The new album ABBV from Dallas, Texas-based quartet Abbreviations features ten songs centered on guitar, but there’s much more going on during these performances. Textual variety is one of the chief strengths distinguishing the songs. Guitar is the musical heart, yes, but the tidy and well-recorded rhythm section provides crucial cornerstones for …
Read More »Single Review: “Take That Back” Kanti Chant
For a long time, it seemed like overdrive just wasn’t a part of popular music anymore. The clean chime of acoustic guitar strings and sterilized electric guitar parts seemed to overtake the airwaves for years in the 2010s, but with a new generation of rockers starting to find their footing …
Read More »Album Review: Parker Longbough “Off Front Street”
Parker Longbough’s Off Front Street is the singer/musician/songwriter’s third release this year. Each occupies distinct musical territory; the first Crackle/Hiss explored electronica while Longbough shrouds its successor 246 Tapes Volume 1 in home technology and a pronounced DIY feel. Off Front Street steers his songwriting in yet another direction The eight songs included on this album have a …
Read More »Single Review: Ethan Gold “Pretty Girls”
Rather than stepping up to the microphone and belting out some verses in front of a straightforward backdrop as the indie rock standard would call for in 2021, Ethan Gold is creating something far more visually stimulating and artistically provocative in his new music video for the song “Pretty Girls.” …
Read More »Single Review: KSENIA “Girl From The Forest”
KSENIA isn’t your cityscape Insta girl looking for a casual night against the cosmopolitan lights of L.A. in her new music video, as the title “Girl from the Forest” would indicate. Whether in the music video or in the studio itself, she’s looking to get down and dirty with the …
Read More »Snotty Nose Rez Kids Drop New Album ‘Life After’
After a year with no gatherings or live music, Snotty Nose Rez Kids decided to channel their collective and personal hardships from 2020 into a captivating new album titled Life After, out today via Distorted Muse. Like many, the Vancouver-based hip-hop duo was on the climb in 2019 before the pandemic shut …
Read More »Single Review: “Together” AV Super Sunshine
If you follow AV Super Sunshine, you know that zany visuals are kind of a trademark in his music videos. From neo-psychedelic dabbling to Lego-stylized visualizers, conventionality is never in play when this man is conceptualizing for a counterpart to a new single, and it’s in this sense that his …
Read More »Single Review: “Billie Jeane” Rapper Tae Wall
Rapper Tae Wall’s first two LPs have been blowing up the underground in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and in his latest single “Billie Jeane,” he’s reminding longtime listeners that complacency is the last thing his evolution is going to produce. He comes into the verses here exceptionally hot, but make …
Read More »Single Review: Chris Beer “Nothing Like”
Rain in the park, hands molding clay, a pristine beach bathed in sunlight; these are both scenes from our everyday world and strangely cerebral images comprising the new music video for Chris Beer’s “Nothing Like,” and although they offer nothing controversial, they tug at our emotional fabric largely thanks to …
Read More »Single Review: Mischa “G2G”
When you’re on stage, it can feel like you’re in the ring, delivering one blow after another in an effort to express a desire to simply stay alive. When the passion is this raw, this real, the audience doesn’t have a hard time picking up on it, and thus, the …
Read More »Single Review: HeIsTheArtist “Sumthin’ Sumthin'”
The latest single from HeIsTheArtist, “Sumthin’ Sumthin’” has been released to much anticipation and recognition. A follow-up single to his widely popular I Know What You Did Last Summer EP, “Sumthin’ Sumthin’” is a diversion from the typical subject matter HeIsTheArtist typically produces. A tender love song with a theme …
Read More »Single Review: Cool Set “Summer Retro”
Rather than giving us the hook-driven, melody-centric pop anthem they’re clearly capable of producing without any external influences, Cool Set is taking a less predictable route to our hearts this autumn with a rookie release in “Summer Retro” more than worthy of a closer listen. Aside from the lyrical luster …
Read More »