By - Kristi Houk Recommended if you like: Militarie Gun, 2nd Grade, Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles, The db's I love you synth-pop, but damn, if I'm not ready for some good old guitar rock. Like, no song over 3 minutes long. If that long.  As the weather warms up, I gravitate to crunchy licks and shredding solos. There's something beautifully nostalgic about driving down an open road, beneath a sun-bleached sky, […]

By - Jackie Lo If you like: Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, Ty Segall, Birds of Maya, "that 90's goodness" and blistering guitar solos It’s been a long 7 years since Purling Hiss has graced us with an album, but Drag On Girard is completely worth the wait and it’s pure unadulterated fun!  Garnering their name from its heavy use of distortion and white noise, this album is full of beautifully fuzzed […]

By - Kristi Houk Recommended if you Like: DIIV, Washed Out, Chromatics, Phoenix, Slowdive Where were you when you first heard the glorious "Kim & Jessie" a track off 2008's Saturdays=Youth from French musician M83 (aka Anthony Gonzalez)?  I, for one, was relaxing in a kiddie pool one sweltering July afternoon with my good friend, Greg, when he said "You HAVE to hear this." He was right. Those cinematic, new […]

By Kristi Houk Recommended if you like - The Knife. Zola Jesus, Bjork, early Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno "We Don't Come With a Manual," Karin Dreijer aka Fever Ray utters on "Looking for a Ghost" off her latest album (it's been 6 years) Radical Romantics as if she's sucking all of the air out of the room and throwing it back up and I mean that in the best way.   The […]

By Kristi Houk Recommended if you like: Big Thief, Mazzy Star, Nick Drake, Buffy Sainte-Marie March is Women's History Month and what better way to celebrate than championing Black Belt Eagle Scout's latest release, The Land, The Water, The Sky on Saddle Creek. (home to fellow artists like Big Thief, Indigo De Souza, and Spirit of the Beehive.)    The Land, The Water, The Sky finds singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Katherine Paul (she/they) […]

By Kristi Houk Recommended if you like: Tame Impala, The Roots, Daft Punk, De La Soul "Damon won Brit Pop" ~ Andrea Paschal This isn’t an opinion piece about who won the infamous Battle of Brit Pop—Blur vs Oasis in 1995. You can make up your own mind there. However, it is worth mentioning that after listening to the latest Gorillaz record, Cracker Island and refamiliarizing myself about how good […]

By Kristi Houk   Recommended if you like: The Breeders, Rush, Veruca Salt, Bat Fangs Kathleen Hanna is right—Marissa Paternoster IS one of the best guitar players alive. Paternoster is the guitarist and singer of the New Jersey band, Screaming Females, and their 8th release, Desire Pathway on Don Giovanni Records is a tour de force. Chock full of guitar riffs reminiscent of all your favorite classic rock bands like […]

By Jason Hamric After two decades, most bands get bored.  They start to rewrite and rehash everything they’ve ever done and usually not for the better, but that’s NOT Fucked up!  Well it is… but I am not here to be punny.  Somewhere between hardcore and some twisted power pop fever dream is exactly where Fucked Up seems to live.   “What could you do in just one day?”  A […]

By Kristi Houk Recommended if you like: The Who, British Invasion, Dinosaur Jr. You might be thinking—do I really need to hear another Guided by Voices record? And understandably so. Since the band’s return in 2017, La La Land is their 14th release. However, the answer is unequivocally, YES you really need to hear this. Everything you love about GBV is here—melodic, esoteric, moody, clever, and just fucking good rock […]