slugmag.com 1 2 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 3 SaltLakeUnderGround • Vol. 24 • Issue #300 • December 2013 • slugmag.com

@SLUGMag SLUGMagazine

Publisher: Eighteen Percent Gray Jake Vivori, Billy Ditzig, Tim Kronenberg Editor: Angela H. Brown Marketing Manager: Managing Editor: Esther Meroño Karamea Puriri Editorial Assistant: Alexander Ortega Marketing Team: Ischa B., Sabrina Costello, Office Coordinator:Gavin Sheehan Kristina Sandi, Brooklyn Ottens, Angella Digital Content Coordinator: Cody Kirkland Lucisano, Nicole Roccanova, Raffi Shahinian, Copy Editing Team: Esther Meroño, Alexan- Victoria Loveless, Zac Freeman, Cassie Ander- der Ortega, Mary E. Duncan, Cody Kirkland, son, Cassie Loveless, Shley Kinser, Matt Brunk, Johnathan Ford, Alex Cragun, Rachel Miller, Ka- Robin Sessions, Carl Acheson, Chandler Hunt, tie Bald, Liz Phillips, Allison Shephard, Laikwan Anna Johnson, Kate Clark, Rachel Roller, Janie Waigwa-Stone, Shawn Soward, Traci Grant, Jeff Greenberg, Matt Brunk, Megan Kennedy Dixon, Maria Valenzuela, Angela Sunny Oliver, Social Media Coordinator: Catie Weimer Julia Sachs Distribution Manager: Eric Granato Fact Checker: Katie Bald Distro: Eric Granato, Tommy Dolph, Tony Cover Artist: Isaac Hastings Bassett, Nancy Burkhart, Adam Okeefe, Ryan Lead Designer: Joshua Joye Worwood, John Ford, Matt Pothier, Phil Cannon, Design Team: Eleanor Scholz, Lenny Riccardi, Tim Kronenberg, Justin Nelson-Carruth, Xkot Chad Pinckney, Mason Rodrickc Toxsik, Nancy Perkins, Nate Abbott Ad Designers: Kent Farrington, Sumerset Senior Staff Writers: Mariah Mann-Mellus, Bivens, Christian Broadbent, Kelli Tompkins, Brad James Orme, Bryer Wharton, Peter Fryer, James Barker, Paden Bischoff, Maggie Zukowski, Thy Bennett, Esther Meroño, Rebecca Vernon, Mike Doan, KJ Jackett, Nicholas Dowd, Nick Ketterer, Brown, Jimmy Martin, Ben Trentelman, Princess Devin Wakefield Kennedy, Sean Zimmerman-Wall, Cody Hudson, Website Developer: Kate Colgan Shawn Mayer, Dean O. Hillis, Alexander Office Interns: Carl Acheson, Robin Sessions Ortega, Gavin Sheehan, Megan Kennedy, John Ilustrators: Ryan Perkins, Phil Cannon, Benji Ford, Cody Kirkland, Ryan Hall, Ischa B., Ricky Pierson, Maggie Zukowski, Sean Hennefer, Vigil, Dylan Chadwick, Thomas Winkley, Henry Robin Banks, Timm Paxton, Dylan Chadwick, Glasheen, Lauren Slaughter Eleanor Scholz, Jared Smith, Steve Thueson, Monkeys with Computers: Brian Kubarycz, Paul Frame, D. Bradford Gambles, Selma Ortiz, Some Cop Dude, Nate Housley, Mame Wallace, Natalie Edwards, Manuel Aguilar Kia McGinnis, Timo H., Alex Cragun, Kendal Photographers: Katie Panzer, Dave Brewer, Gillett, Alex Springer, Brinley Froelich, Justin Gal- Barrett Doran, Jesse Anderson, John Barkiple, legos, Scott Farley, Steve Richardson, LeAundra Chad Kirkland, Melissa Cohn, Megan Kennedy, Jeffs, Steve Goemaat, Christian Schultz, Matt Michael Schwartz, Weston Colton, Jake Vivori, Brunk, Trevor Hale, Jordan Deveraux, Rebecca Andy Wright, Gilbert Garcia, Paul Duane, Talyn Frost, Mike Riedel, Tim Kronenberg, Amanda Sherer, Robin Sessions, Ceza Dzawala, Ben Rock, Randy Dankievitch, Michael Sanchez, Melini, Martín Rivero, Logan Sorenson, Austin Adam Fratto, Julia Sachs, Jamie Stott, CJ Boyd, Helen Leeson, Jocelyn Bowman, Gilbert Morgan, Allison Shephard, Blake Leszczynski, Cisneros, Russel Daniels Ashlee Mason, Eric Norris, Nick Kuzmack, Videographers: Slugger, Brian Baade, Brock Nancy Perkins, Samuel Hanson, Karamea Puriri, Grossl, Candida Duran, Matthew Pothier, Per- Katie Bald, Kamryn Feigel, Rheanna Sonnichsen, rylayne Deker-Tate, Andrew Schummer, Mitchell Ben Tilton, Amanda Nurre, Darcy Russell, Richmond, Lexie Floor Taylor Hale, Lizz Corrigan, Stakerized!, Seeth Community Development Executives McGavien, Billy Ditzig, Carl Acheson, Ashley SLUG HQ 801.487.9221 [email protected] Lippert, Arnold Hsu John Ford: SLUG Magazine’s Official Podcast: [email protected] Soundwaves From The Underground Nate Abbott: Host: Dan Nailen [email protected] Producer: Gavin Sheehan Tim Kronenberg: Executive Producer: Angela H. Brown [email protected] Associate Producers: Esther Meroño, Action Sports Sponsorship Sales: Alexander Ortega, Dan Nailen About the Cover: Salt Lake artist Isaac Hastings expended a heap of creative energy to make the cover for SLUG’s 300th issue as memorable as our history. Find out more about the symbolism behind his illustra- tion, and the artist himself on pg. 23, and check out more of his work at ihsquared.com. DISCLAIMER: SLUG Magazine does not necessarily maintain the same opinions as those found in our articles, interviews or advertisements. If you are easily offended, please do not blame us. We are a carrier for the voice of the people, and it is not our fault if you don’t like people. Content is property of SLUG Magazine. Please do not use without permission, or we will hunt you down and make you pay for your sins. Now that’s a promise. Contributor Limelight: Sumerset Bivens – Ad Designer Sumerset Bivens started her adventure with SLUG in October of 2007, designing an ad for Slowtrain (RIP). Six years later, she continues to turn out ads and posters for the magazine that are almost as fly as she is with her clever take on design. When she isn’t designing ads for SLUG, you can find her at the geology library at the University of Utah. She’s the head librarian up there and helps keep those old geologist dudes and their maps organized. Sumerset is also a skilled costume maker extraordinaire. Her inventive creations can be seen at parties around SLC and exclusively at Burning Man. Sumerset and her mister, Jesse Ellis, are Louisiana natives, and just so happen to have one of the most adorable little people ever, named Emery June Ellis. He is one of few babies who has the ability to melt our cold, black hearts. We consider ourselves lucky to have Sumerset as part of the SLUG family, and look forward to continuing our work with her. Cheers to six years! 4 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 5 Dear Dickheads, killing him. Oh, btw, do you know Is there a reason why your if he’s single, by chance? magazine is concealing how –Skinny Marie fucking nice Mike Brown is in real life? Do you wave free Utah Dear Skinny Marie, Jazz tickets (or beer…probably 801.322.5571 beer) in front of his maw and say, XOXO, SLUG “Now, now, Mike. You can have these, but you’re going to have Dear Dickheads, to continue your schtick of acting What the fuck is up with like a goddamn self-obsessed your November cover? Is lunatic in public. No deal unless it some sort of minimalist, you Instagram about your sordid retro--art pop commentary lifestyle as @fagatron so err’body on the commercialism of the gets the PICTURE.” What gives? holidays? Are you protesting I’ve seen this guy carefully pick the bombardment of mindless eye sleepies out of his cat Jetpack’s advertising in our capitalist eyes. I’ve seen him cordially offer society? Is it a subliminal ad rides to too-drunk 20-somethings for ... Well, what is it? Paté? who needed a lift. I’ve witnessed Frozen juice? Coagulated blood? firsthand him being one of the Gelatin? Oh! Are you poking fun most considerate neighbors in his at the predominant local religion apartment building. For chrissakes, and their affection for jiggly even when he’s hammered beyond dessert? ‘Cause if that’s the case, what Russians would regard as you got the color wrong ... I’m the ‘mortal limit’, he talks like a digging the can shape, of course, fourteen year-old that just really but it’s no Campbell’s tomato likes porn. Is SLUG so callous and soup, if you know what I mean. concerned with street cred, that Love, they’re forcing poor ol’ Brown to Andy Warhol project himself as something he’s not? Maybe you phonies should Andy, reevaluate your moral ethos, and We knew you weren’t have the dude write more about ready for this jelly. how transfixed he is by the flowers that grow in his back parking lot. XOXO, SLUG Propagating this type of inflated ego is probably killing him. You’re FAX, SNAIL MAIL OR EMAIL US YOUR LETTERS!

Fax: 801.487.1359 • Mailing Address: Dear Dickheads c/o SLUG Mag 351 Pierpont Ave. Ste. 4B SLC, UT 84101 or [email protected]

6 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 7 8 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 9 (L–R) Melody Maglione and Chaz Costello imbue their darkwave sound with decay and distress in Fossil Arms.

