Gathering is the one most closely aligned with our musical tastes — and this year, we’re teaming up...Read...