Shannon & the Clams’ new sixth album, Year of the Spider, is a welcome anomaly in this wretched second pandemic summer. The band completed the record in early 2020, just before COVID-19 brought the country and its music industry to a grinding halt, so it’s unmarred by that particular global catastrophe. Instead the album’s 50s- […]
Tag: California
Posted inMusic
Bitchin’ Galactus on the gig posters of the week
This week’s featured gig posters were created by Chicago designer, artist, and screenprinter Josh Davis.
Posted inMusic
Arc Mountain is the underground-label collaboration you’ve been waiting for
Like doesn’t necessarily breed like—just ask all the friends for whom I’ve tried (and failed) to play cupid. But similarity is bliss for underground labels Deathbomb Arc and Hausu Mountain, which collaborated to release the compilation Arc Mountain on May 7. Based respectively in Los Angeles and Chicago, these eclectic, irreverent labels might be separated […]
Posted inMusic
Silent condemn racism and violence with gothic postpunk on Modern Hate
There are probably a dozen memes circulating right now that chart punk subgenres and the philosophical leanings they supposedly embody, and without even finding one, I’m confident saying that goth rock and postpunk would get tagged as the nihilists of the bunch. But that stereotype downplays the social and political histories of these gloomy genres. […]
Posted inMusic
Guitarist Sunny War boils life down to its essence on Simple Syrup
The Nashville-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sunny War is known for her clawhammer fingerstyle guitar playing, vivid autobiographical lyrics, and distinctive sound that starts at the crossroads of blues, country, folk, and punk, and only expands from there. She left home as a teenager to busk on Venice Beach and in San Francisco with friends she […]
Posted inMusic
On her final album, composer Pauline Anna Strom cements her legacy in electronic music
Pauline Anna Strom’s new album, Angel Tears in Sunlight, features the first new work in 30 years from the legendary Bay Area electronic music composer. Strom made her album debut with 1982’s Trans-Millenia Consort, a limited-edition vinyl and cassette release she’d recorded in her San Francisco home. Despite its humble beginnings, the album has become […]
Posted inMusic
Bathe in the cosmic sunshine on the gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was designed by South African artist Simon Berndt in collaboration with Rob Fitzpatrick of Levitation.
Posted inMusic
Cellist-fronted metal trio Grayceon implore humanity to fight for a survivable future
In their nearly 15 years as a band, San Francisco’s Grayceon have reimagined the traditional shapes of metal with challenging song structures, thought-provoking lyrics, and a sound that often feels orchestral despite being largely produced by a trio of cello, guitar, and drums. On their fifth album, Mothers Weavers Vultures, the group make a plea […]
Posted inMusic
Death-metal powerhouse Necrot show they’re as ferocious in the studio as onstage on Mortal
This three-man Oakland death-metal powerhouse formed in 2011 and quickly began releasing appetite-whetting demos and singles, but on their debut full-length, 2017’s Blood Offerings, they proved they had the energy for a sustained assault. Though their new second album, Mortal, treads most of the same boards as its predecessor, the band’s fury feels fresh and […]
Posted inMusic
Gulch leave no heavy-metal stone unturned on Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
Santa Cruz hardcore outfit Gulch cover a lot of ground in the brief 16 minutes of their new Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress. The four-piece leave no punk or metal stone unturned; they cram every possible take on dark, heavy, and mean into the album’s eight tracks, which all grind to a halt just as quickly as […]
Posted inMusic
Cinder Well merges traditional folk styles to transcend place and time on No Summer
Cinder Well is the brainchild of Ireland-based, California-bred singer and multi-instrumentalist Amelia Baker. As part of the Santa Cruz anarchist folk-punk scene, she’s previously played with dusky folk trio the Gembrokers and metal- and Klezmer-influenced collective Blackbird Raum, among others; in 2015 she launched Cinder Well as a solo outlet where she could collaborate with […]
Posted inMusic
Carlos Niño and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson showcase their telepathic collaboration on the hushed Chicago Waves
In 2005, Los Angeles percussionist, DJ, arranger, and producer Carlos Niño began collaborating with fellow Angeleno Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music director. That year, Atwood-Ferguson joined Niño’s expansive soul-jazz collective, Build an Ark, and helped record studio albums by two of Niño’s other projects: With Voices, the final full-length from progressive hip-hop production […]
Posted inMusic
Goons be Gone is the most fleshed-out and lush No Age release yet
No Age have always been great at making very little sound like a whole lot. Since they began blending influences from hardcore punk and noise rock with indie-rock catchiness 15 years ago, the Los Angeles-based duo have been on the cutting edge of cool—they’ve always seemed a step ahead of their peers in the guitar-rock […]
Posted inMusic
Xibalba plunge into new depths of metal and hardcore on Años en Infierno
Named after a Mayan term that roughly translates to “place of fear,” Southern California trio Xibalba have been blending strains of metal and hardcore for nearly 14 years. They’ve increasingly leaned into their Latino heritage (they sing in both Spanish and English) and their death-metal influences, while expanding into new moods and song structures; on […]
Posted inMusic
Kris Esfandiari of King Woman and producer Darcy Baylis combine forces in Sugar High
Kris Esfandiari is no stranger to side projects. Since cofounding doom-metal band King Woman in 2009, she’s released solo material under the names Miserable, Kris, Dalmatian, and Nghtcrwler. Her latest project, Sugar High, is a collaboration with Berlin-based songwriter and producer Darcy Baylis, whose credits include recordings by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Camp Cope […]