The majority of the duo’s shows have LOCALIZED been at house parties. “We prefer them,” Maglione says. Given the aforementioned By T.H. chaotic element informing Fossil Arms, this [email protected] would seem to work in their best interests—due Photos: Russel Daniels to the potential for a more personal experience between band and audience at a house perfor- mance with a less restrictive environment. Still, it’s On Friday, Dec. 13, come to Urban Lounge for the warm, emotionally sophisticated dark pop a bit surprising to consider that both musicians of The Circulars, and get wrecked by Fossil prefer house shows—“I’m really bad at being in a Arms’ articulation of what tape hiss sounds band because I don’t like playing in front of peo- like choking on glass—during shock treatment. ple,” says Maglione, who did not seem to be as Alexander Ortega, of Filth Lords and socially awkward as that statement might imply. Editorial Assistant at SLUG, is the opener. Costello laments a lack of movement or audience Localized is hosted by Ischa B., tickets are $5 (L–R) Sam Burton, Cathy Foy, Maxwell Ijams and Dyana Durfee emanate and the show is 21+. It begins at 9 p.m. and participation, saying that the band’s “not engag- is brought to you by Bohemian Brewery. If you emotionally driven dream rock in their band, The Circulars. ing.” Melody responds to his statement, saying, are unable to attend, are underage or on house “It’s because we’re weird.” She doesn’t appear to arrest, catch the show on gigviz.com. mean it as a negative statement—it isn’t—just as a possible reason. Perhaps the lack of a stage at house shows, which potentially serve to separate As an interviewer, an ideal conversation is one this in mind, The Circulars’ music is still fully even guitars now,” says Foy. Ijams runs his ossil Arms may share some influences tave, chorus, distortion (a Pro Co Rat, specifically) musicians from their audience, forces a more di- with a band whose members are obviously formed and aesthetically established. Though synths through Abelton software, and Burton’s with fellow Localized band The Circu- and digital delay. Costello also uses a vocal pro- rect interaction between everybody present. friends—not just a group of people who get Burton and Foy both refer to the band’s sound collection includes a Danelectro 12-string electric F lars, but where The Curculars’ sound is cessor. Maglione primarily uses an Alesis drum together to play sometimes with nothing else as constantly evolving, the songs seldom feel and Hagstrom HJ500 hollow body, as well as textured and lush, Fossil Arms is a much nois- machine and Micron synth. Maglione and Costello used to run a venue, in common. The members of The Circulars are “jammy” or like there’s much second-guessing in several Fender guitars and amps and a battery ier entity—with a sense of decay and distress Blank Space, which met an unfortunate end due visibly comfortable around each other, and the performances. If early records by The Cure of pedals. Durfee says of her setup, “I have the threaded throughout the songs, due in part to Regarding their inspiration and musical realms to some disagreements with the landlord. Not an would presumably be spending time together or Siouxsie and the Banshees are within same Godin electric bass that I’ve had since I the employment of lo-fi recording methods. “Time of interest, Chaz says he’s pretty much “only lis- uncommon case, but I’d imagine that after hav- even without music as the primary cause. your realm of interest—or if Wymond Miles’ was 15, and play with flatwound strings.” For Words,” posted this past Halloween, evokes tening to darkwave and hip-hop,” with Melody ing one’s own space, it would be difficult to find Another uniting aspect is coffee, with The Rose solo work is in constant rotation on your stereo— an image of Joy Division being attacked by naming J-pop, as well as His Purple Majesty as somewhere else that could compare. The two fre- Establishment acting as a meeting space for The Circulars’ moody dream-jangle may appeal Concerning favorite venues and memorable a vengeful, sentient Linn drum and megaphone. favorites: “We love Prince,” says Maglione. quently attend shows at Boing! Collective and The this interview—and place of employment for as well. Foy’s tight drumming, Durfee’s melodic shows, all band members agree that the album Salt Haus, naming Boing! as a shared favorite two members. They are approachable, friendly bass lines and Ijams’ glacial keys form an ideal release at Urban Lounge was a highlight. Chaz Costello (bass/vocals/drum program- Costello describes the compositional process as location. Smaller, community-supported venues, people. We had a laugh at Morrissey’s backdrop for Burton’s textural guitar parts and Audience reception has also been quite positive ming) and Melody Maglione (keys/drum creating a “cohesive song, fucking it up and try- quite similar in nature to the aforementioned expense after self-serious songwriters were reverb-laden vocals—which are actually rather overall. Durfee says, “People have treated us well programming) first met in Arizona as teenagers. ing to come back,” he says. The songs tend to be- houses, seem to be where Fossil Arms thrive. brought up, discussed the songwriting process, comparable to Morrissey’s. everywhere.” The two formed Fossil Arms roughly three years gin with a concept for the rhythm parts, followed gear, band history and audience reactions thus ago, agreeing that the decision to start the band by a discussion, then addition of keyboard. “I’m Continuing the subject of performance, I asked Burton recalls that he was initially somewhat Burton refers to his bandmates as musical far. They released a six song, self-titled EP on originally came up as a joke. They began as a pretty much only capable of writing creepy key- if the duo have any tour plans. “I would like to ambivalent about the recording’s release. He inspirations. He says, “We’re all in two bands— Sept. 28, which can be streamed in its entirety noise-punk project, until, according to Costello, board parts,” says Maglione. From there, the two tour,” says Costello, but both say that time off says, “Not until we had the mastered copy when you surround yourself with people playing at thecirculars.bandcamp.com. “Melody was like, ‘Hey, you should listen to describe the process as one of dissection and re- work would be an issue. Having the means to of the record did I really love it.” He explains music constantly, and talking about it all the time, more OMD,’” he says. They posted a six-song assembly: “We add and add until it doesn’t make feed their cat is also a concern of major impor- that the reasoning isn’t simply the sound of the it’s hard to not be inspired.” In addition to solo The template for The Circulars began to form EP, Tyrannosaurus Flex, on Bandcamp (fossilarm- sense anymore,” says Costello. tance—I appreciate when priorities are in the finished product, but the realization that there projects, The Circulars share members with bands roughly three years ago, with guitarist/vocalist snoise.bandcamp.com) in January, 2012. are “more people on the record than just us,” such as The Awful Truth and Foster Body. right place. Additionally, they plan to record Sam Burton and keyboardist Maxwell I noticed throughout the interview that Costello he says, referring to all involved in the recording new material soon. Graboid Records has ex- Ijams working on music after initially meeting Most of the songs on Tyrannosaurus Flex were had a tendency to describe Fossil Arms’ sound and production process. The Circulars EP was Current and future aspirations, Burton says, are pressed interest in releasing a future recording. at a Starbucks. After some time spent developing recorded at a practice, using a cassette player. in a manner that might lead some to assume that song sketches, the duo decided to put a full band recorded and mixed by Andrew Goldring, to “make good records,” and “play as long as Time passed, and new songs were written. much of what they create is the result of an ac- Regarding their reactions to being invited to play together. Burton and drummer Cathy Foy had mostly live, in one short session and with we like each other.” Durfee says she’s just excited Costello explains that they had been “too lazy cident, or equipment-based disaster—“Something as part of Localized, Costello says his was mostly played together in The Awful Truth, and he some overdubbing by Burton. The recording to see what’s next. When the EP was released, to record” the new songs, but then panicked— always goes wrong with gear at shows,” Costello surprise. Considering that his other band, JAW- met bassist Dyana Durfee through a friend, was mastered by local musician and studio according to Durfee, the band had “already “We didn’t sound like the old recordings any- says. Despite the unpredictable elements Costello WZZ!!, has played the showcase recently as having heard that she played bass, and asked if professional Matt Matteus. Burton says, “He’s moved onto other songs we were really stoked more,” says Costello. So, they decided to put refers to, he and Maglione have found a way to she’d be interested in joining the band. exceptionally talented, so we got lucky.” on,” she says. well, he’s having a pretty good run, closing out something new on Bandcamp. The recording make positive use of those elements. For example, the year with a couple of high-profile gigs. process occurs at home, using a digital 4-track the noise in the band’s recordings often sounds Regarding their compositional process, all As a bit of a gear buff, I ask everybody about For Burton, being part of Localized is “really and “random cassette players” with levels set of the band members try their best to address equipment and am glad to find that they share flattering. It’s nice to be acknowledged,” he says. like a deliberate and welcome aspect of the mu- For listings for future shows and other informa- the intangibles that occur when something just my interest. Foy’s drum kit selection includes a “I really like what SLUG does for the community high for what Costello refers to as a “blown-out” sic. That’s not to say that there isn’t a very pal- tion, search for Fossil Arms on Facebook. sounds right. “Aesthetic is not as important Gretsch new classic and two vintage Ludwigs. and that they highlight local bands.” sound. Their gear selection consists of a Fender pable sense of chaos informing Fossil Arms’ very as emotional sentiment,” says Burton. With “I have a tendency to collect a lot of stuff— Telecaster bass, run-through effects such as oc- existence, though. 10 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 11 12 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 13 1291 S. 1100 E. Salt Lake City Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Sun. 10 a.m.–9 p.m. T. 801. 487.0699 fincaslc.com ¿

By Alex Springer enough—golden brown spheres topped with [email protected] preserved lemon—but once we cut into them, we were greeted with a beautifully gooey center of smoked chicken coated in a creamy piquillo sauce. At its core, Finca has embraced the Spanish The crunchy exterior was the perfect canvas for concept of tapas, selections of small plates that the flavors of smoked chicken and slightly spicy are usually paired with wine or cocktails. Though piquillo. Something about this dish made me feel they do offer larger entrées, there’s something both safe and warm—almost nostalgic. The surprise special and casual about sitting around a table of this visit was the Papas y Aioli. They were with some friends to share five or six tapas options beautifully plated—roasted and brown, topped along with a few of their craft cocktails—I suppose with kosher salt, paprika and drizzled with garlic I should refer to them as “award-winning,” as Finca e aioli—but I figured that they would be more of a l was recently recognized for excellence in the field p i side dish to our meal. As I took my first bite, I had k of mixology at Salt Lake Magazine’s Craft Cocktail r to pause and consider the situation. This dish was a Competition. B far too simple to taste so good. Crunchy, creamy n h and salty with a bit of warmth from the paprika: Jo Indeed, my most memorable experience at Finca : this is how a potato—the noble workhorse of the tos was the result of splitting a few of their tapas Pho culinary world—should be treated. options with my wife for lunch one Saturday. Based on the sheer variety of food that Finca In addition to its wide range of tapas, Finca is also offers, it’s important to go in with a game plan. known for its brunch menu, which is available on Are you looking for something quick and light? Do Saturday and Sunday mornings. Though the Salt you want to treat yourself to something rich and Lake area has several breakfast mainstays, it’s Finca’s soulful? We were leaning toward the latter and worth popping into Finca for their Spanish-infused made our decisions accordingly. We began with takes on a few classics. The Carne de Asador Carne de Asador the Ensalada de Remolacha ($8), which was a ($13), for example, is a flavorful spin on steak great way to prime our palates. It’s a beet salad and eggs. The dish consists of Bavette steak sliced and Ensalada de topped with pickled strawberries, almonds and into medallions and topped with chimichurri, an a ricotta cheese that they make onsite. Though it Argentenian sauce that plays very nicely with retained the light freshness that comes from a salad Remolacha will surely grilled meat. The eggs are local and made to prepared with local greens, the hearty sweetness order, and the dish comes with a side of their of the beets and creamy saltiness of the ricotta make it into tapas excellent roasted potatoes. The chimichurri is what created a salad that truly exemplified the word ties this dish together. It’s fresh and herbaceous, “appetizer.” Upon finishing the salad, our three heaven. and it bridges a gap between steak and eggs that small plates arrived. Despite my natural tendency was previously unknown to me. Though I ordered it to start eating my food before it has even left the medium rare, the steak was a bit more done than I hands of our server, I had to take a moment and would have liked, but still a solid dish. The Huevos reflect on the beauty of what was before us. We Benedict ($10) will be a bit more familiar to fans ordered the Albóndigas ($10), Croquetas ($8) of a traditional diner breakfast. The addition and Papas y Aioli ($5). of Serrano ham was a very nice touch to the poached eggs and hollandaise sauce—altogether, Albóndigas are Spanish meatballs that are made it’s a creamy and comforting mix of my favorite from a mixture of lamb and pork. After they come breakfast flavors. Though the flavor was on point, out of the oven, they’re topped with a homemade I was a tad disappointed at the temperature—the tomato sauce and shredded Manchego cheese. huevos were a bit on the cold side by the time they I’m a big believer that a meatball needs neither arrived at our table. bread nor pasta to be a successful dish, and I cite Finca’s Albóndigas as proof. The local lamb and Despite a few hiccups, it’s safe to say that Finca pork are the stars of this dish and are prepared is a great place to explore a unique culinary and cooked in a way that showcases all of that perspective with a big group of friends. Their tapas natural flavor. Each bite has that perfect ratio of and brunch menus offer some excellent options at slight crispness on the outside and soft juiciness reasonable prices considering the food’s quality. on the inside. These Albóndigas are also available Coupled with an extensive selection of wines as one of Finca’s bocadillos, which might give and craft cocktails, Finca offers a well-rounded other meatball sandwiches around town a run restaurant experience. for their money. The Croquetas looked harmless

14 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 15 : : : : : : : Oddescee: : : : : : : Utah’s Fearless Freestyle Aficionado By Darcy Russell [email protected] Upon meeting because she Brandi Madrid, is the only female aka Oddescee, for the first battle emcee in the state, but time, you wouldn’t think you’re talking to Salt mostly because rapping and writing have Lake’s one and only female battle emcee. However, since battling within the Utah helped her deal with so many hurdles in In fact, the incredibly humble and down- chapter of AHAT (All Hip Hop All The life and continue to be a form of therapy to-earth mother of two is a self-proclaimed Time), Oddescee has had to get her feet for her. She was super stoked the day her introvert and nerd—she proves it to me by wet in the world of written battles, where 10-year-old daughter, Akaisia, spat out proudly displaying the “NERD” tattoo on her the opponents have several days to write, her first rhyme, and hopes her daughter will back and telling me about her passion for prepare and practice their battle material. follow in her mother’s musical footsteps, books and the show Ancient Aliens. Her neck- Written battles do present their own set of though she doesn’t share the more vulgar lace, however, speaks of the woman that lies obstacles, Oddescee says—forgetting your battles with her children. beneath: “Fearless,” it says. rhymes being the worst one. Each opponent is presented with three rounds of 90 sec- In addition to battling, constantly writing Born in Utah, Oddescee developed a onds with which to slam their fellow emcee. and being surrounded and supported by passion for hip hop from her older brother, Oddescee says, “Sometimes you say amazing friends, Oddescee is currently Tommy, who would spin N.W.A and Dr. random stuff, but it gets a reaction out of the working on recording an album with pro- Dre. “For me, hip-hop is a lifestyle. It just is. crowd, which is what you want.” Including ducer Krem, with a tentative release date I dream it—I breathe it,” she says. Drawing but not limited to: “I’ll put a hollow clip to of summer 2014, which will include some her true hip-hop inspiration from the now- this hollow clit and blow out her cervix/Call passionate work by this amazing rapper. I deceased Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, it a public service”—lyrics from a recent fortunately got a private show of some of Oddescee began writing at the age of 12 battle versus Vegas emcee Vicki Myers. her personal work and highly recommend as a form of therapy that soon became a She goes on to tell me of her last opponent you check out and support Utah’s only compulsion, she says—a way of bleeding and good friend, Big Al, rhyming that her female battle emcee to date, Oddescee. her pain and anxiety onto paper. “After nipples look like poppy seeds. “You have to hearing Left Eye, that’s when I was like, ‘I know not to take it to heart—part of battling can do this,’” she says. Oddescee takes on is to put on a good show. Sometimes you a real-world approach to writing, with no have to say some mean shit,” she says. pretense or misrepresentation. “I don’t write Water under the bridge is the name of the about money I don’t have and cars I don’t game afterward, and maintaining a level HelenPhoto: Leeson drive. I write about things I know, things I’ve of professionalism and knowing that it’s all lived through,” she says. part of the job helps Oddescee get over some of the sexist and vulgar rhymes with After moving to New York at the age of which she is often slammed back. 14, Oddescee was quite literally pulled into the freestyle battle scene off her stoop, AHAT was formed in California and with “hip-hop around every corner.” This spreads throughout the West, including Las aided her in overcoming her shy and Vegas, New Mexico, Utah and Texas. The self-conscious nature, as she was thrown Utah chapter was founded and funded by into the sink-or-swim freestyle cyphers. Nicholas Fonseca and often turns out up Oddescee moved back to Utah in 2000 to to 300 attendees. Oddescee encourages find the Salt Lake hip-hop battle scene to be anyone who is interested in signing poppin’—much larger than she expected, up or just checking out a battle to and probably larger than any of us realize. visit the organization’s website, “[The Salt Lake scene is] close to the scene ahat.tv, or to check out their in New York,” she says. “There’s a lot of YouTube channel, youtube.com/ new talent, and a lot of people do it.” user/allhiphopallthetime.

