By: Kayleigh Drake I’m a simple girl. I like sunsets, long walks and bands with wall-of-sound guitars. So it only makes sense that I’m a Nothing fan.  Nothing, as in the five-piece shoegaze band with a self-professed “un-Googleable name,” based out of Philadelphia, but which features our very own local Birmingham musician, Cam Smith (also of Ladder to God and Cloakroom), on guitar.  They just dropped their fifth studio album, […]

By: Kayleigh Drake  If there’s one thing I love in the vast world of music, it’s shoegaze. Even more so if it’s loud. And that’s exactly why I’m a big fan of Trauma Ray.  Trauma Ray is a five-piece shoegaze band based in Fort Worth, Texas. (Come through, fellow Southerners!) But I wouldn’t say they’re the “ethereal,” UK-in-the-early-90s brand of shoegaze. Rather, they remind me of a cross between Hum […]

By: Kayleigh Drake  Draag is one of those bands that you can’t really pin down to one genre. And that’s what I love about them. Well, that and the fact that every song I’ve ever heard by them is amazing and transcendent and makes me feel like I’m floating through a dreamworld. And their most recent release, a six-song EP called Miracle Drug, is absolutely no exception.  If you’re unfamiliar, […]

By: Jackie Lo The Royal We is a coming-of-age story that drops you headfirst into a life of climbing the Hollywood sign while underage drinking, rummaging through bushes for hookups, starting bands with friends, and coming of age in a San Francisco where punk collided with hippies and HIV and heroin were everywhere. Roddy Bottum, a founding member of Faith No More, Imperial Teen, and Man on Man, looks back […]

  By: Jackie Lo What happens when you fall in love with a boy that has impeccable music taste and your life is filled with music and laughter and love for 24 years and then one day, poof, he’s gone? What happens to the music and to your heart every time a song comes on that makes you think of them? It’s a lump in your throat. It’s the tingling […]

by: Jackie Lo Twenty-five years ago, at a mutual friend's wedding, I was wandering through the venue, looking down and not paying attention, when I walked smack dab into someone's chest - hard. We both stopped, startled by the collision, and immediately launched into a flurry of embarrassed apologies. The 21-year-old version of me couldn't believe it when I looked up and realized I'd just run straight into Evan Dando. I […]

By: Jackie Lo   If you like: Glixen, Land of Talk, Chelsea Wolfe, A Perfect Circle Farmer’s Wife, formerly known as “Sludge”, a “dream grunge band” from Austin, Texas, released their Faint Illusions EP today with 5 new songs of swirly guitars, sludge-y sounds, and whimsical lyrics. Their first EP There’s a Monster released in the fall of 2023 and this sophomore EP is grittier and full of darker fantasies. […]

By: Gareth Jones For fans of Tom Hardy, Gareth Evans, violent action films I have been a fan of Gareth Evans for quite a while, and not just because of his name and nationality, although that is a very valid reason.  I remember watching The Raid when it first came out and being absolutely shaken by the extreme violence, but even more so by the game-changing choreography and editing. I […]

HOLY MONKEY I'M YOUR MAN!

By: Kayleigh Drake I’ve been a Mclusky fan ever since I first heard them on Sirius 26 Left of Center (R.I.P.) way back in high school. For years, their iconic 2002 album “Mclusky Do Dallas” has been one of my go-tos for when I’m craving some Loud Shit™. And in fact, I almost named my Substrate radio show “Collagen Rock” in honor of track three on that very album. (I […]

By: Paul Cordes Wilm Down the Sparrow Hole Holy shit! I just don’t know what to make of the new Deerhoof album I admit, this was my initial reaction to Noble And Godlike In Ruin, Deerhoof’s brilliant brand new record. However, anyone who might be exclaiming the above sentiment may as well be also reacting to any one of Deerhoof’s 21 previous releases! But that’s what’s so incredibly fun about […]

By: Gareth Jones For fans of Jem Cohen, D.I.Y., essay films, underground musicians (Atlanta scene) documentaries I first became familiar with the incredible work of Jem Cohen when I watched the documentary Instrument, a film about the band Fugazi that he made over a ten year period..  Cohen is a prime example of being the right person at the right time as he grew up in the punk scene in […]

In honor of fugazi announcing this week that they would be uploading decades of live shows to streaming services, and since they never actually made “music videos” here is “The Cleveland School of Rock” aka the jazz band rejects with their truly punk as fuck version of Waiting Room. An oldie but a goody! If you want to have a better day then press play.  

By: Kayleigh Drake  After breadcrumbing us with increasingly catchy singles for the past several months, Wishy has at long last released their latest EP, “Planet Popstar.” As the name indicates, this is a step in a poppier direction than their earlier work, but it still retains the infectious hooks and sugar-sweet vocal harmonies that are characteristic to the rest of their repertoire. Wishy is a band that I’ve been HEAVILY […]

By: Kayleigh Drake If there's one central theme running through Sunflower Bean's catalogue, it's that there isn't really a central theme to any particular album. Not in terms of the music, anyway. Ever since the release of 2016’s “Human Ceremony,” each Sunflower Bean record has been an amalgamation of genres, styles and musical influences that range from neo-psychedelia to post-punk to 80s-era glam rock. And honestly, with a vocalist as […]