Are we hearing what La Luz did on News of the Universe, or is the band — which has parted ways with five members over the course of the same number of records — pulling a forced perspective trick here? We’re pretty sure it’s the latter. Read my review of La Luz’s Extra! Extra! EP on Treble.
SPRINTS vocalist/guitarist Karla Chubb discusses the Dublin garage-punks’ new lineup, shares advice for dealing with bigots, recounts a chance encounter with Greta Thunberg and more. Read my FLOOD interview with Chubb.
As more than 8,000 families in Idaho have kids with special healthcare needs, the nonprofit organization Clemy’s Crew is rallying the citizens of the state to provide much-needed assistance by staging a benefit concert at Treefort Music Hall on Saturday.
Dubbed the “Concert for Compassion,” the inaugural event will support families of Idaho pediatric patients going through medical crises. It will run from 5 to 9 p.m. and feature performances by local bands, a silent auction, raffle prizes, pizza and a full bar.
Clemy’s Crew has helped more than 30 families of pediatric patients during medical crises in its first year. President and founder [editor’s note: and all-around great guy] Scott Thompson recently told us that Clemy’s Crew aims to help far more families next year – but will need substantial community support to accomplish that goal.
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It’s hard to pin down exactly when the hippie term “far out” went the way of the Dodo bird, but chances are if you say the phrase to someone under age 30, they won’t know what the hell you’re talking about. If they bother to ask what it means, you can try explaining that it was an LSD-inspired term suggesting that one’s mind was being blown. Or you read this excerpt from a new Saintseneca album that came out on Halloween — because it encapsulates not only the gist of the phrase but the ridiculous and unserious culture that crouched and enabled the term “far out” to last well beyond its shelf life.
‘’The band’s first album in more than seven years launches the listener onto a ten-song landscape orbited by two sonic ‘moons,’ Viridian Moon (tracks 11-16) and Cinnamon Moon (tracks 17-21), named for the colors bandleader Zac Little experienced through synesthesia while writing. … In a world orbited by two moons, lunar phases dance in tandem, tugging at the tides. Beneath these amulets of light lies the landscape in which Saintseneca’s new album Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs came to be.”
Ya dig?
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And the winner for this year’s most difficult-to-pronounce band name and album title belongs to … 夢遊病者 and their album РЛБ30011922. The production is raw, the experimentation unlimited and the sound just about as atonal as music can get. But sing-songy guitar passages and merciful breaks allow the listener to catch their breath and, like a good workout, push through what is ultimately a very rewarding listen that will make music fans who thrive on challenging themselves all the stronger for it. Read my full review at Treble.
What makes Strange Passage from Somerville, Massachusetts, strange in the raddest of ways is that their take on psych-rock is tight and precise, and their songs are well considered from melody and flow to texture and tone. Read my full Treble review here.
It doesn’t take an economic genius to know that Donald Trump’s deranged obsession with tariffs – a fixed charge on an imported good that citizens of the country importing the good ultimately bear the cost of paying – is wreaking havoc on America’s economy. Not to mention the economies of many other countries across the world.
The policy is so plainly dumb and illegal – it’s the U.S. Congress that authorizes tariffs, not the executive branch – that it appears likely even the U.S. Supreme Court, which has failed to rein in Trump to the severe, perhaps irreversible detriment to our country – is going to strike down Trump’s unilateral move, which appears to be the only be the only kind he can make due to, you know, that whole separation of powers thing. (Hence the reason why this post is part of our On Tyranny series.)
Anyway, one of The Bad Penny‘s favorite record labels – Mumbai, India-based underground extreme metal specialists Transcending Obscurity – declared Monday that they’re executing a workaround to Trump’s moronic policy.
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The Bad Penny (beta) 