Oddescee’s preference and comfort zone Oddescee hopes to be an is freestyle battle or topic freestyle battle, inspiration to young wom- where the audience yells out topics for the en and empower them to emcees to include in their round. “I think come out and exercise my topics [at the last battle] were a grumpy their passion for hip-hop cat, a penguin and a top hat,” she says. emceeing, partially

Oddescee spits out vicious rhymes as a self- proclaimed “nerd” and hip-hop battle emcee.

16 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 17 Jason Molina tried to look unflinchingly at everything through his music—the

darkness and the light. Photos Courtesy Secretly Canadian

t’s an all-too-familiar story: A brilliant rock dreams gone wrong. It shapes romantic, heroic tales the significance of the original recording. The musician succumbs to addiction. The rush of out of the most mundane circumstances. Molina, album, overall, uses the power of the full band as Icreating music isn’t enough, and said rock star growing up in Lorain, Ohio, deep in America’s a framework for Molina’s musings, his lyrics never feels the need to supplement it. Or perhaps the “heartland,” switched from playing heavy metal before so plainspokenly poetic, beautiful yet, at same drive that is behind creative impulse also fuels to something more or less alt-country-sounding in times, almost unbearably bleak. The workmanlike the urge to pick up a bottle or a needle, and not his early 20s, seeming to find that to be a more drive of the band and the quality of the sound recalls put it down. Those are some of the oft-romanticized fitting vehicle for what he felt compelled to express. ’70s acts like Warren Zevon, and Magnolia rock creation/destruction myths. Rock music history He made his first recording with his ever-shifting Electric Co covered “Werewolf of London” on their is a stockpile, a wrecking yard littered with them. assemblage of musicians known as Songs: Ohia 2005 EP, Hard To Love a Man. His words are a One of the latest casualties, March 16 of this year, in 1997. It was about the time of Uncle Tupelo, working-class poetry that, at times, surpasses was Jason Molina of the bands Songs: Ohia and the band that spawned Wilco and Son Volt, and Springsteen and is also much more existential, Magnolia Electric Co, from organ failure due to influenced scores of alt-country bands. It was the excavating the lonely, dark center at the heart of alcoholism. apex of the “No Depression” musical movement. the self. It’s even—if it’s not too much of a stretch—a little “Rilkean” in its romantic desperation. We all owe death at the end—No One Here Gets Songs: Ohia was the flagship band for the Out Alive, to borrow the title of a sensationalist Secretly Canadian indie record label, based in The guitar slide leading off the album’s opener, biography of Jim Morrison—so why not Bloomington, Ind. The band’s self-titled full-length “Farewell Transmission,” sounds like it signals incinerate like a quick-burning match, emitting at debut was the first album on the label that wasn’t a resignation, but the song is one of resolve, and it least as much heat as light, sputtering out fast into re-release, and Songs: Ohia recorded 10 releases sets the tone for the rest of the album. He admits the darkness from whence you came? On the other altogether for the imprint, culminating in 2003’s “The real truth about it is/No one gets it right/The hand, rock n’ roll self-destruction has become such a Magnolia Electric Co. The album was a turning point real truth about it is/My kind of life’s no better off/ cliché that, by now, it’s pretty tiresome. Molina was in Molina’s career and the direction of his music. If I’ve got the maps or if I’m lost.” His determination 39, somewhat old by rock n’ roll self-destruction Produced by Steve Albini, it’s a fuller, more rock- to proceed into that territory where maps are of standards—almost a decade beyond the so-called ensemble sound than his earlier, often very spare no use is nothing short of stirring, and at the end, magical number 27 of Hendrix, Morrison and recordings. It’s also, debatably, the point at which he beckons, “Through the static and distance/A Kurt Cobain. It’s a bit odd writing this on a he changed the band’s name to Magnolia Electric farewell transmission/Listen.” Sunday morning as news comes of the death of Co, which also released a sizeable body of work Lou Reed, who lasted well past the burnout age, for the label. It’s unclear because “MECO” doesn’t “I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost” follows but sang of the seductive entanglement of addiction appear on the album art (an idiosyncratic owl with traditional blues structure, with a ghostly-sounding in “Heroin” and other songs—often born from his human eyes), and Secretly Canadian lists it under guitar lead between verses. “None of them could own life experiences—as well as the redeeming Songs: Ohia—plus Molina started calling the band love me if they thought they might lose me/Unless I value of music in songs like “Rock & Roll.” that later during their spring tour. made a change,” perhaps alluding to his problems with alcohol. He notes, “See I ain’t getting better. Country music, even in the somewhat academic Magnolia Electric Co had a 10th anniversary re- I am only getting behind.” In the twangy country genre of alt-country, takes much of its subject release Nov. 12, along with B-sides and demo ballad, “Just Be Simple,” he asks “Why put a new matter—its bread and butter—from the wreckage of recordings. It’s a specially packaged set, befitting (continued on the next page) 18 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 19 (continued from the previous page) address on the same old loneliness/Everybody As with all country-derived genres—all singer/ website, secretlycanadian.com, explained that knows where that is,” reminiscent of Neil Young’s songwriter music for that matter—the quality of he had been in various rehab facilities, without “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” a major the artist’s voice instills the music with much of its mentioning his exact condition. In a post dated influence on Molina’s work. expressive quality. By the time of Magnolia Electric Co, May 5, 2012, the Magnolia Electric Co site went Molina’s voice had matured to the point of expressing into a little more detail about his hospitalization, “Almost Was Good Enough (Once)” has the closest an acerbic wit and a great sense of melancholy and was optimistic about him returning to music. thing to heavy metal chord changes, which is simultaneously, yet still maintaining a plainspoken On March 18, 2013, Henry Owings, founder of another, albeit minor, influence on Molina, and the quality, without dramatic flourish, but somewhat Chunklet Magazine, wrote on the magazine’s blog: bitterest bite. “It’s been hard doing anything/winter confessional. A bit of Midwestern twang in his voice “Jason leaves behind him an enviable body of stuck around so long,” are among the bleakest speaks of the soul of the heartland of America. work that will be continually rediscovered because lyrics on the album—“Did you really believe that what Jason wrote wasn’t fashion. It was his heart. everyone makes it out?” The country swing of “The Molina’s alcohol problems dated back to 2003 at It was his love. It was his demons. And ultimately, Old Black Hen” is the most directly “country” thing least, the year of Magnolia Electric Co’s release, it brought his life to an end.” The impact of Jason on the album. With the lyric, “Tell them that every and by the end of the decade, was taking a toll Molina’s passing on other musicians is evidenced day I lived/I was trying to sing the blues/The way I on the music, as bandmate Jason Groth noted in by an online bulletin board on the Magnolia Electric find them,” it’s not hard to see why he chose country his “Magnolia Electric Co Tour Diary” on the blog, Co band website, magnoliaelectricco.com, full of singer Lawrence Peters to sing this. The Beach Dog: “I think I can safely say that we messages from other music notables. experienced very high highs and extremely low lows Scout Niblett’s voice is sweet on “Peoria Lunch Box due to Jason’s performance inconsistencies and his It doesn’t seem that long ago, watching him perform Blues,” perhaps necessary to transport the terror of difficulty—or perhaps resistance—to communicating live—only a little over four years since seeing him on “You see when you are just a kid/They think you won’t with us and others,” Groth recalls. By 2009, Groth the Urban Lounge stage, but the distance is a chasm, remember what they did” to the heavenly heights of adds, the consistency had returned, as Molina kept a gulf that there’s no way to bridge. The recordings “the constellations and Comisky’s lights.” The Neil his drinking mostly to after the shows. The band are a kind of connection to that, a phantasm you can Young–esque country stomp of “John Henry Split My played Salt Lake several times, and the show at conjure up that appears for moments on end before Heart” creates a sense of American folklore epic. The the Urban Lounge May 20, 2009 that I attended disappearing again. You can return to the music album closes with the slide guitar ballad “Hold On must have been one of the “highs”—there was again and again, try to trace Molina’s attempts to Magnolia,” in which he admits, “In my life I have had something effortless, artless (without artifice) about map out the course he was traveling, but you can’t my doubts/But tonight I think I’ve worked it out with his performance. If he had trouble communicating follow after him, not in this life. all of them,” yet the closing lines, “Hold on Magnolia, with the band, he connected with the audience I think it’s almost time,” are somewhat eerie. immediately, seemingly instinctively, the mixture of pain and joy transmitted so very directly that the Jason Molina tried to look unflinchingly at everything The lyrics of the songs on this album form a unified audience found it easy to relate to, be moved by through his music—the darkness and the light. In the statement of theme and tone that ties the set and embrace. song, “Farewell Transmission,” there’s the line, “I together, like most great rock albums. It’s an essay will be gone, but not forever,” which would make a on specifically American forms of pain and loss and By late fall of that year, tour dates were canceled really formulaic, clichéd closer. But there’s a better loneliness, as well as a relentless searching for self due to “health problems,” and the last show he line to use for this attempt to encapsulate his work and strength and a kind of honesty and simplicity, ever played was a solo date, March 26, 2010 at and life, from a little later in the same song: “The real which is remarkable and is so rare that it almost the Luminaire in London. In September of 2011, a truth about it is/There ain’t no end to the desert I’ll takes you aback in the moment of recognition. message from his family on the Secretly Canadian cross/I’ve really known that all along.” The quest he was on never ended.

20 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 21 Isaac Hastings draws inspiration for his spiritually resonating work from his local surroundings and artistic peers in

Salt Lake. Photo: Lm Sorenson

The Mysterious Design of Life and Death: A Profile of ISAAC HASTINGS By Amanda Nurre • [email protected]

