Feature: Holy Hell! ‘Insignificance’ is 20 December 3, 2021 What seemed a departure 20 years ago, another dramatic shift in tone and timbre, today seems like a bit of put-on. Or was it?… Continue Reading
Review: Directions – “Echoes” (Anniversary Edition) September 13, 2021 A seemingly incidental sliver of indie music history is being given the special edition re-release treatment by Temporary Residence, and God bless the label… Continue Reading
Review: David Grubbs/Loren Connors – “Arborvitae” June 7, 2021 Experimental guitar master Loren Connors and post-rock godfather David Grubbs recorded Arborvitae, a five-song suite and the duo’s only collaboration in a commercial studio,… Continue Reading
Review: The Underflow – “Instant Opaque Evening” February 18, 2021 The nearly 90-minute journey listeners take on underground super-trio the Underflow’s new live LP, Instant Opaque Evening, is most assuredly a varied and eclectic one…. Continue Reading
Review: Radon Chong – “Honey Worlds” EP January 19, 2021 The best songs by Pittsburgh avant-rock band Radon Chong don’t meander to a close; they kind of prance and trot and stumble along in… Continue Reading
Feature: Rediscover “The For Carnation” December 1, 2020 “Now when I fall to earth, I hear applause/ I love to hear applause,” Brian McMahan sings, suggesting various readings, on “Emp. Man’s Blues,”… Continue Reading
Review: Matmos – “The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form” August 27, 2020 Back in October 1939, storied British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered comments on a BBC radio broadcast, in which he attempted to unwrap the… Continue Reading
Review: Jim O’Rourke – “Shutting Down Here” August 11, 2020 Jim O’Rourke fired off “Cede” 20- or 25-odd years ago as a salvo in the battles within his alien landscape of a musical mind. Shutting… Continue Reading
Review: WiiRMZ – “Faster Cheaper” July 8, 2020 The joyfully bombastic quartet WiiRMZ hail from the same city that defined (and arguably invented) post-rock in the 1990s with bands such as Slint and Rodan…. Continue Reading
Top 50 Records of 2020, So Far (Spectrum Culture) July 8, 2020 David Grubbs & Taku Unami – Comet Meta [Blue Chopsticks] The record begins in unassuming territory, two undistorted electric guitars unfurling jumbled yet glassy,… Continue Reading