saac Hastings creates cryptic, carefully siblings—many of them craftsmen—exposed him designed, line-dominant artwork that conveys to the metamorphosis of raw materials into finished I both spiritually infused and dream-inspired product. Lexi, by Isaac Hastings. symbols. His meticulous design is featured on the cover of SLUG this month to honor the magazine’s Hastings’ talent was further nurtured through a 300th issue. A self-described “jack of all trades, supportive art teacher at Highland High School, master of none,” Hastings is humble—he sports from where he graduated in 2007, and his say, making a video or something, and it doesn’t feel like a black hoodie, jeans and a beanie during our schooling subsequently continued with a few basic I’m progressing as fast as I want to, it’s because I’m trying interview and speaks frankly about his evolution art classes at SLCC. “I just took a figure drawing to do everything all at once,” he says. Still, he values the as an artist. Born in Salt Lake and raised in Sugar class to kind of get my feet wet—test the waters for freedom to try his hand at different modes of creation. House, Hastings is based in this mountain-framed school,” he says. The illustration degree Hastings city and uses its unique geography, proximity to is most inclined to pursue would do little to further In addition to exploring media, Hastings has investigated wilderness and local artistic talent as inspiration. his career, he believes. Even though he thinks the local artists like Trent Call and Sri Whipple. Whipple’s education could be valuable, he has decided to twisted and bulging anthropomorphic forms create depth Hastings labels himself as an illustrator for now, forgo a diploma and learn his craft through the absent in Hastings’ work, but the wild, dominant lines and but doesn’t seem too concerned with the title. “If study of other artists. bright colors forge a relationship between the two artists. you would have asked me [my title] a year ago,” Likewise, Call’s illustrations—often colorful and carefully he says, “I would have said I was a painter or a Opting out of a formal education has allowed designed—carry similarities to the younger artist’s pieces. woodworker, so I have lots of different hats …” Hastings more latitude to explore the art world. He Hastings’ earliest memories include drawing, and has tried his hand at painting, design, illustration, Much of Hastings’ boldly colored work has a deeply his talent has been refined over many years. His video and woodwork, among other mediums. spiritual resonance. It can look a bit like Indian religious parents introduced him as a child to the creative However, this diversity of materials can, he admits, iconography in its careful, intricate symmetry, and can process in their family-owned woodshop, and his slow progress occasionally. “Sometimes, if I’m, seem demonic when showcasing meditative monsters 22 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 23 floating on top of crisscrossing, geometric patterns. was named and invented by his woodworking father. Hastings asserts that it can still be troubling when Layered shapes and sinister animals are often defined Although his father became too busy to continue people transform themselves into pseudo-celebrities, by swerving topographic lines. His creations, regardless pursuing the idea, Hastings and his brothers have publicizing their every action. The artist tries to be of medium, often convey the slickness and brushless adopted the project, which requires splitting open a more modest in his approach. “I don’t feel that what perfection of digital illustration. The life-death cycle, wooden board where an interesting knot has formed I’m doing is extremely unique—I just enjoy doing it … I Hastings says, is the recurring theme of his work. His and then bookmatching the two pieces together to try to stay as humble as possible and not get too ahead style demonstrates the human compulsion for control, create a symmetrical design. The abstract patterns can of myself in what I’m doing,” he says. a compulsion that often contradicts the unpredictable, look human or bestial, often gnarled and deformed. intertwined reality of life and death. He frequently uses Hastings’ father would ask him to interpret the wood Through the Internet, Hastings has been able to witness images of predatory animals, emphasizing teeth to patterns, much like a Rorschach test. “They have an the enjoyment and appreciation of his merchandise represent destruction and hands to symbolize creation. interesting power in making people start arguments when fans post photos of themselves wearing his Furthermore, birds are a recurring motif—“A bird is with each other because, obviously, what they see is T-shirts. “[It’s like] having something that’s my baby kind really interesting because, if you ask anybody ‘What what it is, and not what other people see,” Hastings of out in the wild,” he says. Even more dedicated fans would you be if you were an animal?’ like, 90 percent says. have made the artist’s work permanent on their bodies. of the time, people say ‘bird’ because it’s free,” he Hastings, wary of the commitment of tattoos, is hugely says. An image of a dead bird, therefore, carries a This month’s SLUG cover design conveys more flattered by the act: “To see somebody so in love with great deal of power in its expression of loss. straightforward meaning, with elements that serve as an image that they would be willing to walk around specific symbols. The featured queen of diamonds, with it on their body for the rest of their life—it gives me Fans can watch the evolution of individual pieces of Hastings feels, captures the essence of the magazine. A those warm, fuzzy feelings inside because I’m a part of Hastings’ work by viewing his videos, which are time- pen and sword are included in the design to symbolize their life forever and that’s a big deal,” he says. lapse documentations of the creation of an artwork the power of journalism and illustrate the saying, “The set to electronic music. Although he doesn’t consider pen is mightier than the sword,” while the shovel Feelings—subconscious conceptions—are ultimately himself a video artist, the short clips have a hypnotic symbolizes “UnderGround” in the SLUG acronym. what art is all about for Hastings. “Most of my art is quality that emphasizes a piece’s emotional undertones. based off of a certain feeling and a certain time,” he “When you set something to music,” Hasting says, “it Designs—much like the one created for this month’s says. A particular piece featuring an alligator was brings it to life, so it’s like watching it kind of dance.” issue—are sold on T-shirts by the artist, and Hastings inspired by a dream in which, frighteningly, he started can attribute much of his success to the fact that he losing his teeth. “A lot of people have those dreams,” The influence of this electronic music is discernible isn’t afraid to market his work. His current focus, he says. “It’s like a reoccurring thing for a lot of people, in much of Hastings’ work. He listens to bands like clothing design, is a collaborative process enabled and the way that I deal with that is to put it on paper. Crystal Castles and solo artist Tycho while drawing, by the Internet, which provides worldwide feedback. I turn it into a sense of joy for me. So everything that and their sounds are translated into his productions. Using that feedback, Hastings is able to tailor his I do is really self-narrative—something happens to me The careful design work of Hasting’s pieces seems to T-shirts to the desires of his fans. Without the Internet, and I process it through drawing,” he says. “I did that echo Tycho’s detailed and percussive songs. Hastings’ he admits, he would join the hordes of other artists for so long that now I think it’s a reaction. I can’t not musical inspiration makes designing album covers a more resistant to the marketing process. “It’s so hard do it. Even if I was completely broke and had nothing, facile byproduct of his creative process, and he often to cold walk up to somebody and say, ‘This is what I I would still have my sketchbook.” creates them for local musicians, electronic producers do, and this is why I want you to buy it,’ but the Internet and the occasional rapper. “Luckily,” he says, “they and social media especially have opened it up, so it’s Hastings will be showing work in the Nutcracker kind of give me creative control with laying out what I not about me selling something, its about me sharing Artshow at Fice Gallery on Dec. 6 and will be having a think the image should be behind their sound.” what I love doing with people. The people who care solo show there this coming June. For more information, about it can tune in … and can steer the direction,” he check out his website, ihsquared.com. A more abstract branch of Hastings’ work, Knot Art, says. Although the Internet has these obvious benefits,

Scissor Snake, by Isaac Hastings. Broken Body, by Isaac Hastings.

24 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 25 SNOW QUEENS By Princess Kennedy [email protected]

Happy Holidays er’body! Let’s talk about Salt Lake as the red-headed witch named Ginger back Royalty, and I don’t mean me (although we will then) was involved with the RCGSE. I held a title, talk about me). I don’t mean Brad Wheeler, Miss Gay Pride. It lasted for all of three months Sara de Azevado or Max Payne and his until I decided that I hated all of them and Groovies—I’m talking real-life royalty—kings and renounced my crown (cue scandal). I thought queens, emperors and princesses. Royalty with this was my only in to the female illusion world, real-life crowns, scepters, pomp and circumstance: and I vowed I would never put on a dress again the Royal Court of the Golden Spike or hang with that crowd, but you know how the Empire, or the RCGSE, a group of very dedicated saying goes—a few bad apples … Princess philanthropists. Thank god for the new generation—it seems Kennedy Approximately 38 years ago in 1976, the big that with new blood comes new life, and the will be the most gay bar in town was called The Sun. It was one queens of today are taking themselves a little less of the first discotheques west of the Mississippi seriously, but keeping the community and causes sparkling snowflake to feature DJs and a Saturday Night Fever–style as serious as ever, like my dear friend Nikki at the Snow Ball, dance floor with lighted squares, located where Steele. Steele is currently the Court’s Princess the Energy Solutions Arena is now. It was the club Royale, a title that is bestowed, not competed no doubt. that every gay and gay-friendly star stopped in to for, and she quite possibly is the Queen that see the crazy Mormon gay scene. This wasn’t the people are talking about when it comes to the only option for our gay forequeens n’ daddies, aforementioned beautiful Utah Queen folklore. but it was the place that everyone in our small and slightly diverse community felt welcome and Her one duty as part of her title is to host where, on any given Saturday night, you could and throw a big party for the RCGSE holiday come and see the prettiest transvestites (not PC season—a Snow Ball. This gala is the largest anymore, btw) in all the US of A—a title that has fundraising benefit on the RCGSE calendar, and followed our city’s beauty (drag) queens for years. goes to their People With AIDS Fund, which is quite the spectacular spectacular. In the past, These gurls decided to jump on a bandwagon it’s raised thousands of dollars, and not for that had started a few years before with an some nameless, faceless research: They get a organization called the Imperial Court list of men, women and children in need, and System, birthed in San Francisco (duh), they take the cash and give them a Christmas consisting of the most glamorous of the with presents, food, rent—whatever they may glam queens. They saw in the early need. The good that comes from this show is ’70s that (I’ll catch hell for this) our insurmountable, and Princess Nikki, the Court community was a mess, and sometimes and I challenge you to take a step off the usual we couldn’t keep it together. Not that snow-covered charity trail and come ice dance this was our fault, really—we had on the wild side to make this the best Snow Ball problems like any other community, but ever. If you’re human and not an asshole, then when it came down to getting help, as you give to a holiday charity, right? No reason a fringe society, we found it difficult for you can’t come and give to this one and get a anyone to care. These Lords and Ladies night you will never forget. After all, drag queens realized people would flock to come see are the new black. men in makeup, so they might as well charge and pay it forward. To date, The party is officially called Sparkling almost every state in the union has a Snowflake Soirée (try to say that without lisping, “Court,” and most have them in multiple boys). It will start at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. cities. 15 at Club Mixx with a formal cocktail mixer, followed by a dinner that will remind you of The good they do is undeniable, with the most delicious ward potlucks—the best part funds that go to AIDS, cancer research, of any Salt Lake function—and a show that and individuals in need. In theory, they Nikki Steele promises will be as outrageous are a wonderful association, but it hasn’t and bombastic as she can pull, from a new always been for the good of the people. generation of exciting and artistic young drag At one point in time in the Court’s history, dollies, giving us faith, once again, that drag the good seemed to have been lost and queens are not only talented, but also nice it was ruled by a bunch of catty, mean, people. Check them out at rcgse.org. competitive, backstabbing cunts that no one really wanted to be around. All that for a meager $15-20 admission fee is a pretty amazing way to give back this holiday More years ago than I am willing to admit, season and make sure that everyone has a Princess Kennedy (known to her counterparts Fierce Fucking Christmas—and P.S. Happy New Year, bitches.

Photo: Panzer Photography

26 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 27 Mike Brown’s Monthly Dirt

I’ve never had to drop the axe. I suppose getting kicked and without bringing this trifecta up, two other people Yer out of Here! out of the Fucktards would be like flunking special ed: I talked to brought up the exact same three things for very improbable and more embarrassing than being in getting kicked out of a band. All three people said Kicked out of the Band my band in the first place. that missing practice was the biggest offense. Missing practice was the main reason Dave was not part of the By Mike Brown So, I called a handful of friends of mine who have been recent Vile Blue Shades reunion. Instagram: @Fagatron in numerous local bands to dig up some funny stories and anecdotes to write about for this article about This trifecta has begun to fascinate me. Although they getting kicked out of the band. Some of the stories were are three different behaviors, they are related to each pretty good, but due to Small Lake City syndrome and other in a vicious cycle of sorts. Think about it: You steal I’m just gonna go ahead and start this article off with not wanting to hurt anyone’s feel-bads, unfortunately, I money to buy the drugs that make you too fucked up two of my favorite band-related jokes. Drumroll, please. can’t really share any of those stories. to go to practice. It’s like a messed up version of the How do you get a bass player off of your porch? Tip him Mormon holy trinity. and take your pizza. What’s the last thing the drummer I did find something interesting, though. It started said before he got kicked out of the band? “Hey, guys! when I was talking with Dave Combs, bartender Also, while researching for this article, I started to Check out these songs I wrote!” Feel free to use those, extraordinaire at Urban Lounge. Dave has been in realize that most of the time, when someone exits stage people. numerous local bands over the years. I’ve seen him walk left, it’s not because they get kicked out: They quit. As offstage in drunken stupors in the middle of a set, and long as you stay away from the trifecta, you can pretty As many of you know, I’ve been in a punk band, the heard stories of him throwing his amp at the crowd and much do almost anything else and stay in your band, Fucktards, for about the last decade or so. Actually, threatening fellow band members with severe bodily especially if you are a lead singer. Frontmen can get it’s not really fair to call us a band—at this point, we harm while on tour. None of this behavior actually got away with murder. When I think of how many alcoholic, are more of a “project” or some weird art experience— him kicked out of a band. loser lead singers I’ve come across with whom I would actual bands practice and don’t play the same six songs never ever want to rock out, who somehow manage to twice per show and call it a set. We seem to get away He brought up that there are really only three real not get kicked out, I’m a bit amazed. with it by letting people throw shit at us while we play. reasons that get someone David Lee Roth-ed: a The whole time I’ve been part of the Fucktards, we have massive drug problem, stealing money or missing Let’s create a scenario to go along with this trifecta never had to kick anyone out. Sure, dudes have quit, but practice. I called a couple other music-playing buddies theory. The lead singer of a band fucks the bass player’s girlfriend. I know I’m reaching here by assuming that a bass player would even have a girlfriend, but bear with me. The bass player finds out, but since he’s the bass player, he has no real say in anything in regard to the band. He doesn’t have the power to kick out the lead singer, so he’s limited to a few choices: He could sacrifice his shitty relationship with his shitty girlfriend for his shitty band; he could keep his shitty girlfriend and shitty band and hate himself even more than he already did; he could donkey punch the lead singer and make band practice more interesting; or he could just quit the band, realizing bass players are just as expendable as boxes of Kleenex at a peep show.

The irony I notice with the trifecta of drugs/stealing/ missing practice is the fact that drugs can make you creative and enhance your musical creations, whether it’s some blow or speed to stay up writing songs, or straight spiking smack to get your creative juices going.

It’s such a fine line to walk, but think of how many awesome musicians and artists have been inspired by drugs. So, I guess the moral of the story, and the

Photo: Jake Vivori ultimate recipe for success in the music world, is to do drugs, but don’t miss practice. Maybe that’s where the real genius lies, finding out just how the fuck to do that. ”Getting kicked out of the Fucktards would be like flunking special ed …”

28 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 29 of Utah’s so-calledof Utah’s crime capital, but spots these like are rarely discovered without Alex leading the search party. Every time I think the mine has gone hedry, pulls out one more diamond. Alex Andrews—Gap Back To Lip— Utah Ogden, is from Ogden, and railsplaying majora part of their lives. Andrews Alex you can probably see where this is going … But seriously, no one knows the best snowboarding spots better than this Weber County original. I’ve spent many hours, days and weeks scouring the boulevards and alleyways Ogden is known and as not Rail Town, just for the overabundance of metal bars lining staircases on its streets. Up until the mid it 1900s, was a major railway as hub, it was the intersection point of two major East-West and North-Southtrain routes. People who grew up in Ogden back then did so with Photo Feature By Andy Wright andywrightphoto.com

30 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 31 My father was right. The older you get, Top 5 Best Actors: ( 0 7.18 ) the faster time goes. One minute, you’re 1. Matthew McConaughey (Dallas 5. Godzilla (05.16) sneaking into R-rated movies with your Buyers Club) buddies, the next, you’re threatening 2. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) Top 5 Movie Quotes: the 13-year-old asshat behind you in 3. Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips) 1. “Fuck yo house, Franco!” (This Is the theater for kicking your seat. So 4. Robert Redford (All Is Lost) The End) much happened these past 12 months, 5. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) 2. “My name is... Khan.” (Star Trek good and bad, it’s hard to know where Into Darkness) to begin. As a film critic, it was tough Top 5 Best Actresses: 3. “I loved you in ‘A Christmas Story,’ to see one of the most significant icons 1. Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) by the way.” (Iron Man 3) in my industry pass away this year. 2. Sandra Bullock (Gravity) 4. “I saw it in a porno-graphy.” (The Whether or not I agreed with Roger 3. Judi Dench (Philomena) Hangover: Part 3) Ebert (it was honestly a coin flip), 4. Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the 5. “Hey, it is our basic human right to the man was a spectacular writer and Warmest Color) be fuck-ups.” (The World’s End) became the face of a profession I truly 5. Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club) Top 5 Pleasant Surprises: adore. So, here’s to 2013 (thus far) and to all the thumb ups and downs in every Top 5 Worst Actors: 1. Olympus Has Fallen aspect of our lives. –Jimmy Martin 1. Roy Abramsohn (Escape From 2. Beautiful Creatures Tomorrow) 3. Warm Bodies Top 5 Best Films: 2. Adam Sandler (Grown-Ups 2) 4. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters 5. The Hangover: Part 3 1. Gravity 3. Jaden Smith (After Earth) Top 5 Reasons to Reverse the 4. Ryan Reynolds (R.I.P.D.) 2. 12 Years a Slave Vasectomy: Top 5 Disappointments: 5. Hank Azaria (The Smurfs 2) 1. Frozen 3. Pacific Rim 1. Only God Forgives 4. Captain Phillips 2. Monsters University Top 5 Worst Actresses: 2. Identity Thief 5. The World’s End 3. The Croods 1. Jennifer Lopez (Parker) 3. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone 4. Despicable Me 2 4. White House Down Top 5 Worst Films: 2. Selena Gomez (Spring Breakers) 5. Epic 5. Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa 1. Escape From Tomorrow 3. Selena Gomez (Getaway) 2. The Internship 4. Paula Patton (Baggage Claim) Top 5 Films Adapted From 5. Cameron Diaz (The Counselor) Top 5 Worldwide Money Mak- 3. 21 & Over Novels: ers (as of 11.20.13): 4. Spring Breakers 1. Frozen Top 5 Best Remakes/Sequels/ 1. Iron Man 3 ($1,215,439,994) 5. The Host 2. Austenland Prequels/Reboots: 2. Despicable Me 2 ($916,090,780) 3. Oz: The Great and Powerful 1. Iron Man 3 3. Fast & Furious 6 ($788,679,850) Top 5 Documentaries: 4. Warm Bodies 4. Monsters University 1. Blackfish 2. Man of Steel 5. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2. The Armstrong Lie 3. Evil Dead ($743,384,524) 5. Man of Steel ($662,845,518) 3. 20 Feet From Stardom 4. Star Trek Into Darkness Top 5 Remaining Popcorn 4. Sound City 5. G. I. Joe: Retaliation Movies of 2013: 5. Cutie And The Boxer 1. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Top 5 Worst Remakes/Se- Smaug quels/Prequels/Reboots: 2. Anchorman 2: The Legend Con- 1. Grown Ups 2 tinues 2. The Smurfs 2 3. Saving Mr. Banks 3. Percy Jackson: The Sea of Monsters 4. 47 Ronin 4. A Good Day to Die Hard 5. Grudge Match 5. The Great Gatsby Top 5 Remaining Potential Top 5 Foreign Films: Award-Winning Films of 2013: 1. The Grandmaster 1. The Wolf of Wall Street 2. Populaire 2. Her 3. From Up On Poppy Hill 3. American Hustle 4. No 4. Out of the Furnace 5. Blue is the Warmest Color 5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Top 5 Reasons to Never Have Top 5 Most Anticipated Films Kids: of 2014: 1. The Smurfs 2 1. Guardians of the Galaxy (07.31) 2. Jack the Giant Slayer 2. X-Men: Days of Future Past (05.23) 3. The Mortal Instruments: City of 3. Captain America: The Winter Bones Soldier (04.04) 4. Planes 4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 5. Free Birds 32 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 33 Nate Abbott Katie Bald – Copy John Barkiple – – Community Devel- Editor/Writer/Fact Photographer opment Executive/ Checker • Janelle Monáe – The Distro • One Direction – Electric Lady • Deafheaven – Sunbather Midnight Memories • will.i.am – #willpower • Nails – Abandon All Life • Jay-Z – Magna Carta… • Ben Harper with Charlie • Sigur Rós – Kveikur Holy Grail Musselwhite – Get Up! • Chelsea Wolfe • Kanye West – Yeezus • Mayer Hawthorne – – Pain is Beauty • 2 Chainz – B.O.A.T.S. II: Where Does This Door Go • Lorde – Pure Heroine #METIME • Icona Pop – THIS IS... • Katy Perry – Prism ICONA POP Carl Acheson – Office Intern/Writer Robin Banks – James Bennett • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Illustrator – Senior Staff Writer Beauty • The Circulars – Self-Titled • Man or Astro-Man? – • Kanye West – Yeezus • The History Of Apple Pie Defcon 5...4...3...2...1 • Phosphorescent – – Out Of View • Daft Punk – Random Muchacho • Veronica Falls – Waiting Access Memories • Run The Jewels – for Something to Happen • Octopus Project – Fever ‘Tis the season—when SLUG contributors Self-Titled • First Times – Mono Forms tally up their favorite album releases of the • Odesza – My Friends Mono Ep • The Hold Steady – The Bear and the Maiden Fair 7” year and painfully pare those lengthy tomes Never Die EP • Peach Kelli Pop – Self-Titled II • William Tyler – into their Top 5 albums released in 2013. Impossible Truth The last 12 months produced a plethora of Ischa B. – Senior Staff Writer/ Brad Barker good records—all genres and tastes are Paden Bischoff Marketing – Ad Designer represented in these short lists, along with – Ad Designer • MiNX – 13 • AFI – Burials • Queens of the Stone highlighted reviews from some of our favorites, • MiNX – Golden • Pixies – EP1 Age – ... Like Clockwork including local outfit Light/Black, noise • Grossstadtgeflüster – • Placebo – Loud Like Love Sunbather witch Pharmakon, rapper Danny Brown, Oh, Ein Reh! • Queens of the Stone • Deafheaven – • Deltron 3030 – Event II • Daft Punk – Random Age – …Like Clockwork the down-home J.D. Wilkes and The Dirt Obsidian Access Memories • Gary Numan – Splinter • Baths – Daubers and more. • Pelican – Forever • Boards of Canada – (Songs From A Broken Becoming Tomorrow’s Harvest Mind)

Vertikal II foundation of sound as different Indie Recordings/ elements of the beat enter, one Density Records by one, to create a gigantic, Street: 09.21 fast-paced structure of hypnotic high energy. The track’s vocals Cult Of Luna = combine some vulture-like (Deafheaven – singing and sludge sounds with Cult Of Luna shoegaze) + electronica repeated words. Spreading out to 11 minutes long, the Ascending out of the black abyss opening vocals of “Shun The after five years of quietly lurking Mask” enact a searing catharsis, in the adumbrative shadows, Cult emitting sound that clutches of Luna released their album, my gut and slams it to the Vertikal I, which transcended ground. In conjunction with a the norm and boundaries of the purging caterwaul of sound, the typical metal wavelengths. With abhorrent yet melodic undertow all the cultivation and care that of guitar riffs move through

Photo: Erik Persson went into Vertikal I, however, waves of heavy drumbeats that the album did not illuminate are slow enough to eventually the full spectrum of sound change the mood and timing of that the band had intended to the song. The last song of Vertikal highlight. In 2013, Vertikal I was II, “Vincarious Redemption,” made whole, as Cult of Luna stands on the opposite side of introduced three extra songs the album’s soundscape as a and a remix on a separate EP: remix by Justin Broadrick of Vertikal II. II simultaneously orbits Godflesh, who has bestowed and eclipses I by employing the record with the electronic a mixture of layered sounds character that is expected of a and electronic patterns. The EP remix. Cult of Luna have shone a starts with “ORO,” a spiritual new light upon a separate path and gothic stillness that drags of metal ideologies. –Joshua effervescent waves of sound Joye across reverberated and bent vocals. “Light Chaser” gradually builds, beginning with a simple

34 SaltLakeUnderGround Old album: “Side B [Dope Song]” Fool’s Gold plunges us into some real trap Street: 10.08 shit, replete with guttural Lil Danny Brown = Dizzee Jon–style shouts and screwed Rascal + Wu-Tang Clan vocals as Brown sinks in a + Bootie Brown hedonistic sea of drugs, synth Danny Brown and pussy. “Dip,” “Smokin & Right from the first track (“Side Drinkin” and “Break It [Go]” A [Old]”), it’s obvious that this delve deep into endless nights ain’t that old Danny Brown of codeine double-cuppin’, shit. He takes us there, into MDMA and unspeakable sex his old life—his mom braiding acts. Danny Brown’s vision hair on the front porch (“25 and delivery transcend his Bucks”) and a crackhead subject matter, though. Stellar burning off his lip doing stove production by Purity Ring, Photo: Josh Wehle hits (“Torture”). But this is new SKYWLKR, Paul White and territory for Brown. Old strays others, coupled with Brown’s from the minimalist and vocal- humor and inventiveness, keeps centric emphasis of XXX and Old from devolving into simple the ’90s-worship of The Hybrid, masturbatory rap boasting and and shows that Brown is as achieves modern rap art. The versatile and conceptual as last track, “Float On,” gives ever. Old is more put-together, a much needed come-down, more focused around each as Charli XCX harmonizes song’s vibe or story. Dope with Brown’s screwed chorus fiends and heavy, millennial over a melancholy organ and hip-hop beats abound on the a minimal beat. It’s a backseat first half of the record. “Red 2 ride home after a long night, Go” switches it up with a manic and it melts the album together back beat and light, lilting into one cohesive picture—Old instrumentals—it’s preparation is at once wild, unnerving, for the second half of the disturbing and transcendent. –Cody Kirkland

Angela H. Brown – Dylan Chadwick – Melissa Cohn – • CHVRCHES – The Bones • Kid Cudi – Indicud Editor Senior Staff Writer/ Photographer of What You Believe • 2 Chainz – B.O.A.T.S. II • SubRosa – More Illustrator • letlive. #MeTime Dedication 5 Constant Than The Gods • Magic Circle – The Blackest Beautiful Alex Cragun – Copy • Lil Wayne – • The Knife – Shaking The – Self-Titled LP • Night Verses Editor/Writer Habitual • The Rival Mob – Lift Your Existence • Old Wounds – From Jeff Dixon • Nick Cave & The Bad – Mob Justice LP • Apollo – We Must Be Where We Came Is Where – Copy Editor Seeds – Push the Sky Away • Superchunk Feeling The Full Moon We’ll Rest • Disclosure – Settle • Pharmakon – Abandon – I Hate Music • Bring Me The Horizon – • Baby Gurl – A Name • Daft Punk – Random • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain • Milk Music Sempiternal And A Blessing Access Memories is Beauty – Cruise Your Illusion LP • Fall Out Boy – Save Rock • The Appleseed Cast – • Nine Inch Nails – • Violent Future and Roll Illumination Ritual Hesitation Marks Matt Brunk – Writer/ – Self-Titled EP • Kavinsky – OutRun • Late Night Alumni – The Marketing Kate Colgan – Web • Pharmakon – Abandon Beat Becomes A Sound • Anchoress – Set Sail Gilbert Cisneros – Developer • Goldfrapp – Tales of Us • Defeater – Letters Home Photographer • Black Milk – No Poison Perrylayne Deker- • Visitors – Nova EP • Baby Ghosts – Ghost in No Paradise Tate – Videographer Thy Doan • Real Friends – Put a Vacuum • First Light • Bonobo – Ad Designer Yourself Back Together • Polytype – B a s i c// – Fallacy Fantasy – The North Borders • Lorde – Pure Heroine • Off With Their Heads Complex • Ill Bill – The Grimy • Boards of Canada – • Daft Punk – Random – Home • Elway – Leavetaking Awards Tomorrow’s Harvest Access Memories • Kanye West – Yeezus • Moe Pope & Rain • Daft Punk – Random • Tegan and Sara – Phil Cannon – • Lake Island – Outermost – Let the Right Ones In Access Memories Heartthrob Illustrator/Distro • Natti – Still Motion • Odezsa – My Friends • Yeah Yeah Yeahs • Red Fang – Whales and Kate Clark – Never Die EP – Mosquito Leeches Marketing Weston Colton – • Big K.R.I.T. – King • The Civil Wars – • Clutch – Earth Rocker • The Black Angels – Photographer Remembered In Time Self-Titled • Alice In Chains – The Indigo Meadow • CocoRosie – Tales of a Devil Put Dinosaurs Here • Cosmonauts – Persona GrassWidow Billy Ditzig – Action Nicholas Dowd • Elvis Costello and The Non Grata • !!! – THR!!!ER Sports Sponsorship – Ad Designer Roots – Wise Up Ghost • Thee Oh Sees • Classixx Sales/Writer • Portugal. The Man – Evil – Floating Coffin • Carla Bruni – Little – Hanging Gardens • Kanye West – Yeezus Friends • Washed Out – Paracosm French Songs • Holy Ghost! – Dynamics • Justin Timberlake – The • Foals – Holy Fire Junip – Self-Titled 20/20 Experience • Foxygen – We Are the 36 SaltLakeUnderGround 21st Century Ambassadors ILLMATIC 2 John Ford • CHVRCHES – The Bones North of Peace & Magic • Isaiah Toothtaker – Nothing – Community De- of What You Believe • Janelle Monae – The • The Black Angels – velopment Executive/ • Power Trip – Manifest Electric Lady choice and every breath/ Indigo Meadow Decimation Rapor EP We’re Fucked Scott Farley – Writer Senior Staff Writer/ • Active Child – Effects [sic] the man that stands • Black Rebel Motorcycle Encapsulated • Norma Jean – Copy Editor/Distro before,” which, though it’s not Club – Specter At The Feast Records exactly Chaucer, weds the Wrongdoers • The National – Trouble Justin Gallegos Henry Glasheen Street: 06.11 visceral, Neanderthal nature • Bastions – Bedfellows: The Will Find Me – Writer – Senior Staff Writer Paul Duane – Galactic of their music to thoughtful, Bastard Son • SubRosa – More Constant • Dirty Beaches – Drifters/ • Atlantean Kodex – The Galactic Cannibal = (Off conceptual undertones. Woods Photographer • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Than the Gods Love Is the Devil White Goddess With Their Heads√The never wavers from his John • Steven Wilson – The Beauty • David Bowie – The Next • King Krule – 6 Feet • Solstice – Death’s Crown Templars) ± Negative Brannon–meets-Oi! bark from Raven That Refused to Sing • A Wilhelm Scream – Day Beneath The Moon is Victory EP Approach^The opener “Hate Everything More” • Gold Fields – Black Sun Partycrasher • Sound City Players – • Tomorrows Tulips – • Summoning – Old Cannibal Flatliners (San Antonio) and “Air Runs Dry,” where he • Pretty Lights – A Color • AFI – Burials Sound City: Real to Reel Experimental Jelly Mornings Dawn gnashes, “I’ll face the wall/And Map of the Sun • Daft Punk – Random • Fuzz – Self-Titled • Argus – Beyond the Pist, agitated and frothing at bash my face against/Slammed • RUSH – Vapor Trails Kamryn Feigel Access Memories • Foxygen – We Are the Martyrs the mouth, We’re Fucked erupts up against/Scream til my teeth (Remixed) 21st Century Ambassadors • Sulphur Aeon – Swal- with jovial violence meant as a – Writer break off.” Woods mutilates his • Anberlin – Devotion Of Peace & Magic lowed by the Ocean’s Tide blueprint for shout-alongs at live • Disclosure – Settle Brinley Froelich body in his lyrics, unifying this punk shows. Reviewers—and the • Kurt Vile – Wakin’ On A – Writer conceit with his throat-ruining Candida Duran – D. Bradford Gambles Gregory Gerulat band itself—have dichotomized Pretty Daze • Kurt Vile – Wakin’ on a screaming. His black-hole Galactic Cannibal’s sound as Videographer • Various Artists – Balance Pretty Daze – Illustrator – Writer ferocity not only reinvents the being “pop punk + hardcore,” • OK Ikumi – 10/13 Presents Guy J • my bloody valentine – m b v • Justin Bieber – Believe • Emiliana Torrini – Tookah trope of violence in this genre, which skirts that this record is • Ty Segall – Sleeper • The Black Angels – • Janelle Monae – The (Acoustic) • Grave Babies – Crusher but totally purges frustration a short, sharp shock of street • White Lies – Big TV Indigo Meadow Electric Lady • New Kids On the Block • Mammoth Grinder – and sarcastically abreacts to punk with its catchy gang vocals • Kool A.D. – 63 + 19 • Claude VonStroke – • Lightning Dust – Fantasy – 10 Underworlds internalized attacks in a fun and major-key progressions • The Airborne Toxic Event Urban Animal • TOKIMONSTA – Half • Michael Bublé – To Be • Shannon and the Clams way, such as with closer “Take it coupled with vocalist Peter J – Such Hot Blood Shadows Loved – Dreams in the Rat House from Me, Everything You’ve Ever Woods’ snarling assault. We’re Lexie Floor • Backstreet Boys – In a • Kanye West – Yeezus done is Fucked up & Horrible,” World Like This Fucked, however, transcends Dusk – Illustrator/ – Videographer Peter Fryer which starts with “You’re too Bangerz these sonic genre conventions Distro • Poliça – Shulamith • Miley Cyrus – Steven Goemaat dumb/Say it again and again – Senior Staff Writer with contemporary and relevant • Run The Jewels – • Lindi Ortega – Tin Star – Writer and again.” Psychoanalysis • Run The Jewels – album artwork, introspective Self-Titled • Goldfrapp – Tales of Us Kendal Gillett • The Front Bottoms aside, We’re Fucked is truly Self-Titled lyrics and zero mohawks, all • The Patriarch – Deniro • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is – Writer – Talon of the Hawk a party and half, and the • Witherscape while pipe-bombing the State. Farrar Beauty • Lorde – Pure Heroine • August Burns Red standout title track creates a – The Inheritance “The Breath Before” exemplifies • Kanye West – Yeezus • There Is No Mountain – • Otep – Hydra – Rescue & Restore pogo-appropriate atmosphere • Anamanaguchi this with nihilistic declarations • Isaiah Toothtaker – Self-Titled • Bad Religion – True with its upbeat rhythm and – Endless Fantasy of “Fuck your rules and fuck playful, single-note guitar solo. your codes,” following in –Alexander Ortega the next stanza with “Every

If You Leave handful of emotions that are Street: 03.13 welling up behind my eyes. Daughter = Rhye + The first song I heard from St. Vincent this album was “Tomorrow,” a • Daft Punk – Random – Loud City Song the Army Nate Housley Kahle G. Jackett painstakingly cathartic track Access Memories • Tropic Of Cancer – • Kanye West – Yeezus – Writer – Ad Designer It’s hard to put into words the that shatters my heart with • Man Overboard – Heart Restless Idylls • Iceage – You’re Nothing • Kanye West – Yeezus Attack • Alpay – Yekte (Reissue) emotions that Daughter’s full- a hammer. As Tonra sings, Samuel Hanson • Crash Of Rhinos – Knots • King Chip – 44108 Daughter • Talib Kweli – Prisoner of – Writer • Fuck Buttons – Slow • Dirt First – Compilation length debut, If You Leave, “Don’t bring tomorrow/’Cause Conscious Taylor Hale Focus Volume 2 bring up. Each time I turn it I already know I’ll lose you,” I • Lantern – Below – Writer Drifters • CHVRCHES – The Bones • Chance The Rapper – on, it’s as if Elena Tonra’s feel my heart breaking all over • Dirty Beaches – / Granato – Distro • Vampire Weekend – Love is the Devil of What You Believe Acid Rap voice is reaching deep into again—not for myself, but for Manager Modern Vampires of the City • Western Lows – Glacial • Savages – Silence • Johnny Polygon – The my soul and shaking up all her. The ache in her gentle • SubRosa – More • Moonface – Julia with • True Widow – Yourself Nothing of those miserable, broken- voice, mixed with the ever- Constant Than the Gods Blue Jeans On Circumambulation hearted experiences, and growing power of the music, • Ghostface Killah – • A$AP Ferg – Trap Lord • Mideau – Self-Titled Cody Hudson – LeAundra Jeffs then serving them back to me wraps itself around me, and Twelve Reasons to Die • Califone – Stitches Photo: Eliot Hazel Senior Staff Writer – Writer in a beautifully decorated, there are times when I feel as • The Uncluded – • Courtney Barnett – The Sean Hennefer • Kanye West – Yeezus • Radiation City – Animals melancholy cocktail. The album if I might drown in the sorrow Hokey Fright Double EP: A Sea of Split – Illustrator • Baths – Obsidian In The Median • Dessa – Parts of Speech Peas starts with “Winter” and Tonra that is floating through the • Deltron 3030 – Event II • Chance The Rapper – • Foxygen – We are the • Hank 3 – Brothers of telling of a loss: “Drifting apart speakers. Listening to If You • Deerhunter – Monomania Acid Rap 21st Century Ambassadors the 4X4 like two sheets of ice/Frozen Leave is a terrifyingly beautiful Trevor Hale – Writer • The Bronx – IV • Kurt Vile – Wakin’ On A of Peace & Magic • Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Daze • Portugal. The Man – Evil hearts growing colder with experience: There are moments • Vampire Weekend Traci Grant Hesitation Marks Modern Vampires of the City • A$AP Rocky – Long.Live. Friends time.” Tonra’s lyrics—paired of pure understanding and – – Copy Editor • Yeah Yeah Yeahs – • Wire – Change Becomes Us A$AP • Foals – Holy Fire with the sounds of her and others full of heartache. This • The GazettE – Beautiful Mosquito • Frightened Rabbit – Igor Haefeli’s guitars and is an album to listen to when Deformity • The Bronx – IV Dean O Hillis Chandler Hunt Pedestrian Verse Remi Aguilella’s steady but you want to feel something— • Ghostface Killah – Twelve • Kim Jaejoong – WWW – Writer – Marketing strong percussion—hypnotize anything at all. Like Tonra • Xia Junsu – Incredible Reasons to Die • Alison Moyet – The • Polyenso – One Big Joshua Joye says in “Touch”: “I’m dreaming Self-Titled • Low – The Invisible Way me every time. In “Smother,” • Miyavi – Minutes Particular Loop – Lead Designer • F.T. Island – Rated FT Tonra admits, “I’m a suffocator/ of strangers kissing me in • Erasure – Snow Globe • STRFKR – Miracle Mile • Cult Of Luna – Vertikal II Sometimes I wish I’d stayed the night/Just so I can feel Ryan Hall • Pet Shop Boys – Electric • Dance Gavin Dance – • Russian Circles – inside my mother/Never to something.” –Karamea Puriri Timo H. – Writer – Senior Staff Writer • The Mynabirds – Acceptance Speech Memorial come out.” Each time I hear • The Haxan Cloak – • Earn – Hell on Earth Generals: Remixed • Drake – Nothing Was • Integrity – Suicide Black those words, I swallow the Excavation • Cousins – Bathhouse LP • Madonna – MDNA the Same Snake • Vangelis – Blade Runner • Akron/Family – Sub World Tour • True Widow – • SubRosa – More OST (Remastered) Verses Circumambulation Constant Than the Gods • Julia Holter • Mike Shiflet – The Choir, • Full Of Hell – Rudiments Of Mutilation Megan Kennedy – Echogenetic Senior Staff Writer/ Nick Kuzmack Ben Melini CJ Morgan – Writer • Die Sektor – (-)existence Photographer – Writer – Photographer • Bibio – Silver Wilkinson • Informatik – Playing With Fire • Norma Jean – • King Khan & The Shrines • AFI – Burials • Wavves – Afraid of Wrongdoers – Idle No More • Dropkick Murphys – Heights • Protest The Hero – • The Booze – At Signed and Sealed in Blood • Bullets & Belles – Eric Norris – Writer Volition Maximum Volume (Reissue) • Transplants – In a Be Glad • Dropkick Murphys – • TesseracT – Altered State • Golden Singles Records Warzone • Born Ruffians – Signed and Sealed in Blood • Old Wounds – From – The Clash Goes Jamaican • The Old Firm Casuals – Birthmarks • Flatbush Zombies – Where We Came Is Where • Las Kellies – Total For the Love of It All... • Deer Tick – Negativity Better Off Dead Mixtape We’ll Rest Exposure • Bad Religion – True • Two Cow Garage – The • Anchoress – Set Sail • Pat Todd & The Rankout- North Dan Nailen Death of the Self-Preserva- siders – 14th & Nowhere – Soundwaves From tion Society Maiden Cody Kirkland – Esther Meroño The Underground • Iron Maiden – England ’88 Digital Content Coor- Ashlee Mason – Managing Editor Host • Bad Religion – True North dinator/Senior Staff – Writer • my bloody valentine – • Queens of the Stone • my bloody valentine – m b v Age – ...Like Clockwork Writer/Copy Editor Amanda Nurre • Danny Brown – Old m b v • Wavves – Afraid of • Neko Case – The Worse • Atoms For Peace – Amok • Daft Punk – Random Ac- Heights Things Get, The Harder I –Writer The Beast in • Yo La Tengo – Fade cess Memories • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Fight. The Harder I Fight, • Josh Ritter – Its Tracks • King Tuff – Was Dead • The Flaming Lips – The Beauty The More I Love You About • The Circulars – Self-Titled Terror • Vaadat Charigim – • Parquet Courts – Light • Alela Diane – • Washed Out – Parcosm The World Is Well Lost Up Gold Farewell • Tig Notaro – Live • The Circulars – Self-Titled • The Avett Brothers – Tim Kronenberg – • Jason Isbell – Rachel Miller Southeastern Magpie and the Dandelion Community Devel- Kia McGinnis – Writer – Copy Editor • Meat Puppets – Rat Farm • Austin Lucas opment Executive/ Stay Reckless • James Blake – • Woodkid – The Golden –

Writer/Distro Overgrown Age Mistress Nancy • Keaton Henson – • STRFKR – Miracle Mile • Washed Out – Paracosm Birthdays • Depeche Mode – Delta – Writer/Distro • Islands – Ski Mask • Widowspeak – The Machine • Covenant – Leaving • Pickwick – Can’t Talk Swamps EP • Front Line Assembly – Babylon Adam Okeefe Medicine • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is Echogenetic • Kevorkian Death Cycle – – Distro • Juicy J – Stay Trippy Beauty • KMFDM – Kunst God Am I • Covenant – Leaving • Bad Religion – True • A$AP Rocky – Long.Live. • The Black Angels – • Front Line Assembly – Babylon North A$AP Indigo Meadow

Wild Moon Chess Records sound and Plowboy even some early rhythm and Street: 09.24 blues influences. Although I’ve J.D. Wilkes and the Dirt been a longtime fan of J.D., J.D. Wilkes and Daubers = Rick Estrin it’s the tracks on which Jessica + Koko Taylor + Dex takes lead vocals that impress Romweber me the most, which free up J.D. to wail out harmonica riffs the Dirt Daubers Earlier this year, I was stunned like only he can. “River Song” and saddened to hear of the is the thesis piece of Wild breakup of Th’ Legendary Moon, with the addition of a Shack Shakers, the band horn section combined with that Col. J.D. Wilkes fronted the way the band charges and took from obscurity to through with a burst of vintage prominence. With the exit of sounds and oomph to spare. longtime bass player Mark With the exception of “Hidey Robinson, Wilkes decided Hole,” which could be a more to start a new chapter with his subdued Shack Shakers tune, Photo: Joshua Black Wilkins wife, Jessica Wilkes, who Wild Moon takes jump blues, was already a part of J.D.’s and early rock n’ roll and mountain string band, The makes it explode with zeal Dirt Daubers. Jessica takes and fury. Rod Hamdalla on bass playing and shares transitions nicely from his short lead vocal duties in the new stint as a Shack Shaker, and incarnation. Though the name brings depth and litheness to was carried over, J.D. Wilkes his guitar work. You can bet and the Dirt Daubers bring that the future holds something along influences from mountain different, remarkable and folk and the delta blues to abnormal for J.D. and the new territory. The band has gang. –James Orme taken a more cosmopolitan approach, bringing out the

40 SaltLakeUnderGround • Kurt Vile – Wakin’ On A • Mideau – Self-Titled Song – Engravings Steve Thueson Pretty Daze • Famous Relatives • Thee Oh Sees – – Illustrator Self-Titled Turn Deserves Another” and • Red Fang – Whales and – Electric Signals Floating Coffin Stakerized! – Writer • RVIVR – The Beauty Leeches • Searching For Celia – • The Flaming Lips – The Self-Released “Red Desert,” where you’re Between White Flag Logan Sorenson Terror • Caves – Betterment Street: 05.25 attacked from all angles by Christian Schultz – Photographer • Superchunk – I Hate Music • Radioactivity – Self-Titled Light/Black = True Levi Lebo’s and Danielle Allison Shephard – • Eels – Wonderful, Glorious – Writer • The Fratellis – We Need • Crusades – Perhaps You Marriott’s riffs and solos. • Queens of the Stone Age Widow + Chelsea Wolfe • Waxahatchee Writer/Copy Editor Medicine Deliver This Judgement – ...Like Clockwork x INVDRS Joshua Asher and his – Cerulean Salt • Phoenix – Bankrupt! • Arctic Monkeys – AM With Greater Fear Than I • Quasi – Mole City pounding drums—given with • The Knife – Shaking The • Daughter – If You Leave • Daft Punk – Random Receive It LIGHT/BLACK When talking shop over such force and fury, you’d Habitual • Washed Out – Paracosm Access Memories • Paint it Black – Invisible Negativity Jamie Stott – Writer recordings, you sometimes swear there’s a pile of broken • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is • Deer Tick – • Moshe Kasher – Live in • Grouplove – Spreading • Iration – Automatic hear of bands “catching drumsticks laying at his feet— Beauty Oakland Benjamin Tilton • CHVRCHES – The Bones Rumours • Crash Kings – Dark of the • The Naked and Famous lightning in a bottle” with guide you through songs like – Writer Of What You Believe Daylight – In Rolling Waves • Bastille – Bad Blood their music. If that analogy “The Company You Keep” • The Circulars – Self-Titled Talyn Sherer • Tim McGraw – Two Lanes • Frightened Rabbit – rings true, Light/Black didn’t of Freedom and “Skeleton Witch.” Of – Photographer Shawn Soward Pedestrian Verse • Tegan and Sara – Heart- just bottle it, they christened course, the standout is Carri Robin Sessions – • Cage the Elephant • Major Lazer – Free the – Copy Editor throb their amps with it. Make no Wakefield, commanding Photographer/Office – Melophobia Universe • Sigur Rós – Kveikur • Katchafire – Best So Far Photo: Helen Leeson mistake, the way they wrote her bass while her calming Intern • Dirty Heads – Home – • L’anarchiste – The Traveler • Surfer Blood – Pythons and structured this album vocals soothe you into each • Daughter – If You Leave Phantoms of Summer: The • Ellie Goulding • Kongos – Lunatic Acoustic Sessions ThatGuyGil was no accident, nor did track, snaring you in before • Braids – Flourish // Perish – Halcyon Days Hawai’i ‘13 – Photographer they cater to any minor niche • STRFKR – Miracle Mile • The Green – • Capitol City – In a Tidal Kelli Tompkins the full-frontal assault of noise • Funeral For A Friend • Family Force 5 – group who may not like a • Wavves – Afraid of Wave of Mystery – Ad Designer hits you right in the heart. Heights – Conduit • Lorde – Pure Heroine ReAnimated certain kind of tone. This is • Laura Mvula – Sing To From start to finish, this is • Dream Panther – Beyoncé’s • MGMT – Self-Titled • Mindless Self Indulgence – The Moon a fucking good, heavy rock How I Learned To Stop Giving an album that just seeps Child Alex Springer – Writer • Mala Rodríguez – Bruja A Shit And Love Mindless Self album constructed by some into you. It requires no deep Gavin Sheehan – Rheanna Sonnichsen – Reflektor • Juana Molina – Wed 21 • Arcade Fire – Indulgence of the best musicians SLC has explanation or over-thinking Office Coordinator/ Writer • HAIM – Days Are Gone • Savages – Silence • Amon Amarth – Deceiver of to offer. If you didn’t know • Deltron 3030 – City Rising Yourself as to why a heavy rock album SFTU Producer/Se- • Phosphorescent the Gods From the Ashes EP – Muchacho • Janelle Monae – The any better, you’d swear this of this nature works. Simply nior Staff Writer • GWAR – Battle Maximus • Spindrift – Ghost of the West • Yeah Yeah Yeahs Electric Lady was made just for themselves, • Light/Black – Self-Titled • KiD CuDi – Indicud put: It just sounds great and • Fuck Buttons – Slow Focus • SubRosa – More Constant – Mosquito and if you just happen to like deserves your undivided Loud City Than the Gods • Julia Holter – • Forest Swords it, good for you. Some of attention. –Gavin Sheehan the best tracks on the album have to be “One Good

m b v undoubtedly blood-related Self-Released to the now-diefied Loveless, • Blondes – Swisher We’re Fucked • Daughter – If You Leave • Torres – Self-Titled • Earl Sweatshirt – Doris Street: 02.02 but repeat listens reveal its • Nick Cave & The Bad • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is • CocoRosie – Tales of a • Arcade Fire – Reflektor • Tomahawk – Oddfellows my bloody valentine = maturation from the latter’s Seeds – Push the Sky Away Beauty GrassWidow • Tyler, the Creator – Wolf Pink Floyd’s The Dark skinless sensitivity to an album • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is • Cornered By Zombies – • Polytype – B a s i c// • Ben Harper with Charlie my bloody comprised of more thoughtful Amanda Rock Side Of The Moon + My Beauty Hury Up And Wait Complex Musselwhite – Get up! – Writer So Called Life + Ride litanies than nervous ballads. m • Suede – Bloodsports Forever • Holograms – • Queens of the Stone b v begins in whispers with “she Lenny Riccardi Age – ... Like Clockwork Julia Sachs – Writer found now” and a subdued Angela Sunny Oliver Liz Phillips Twenty years of rumors, side – Design Team • Yeah Yeah Yeahs – • Flux Pavilion – Blow The valentine projects and silence after my taste of bendy guitars; “only – Copy Editor – Copy Editor Roof EP • Mina Knock – Mosquito bloody valentine’s Kevin tomorrow” picks up the fuzz, • CHVRCHES – The Bones • Man Man – On Oni Pond The Vista EP • Major Lazer – Free The • Nine Inch Nails – Shields announced the swimming in reverb. “is this of What You Believe • Polytype – B a s i c// • KiD CuDi – Indicud Hesitation Marks Universe band’s progress on a follow- and yes” serves as an angelic • Fierce Bad Rabbit – The Complex • Nine Inch Nails – • Vampire Weekend • Kanye West – Yeezus respite; “new you” throws back Maestro and the Elephant • Recondite – Ec10 Hesitation Marks – Modern Vampires of • Krewella – Get Wet up to their shoegaze genesis, • Dresses – Sun Shy • Bonobo – The North • Janelle Monáe – The the City • Little Boots – Nocturnes Loveless, my bloody valentine to ‘88 mbv with an identifiable • Fitz and the Tantrums – Borders Electric Lady • Nick Cave & The Bad self-released m b v along with melody. “in another way” More Than Just A Dream • Glasser – Interiors • CHVRCHES – The Bones Seeds – Push the Sky Away Michael Sanchez Photo: Anna Meldal a deep sigh of relief—and a combines galactic keys with • The Men – New Moon of What You Believe – Writer few computer glitches. The a bouncy guitar rhythm, while Chad Pinckney Mason Rodrickc • Nick Cave & the Bad past couple of years have dug the upbeat locomotion of James Orme – Design Team Steve Richardson – Design Team Seeds – Push The Sky Away up bands long in the grave, “nothing is” provides a “Laser – Senior Staff Writer • Run the Jewels – – Writer • Bombadil – Metrics of • Yeah Yeah Yeahs Floyd” experience that barrels • JD Wilkes and the Dirt thirsting for a second round of Self-Titled • Bleached – Ride Your Affection – Mosquito Daubers – Wild Moon youth, pandering to Millenials into the final “wonder 2”—an • letlive. – The Blackest Heart • Neko Case – The Worse • Eureka The Butcher • Deke Dickerson – with synthetic nostalgia and amalgamation of the album’s Beautiful Things Get, The Harder I – Music For Mothers Echosonic Eldorado • Soviet Soviet – Fate stale new releases. Though tracks. m b v has been a part of • Balance and Compo- • The Thermals – Fight, The Harder I Fight, • Portugal. The Man – • Nikki Hill – Here Is the public’s consciousness since sure – The Things We Think Desperate Ground The More I Love You Evil Friends the band is the brainchild of • Bad Religion – True We’re Missing • Coheed and Cambria Irish teenagers in the ‘90s, 1996—highly anticipated, North • Drew Danburry – • David Huntsberger – • Night Verses – Lift Your Becoming Bastian Salazar Explosion Land – The Afterman: Descension my bloody valentine’s m b v fantasized, dramatized. It’s • Swinging Utters – Poorly Existence • Holograms – Forever • Radical Face – The stands out as an organic output rare for anything in life to Formed • Gold Fields – Black Sun Family Tree: The Branches Lance B. Saunders incubated into perfection and satisfy hopeful expectation,

Mike Riedel – Writer • Braids – Flourish // Perish – Writer birthed at just the right moment but my bloody valentine have Alexander Ortega Karamea Puriri – • Yeah Yeah Yeahs – • ON AN ON – Give In to head our generation’s restored faith in patience with – Editorial Assistant Marketing Manager Mosquito Darcy Russell • Daft Punk – Random reclamation of ‘90s attitude this rewarding release. • Skeletonwitch – Serpents • Pharmakon – Abandon • David Bowie – – Writer Access Memories and aesthetic. The album is –Esther Meroño Unleashed • Chelsea Wolfe – The Next Day • Red Fang – Whales and • The National – Trouble • Galactic Cannibal – Pain is Beauty • Lorde – Pure Heroine Leeches Will Find Me Abandon delight. I can’t decipher her Sacred Bones words (even with headphones Records on), but I feel like there’s no need to. This is the artistry Street: 05.28 Pharmakon = of Pharmakon—to transcend Peter “Sleazy” verbal language through sound. Without sentences or Pharmakon Christopherson + Lydia syntax, the emotions behind her Lunch + KK NULL intense, ear-grinding melodies Margaret Chardiet crafts are left open for the listener to industrial noise music under interpret. Chardiet continues to the project name Pharmakon. confront listeners with the EP’s Over the past few years, she next two tracks, “Ache” and has slowly built a name for “Pitted,” ending the four-song herself (and her friends) in an EP with my favorite, “Crawling isolated music bunker located On Bruised Knees.” In this Photo: Jane Chardiet in the Far Rockaway, NYC. track, Chardiet sounds witch- Chardiet’s work is intended like with layered effects on her to be experienced live, but voice. The beats are constant, for those of us who have simplistic and entrancing not had this opportunity, the like the early work of cEvin Abandon EP is a substitution. Key (Skinny Puppy). The The opening track, “Milkweed/ result is both frightening and It Hangs Heavy,” immediately delightful. Pharmakon is an challenges the listener with a ancient Greek term for both shrill, six-second scream. The poison and remedy. Abandon scream slowly melts into an will be poisonous to music electronic soundscape of soft lovers unaccustomed to noise voiceovers, banging metal music. For those of us seeking and a low, hypnotic beat. new talent in a genre that has Minutes later, Chardiet yowls felt dead for over a decade, some sort of chorus in cathartic Pharmakon’s Abandon is the remedy. –Angela H. Brown

Xkot Toxsik – Distro Rebecca Vernon • Bring Me the Horizon Thy Kingdom Cum • The KVB – Immaterial – Copy Editor – Sempiternal Mame Wallace – • Devin Townsend – The Visions • In Solitude – Sister • Juicy J – Stay Trippy Writer Retinal Circus

• Anika – Self-Titled EP • Wolvserpent – Perigaea • Daft Punk – Random • The Obliterate Plague – • Tamar Braxton – Love The Wrath of Cthulhu • The Moths – Self-Titled Antahkarana Access Memories and War • Cerekloth – In the Midst of • Michael Biggs – Gold • Corrections House – Last • Boys Noize – Go Hard Life We Are in Death • The Knife – Shaking the City Zero Laikwan Waigwa- EP Habitual • Deafheaven – Sunbather Stone – Copy Editor • Justin Timberlake – The Andy Wright • Integrity – Suicide Black • Float the Boat – 20/20 Experience – Photographer Ben Trentelman – Snake Basement Tsunami • Major Lazer – Free the • Devendra Banhart – Mala Senior Staff Writer • Librarian of Babel Universe • Yeah Yeah Yeahs – • my bloody valentine – Ricky Vigil – Shaky Trade and the Last • The Lonely Island – The Mosquito m b v – Senior Staff Writer Crusade Set Break Wack Album • Foxygen – We Are the • The Julie Ruin – Run Fast • Run the Jewels – • Justin Timberlake – The 21st Century Ambassadors to Catie Weimer – Peace & Magic • Phoenix – Bankrupt! Self-Titled 20/20 Experience • The National – Trouble Will • Queens of the Stone • Night Birds – Born to Die • Various Artists – Les Social Media Find Me Age – …Like Clockwork in Suburbia Misérables Soundtrack Coordinator Floating • Nine Inch Nails – (Deluxe Edition) • Altar of Plagues – Teethed • Thee Oh Sees – • Modern Life is War – Coffin Hesitation Marks Fever Hunting • Skrillex – Leaving EP Glory and Injury • SubRosa – More • Deafheaven – Sunbather Sean Zimmerman-Wall Maria Valenzuela Constant Than the Gods Devin Wakefield • Chelsea Wolfe – Pain is – Senior Staff Writer – Copy Editor • Crusades – Perhaps You – Ad Designer Beauty • Pretty Lights – A Color Map • Edward Sharpe and Deliver This Judgement • Daft Punk – Random • Nick Cave & the Bad Of The Sun the Magnetic Zeros – With Greater Fear Than I Access Memories Seeds – Push the Sky Away • Dizzee Rascal – The Fifth Self-Titled Receive It • Ylvis – The Fox • Shannon and the • Daft Punk – Random Ac- • Phoenix – Bankrupt! • Lorde – Pure Heroine Clams – Dreams in the Rat cess Memories • Lorde – Pure Heroine Jake Vivori – Photog- • Various Artists – The House • Talib Kweli – Prisoner of Conscious • 30 Seconds to Mars – rapher/Action Sports Great Gatsby Soundtrack Love Lust Faith + Dreams Bryer Wharton – • Jay Z – Magna Carta… Sponsorship Sales • The Clash – The Clash • Childish Gambino – Senior Staff Writer Holy Grail • We Came As Romans Hits Back Because The Internet • Cultes Des Ghoules – – Tracing Back Roots Henbane • Daughter – If You Leave • Profanatica –

slugmag.com 45 Colin Brophy—Backside Smith—Salt Lake City, Utah

By Weston Colton / westoncolton.com It’s been over six years since sketchy double rail got I’ve shot photos with Colin me pretty excited to shoot Brophy. We met up on a here. After years of nobody Saturday without much of touching this rail, Colin a plan and ended up at landed a frontside 5-0 and this spot on the east side of this backside Smith within a Downtown. The architecture, week of each other. the typography and the

46 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 47 Blue Microphone Chrome Industries Crosley’s Spinerrette USB Turntable hits sound-related. The rechargeable bat- Nessie Cardiel ORP X T19 most of my pleasure centers. It’s totally tery pack (that can be purchased for portable, folds up into a convenient an additional fee) rules, too, because bluemic.com chromeindustries.com carrying case, has great sound (es- it stays juiced for unreal amounts of The Cardiel ORP X T19 is a small, pecially for such a small player) and time and it can charge anything com- lightweight eyecatcher that, when used mine’s a nice burnt orange, so it match- patible with a USB cable—I utilized within its means, is an awesome bag. es all my autumn decor. The record- its charge for my phone. I noticed that I don’t recommend it for your grocer- ing software—basically just an open- power seems to be a big factor with ies though: I carried a half-gallon of source version of Audacity—is decent sound quality when using audio-relat- milk and some other things home on as well. Though it took me a good 45 ed devices. The Jammy plays perfectly my bike and quickly found out that milk minutes to figure out, the recorded out- off of the battery pack, but when you jugs and tuna cans don’t feel that awe- put sounds basically the same as the power it off of something like a com- some digging into your back as you try record, making it a great resource for puter, the white noise is noticeable. to make your way home. I got the best collector scum/blog foragers like me. That being said, it’s not really built use out of this bag when I was hauling My major complaints come from the to be a heavy-duty amplifier, but it softer goods. My tool kit, spare shoes construction of the product: While it serves the intended purpose well and and extra clothes fit perfectly and were looks nice, it’s hard to get over how can help out when you need to impro- easily accessible whenever I needed to damn plasticky it feels. The needle/ vise. The last plus is that Jammypacks get to them, and the roll-top kept my arm feels a bit flimsy, and I definitely come in a huge variety of colorways. things dry as a bone the few times I foresee having to replace it in the fu- I definitely won’t be going on adven- got caught in shit weather. I do have ture. Still, it doesn’t claim to be a full-on tures without one of these this winter. a gripe with the laptop pocket being stereo system or a centerpiece for your –Tim Kronenberg on the back of the bag. The human living room, so pretentious audiophiles back curves a little when you’re riding, would best look elsewhere. Ultimately, Roku and it’s nice when your bag has give I’d recommend it for its recording capa- Roku 3 and can follow the shape of the your bilities alone. The portability is a nice roku.com body so you don’t have a 15-inch alu- touch, though. –Dylan Chadwick minum slab directly against your spine With 80 percent of the country be- while you ride to and from the office. Jammypack ing gouged by Xfinity for $150-plus a If you’re a major tech nerd or podcast Despite my few discrepancies, I do Jammy and recharge- month, chances are, you’re dying to tell listener, you might already have a pod- like this bag for what it is, which is a them to go fuck themselves. Well, Roku cast or are building one at the moment. simple backpack that is perfect for an able battery pack is bringing you at least one step closer For those looking for an easy way to overnight trip or going to the store for jammypack.com to that dream with their streaming tele- do it, there are various ways of making snacks. –Carl Acheson Whoever’s abandoned all hope for vision system. At $99.99, the Roku 3 is it happen through software, but noth- fanny packs has clearly never had a about the size of a hockey puck and ing can substitute for a good micro- Crosley Jammy. The thing feels durable, has uses as much power as a nightlight, but phone. Blue Microphones, the minds Spinerrette USB Turn- multiple divider pockets on the inside the TV service it provides is phenome- nal. Most of the channels are free (Dis- behind the Yeti and Snowball mics, table and you can detach the speaker so have just released Nessie, a 10-inch it can be used for virtually anything ney, PBS, FoxNow) or require a small rockinrecordplayers.com stand-alone USB microphone custom monthly subscription (HBO GO, MLB. made for home music recordings and TV, Vudu). But the Big Three you want podcasting. While it comes with your are Hulu Plus, Netflix and Amazon In- standard volume control, three record stant, which will cover 90 percent of settings and headphone jack, the ad- the content you already watch. Just justable head makes for some adaptive add and remove channels (all HD) to vertical positions. It doesn’t hurt that it’s your favorites, which include over 100 a plug-and-play, not to mention the different movie channels and 50 TV base is designed to sit on a table and content providers, plus games, if that never move! Sadly, being a P&P USB interests you, all streamed via wi-fi. The mic, it doesn’t quite capture the kind of downsides: You need an HDMI cable, audio you’d get from an XLR. But with HDTV and a fast Internet connection. the right editing software on whatever The upsides: It has a wi-fi remote with program you’re recording with, it’s an headphones (in case you use it in the easy cleanup. A $99 pricetag—com- bedroom) and if you just do the three pared to the nearly $400 you might big streaming services and pay for spend on a proper studio board and the box, your total for TV will come to microphone set­—doesn’t hurt either. roughly $280 a year. If you want TV It’s an awesome mic for anyone just without the jerk providers, this is the starting to experiment with home re- way you need to go. –Gavin Sheehan cording. –Gavin Sheehan

48 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 49 Illustration: Thueson Steve

Dear Copper; stand in a public place with signs begging for money. I can’t think Much like 2/3 of the city, we’ve got a of anything, except for maybe homeless problem. There’s a guy we’re open-air market drug dealing, calling The Prospector squatting in a that diminishes the quality of life parking lot next to our place. He’s a more. Ask all the ex-patrons of dumpster diver, laundry thief, door and the Gateway Mall or its movie window checker, possible drug holder theater about bums and their and been caught breaking into cars signs. They’ve gladly switched to to sleep overnight. He’s had the cops City Creek and other theaters. called on him several times and never hauled off, the owner’s of the parking lot Every time you give a bum won’t toss his shanty duplex out for fear money, you are perpetuating he’ll break their windows, and moving drug dealing, drug and alcohol isn’t an option for us right now. What abuse, robberies and theft. The can the cops do to help us, and others in bleeding hearts are actually our kind of situation out? causing people to be victims of violent crime and are assisting a Love; heroin addict to get high. Please, Bat-Wielding Couple use the homeless meter or donate money directly to the shelters as Dear Bat Team: it will go to the legit homeless.

Just the other day I watched a What can the cops do? What their bum at 210 Rio Grande take administration tells them to do. In a dump right on the sidewalk. April 2013, drug dealing among Only your stick will de-motivate the street people was so bad, the this disrespectful piece of trash SLCPD was going to double their from doing that in your yard. efforts to stop the illegal activity. However, in September 2013, it Several actions or inactions have was actually worse and even the greatly exacerbated the bum coppers called it close to out of problem in Salt Lake County. control. In response to the drug I don’t want to call criminals dealing being “out of control,” homeless. Homeless are people the PD Administration decided to and families who have lost “reboot” the initial “doubling.” their homes. They’re using legit If you go watch the shelter area homeless services to get back on and Pioneer Park today, even their feet. They’re respectful and after the reboot of the doubling, law abiding, go to work each you’ll see an open-air drug day, and their numbers aren’t market. However, SLC’s Top Cop, huge. Ask these legit homeless Chris Burbank, has come up with what they think about living a plan that no doubt will finally around all the bums you describe solve the drug-dealing problem. above. Their horror stories are It’s called “Knock It Off.” way worse than ours. When it comes to enforcing drug I’m referring to the street trash dealing laws, the SLCPD suffers who live and breathe as self- from Multiple Drug-Dealing induced substance abusers with Policy Disorder. Until the Top resulting mental illness. Yes, real Cop decides to enforce the law, mentally ill people do end up on or telling the dealers to “Knock the street. However, go hang It Off” actually works, the area out among the folks down by will continue to decline with legit the shelters, and you’ll quickly homeless and heroin addicts see that they are few and the suffering the most. Make moving criminal trash are many. an option to get as far away from the bum epicenter as you The courts in Utah have ruled can get, or relocate to a city that it free speech for the bums to won’t tolerate illicit bum activity. 50 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 51 I’m on a goat, muthafuckas!

Disney Infinity away the weapons and overpowering protagonists and encourages players Avalanche Software/ to run and hide from their enemies in- Disney Interactive stead. As Miles Upshur, Outlast hands the player a night-vision-equipped digi- Studios tal camcorder and opens the door to an Reviewed on: Xbox 360 insane asylum—the player quickly be- Also on: PS3, Wii, Wii U comes trapped in a race to survive long Street: 08.18 enough to escape. The physicality and atmosphere of the game is unbeatable, Disney Infinitytakes the formula al- showcased in places like the player’s ready proven by the less well-branded heavy breathing when hiding from Skylanders—wherein the purchase of searching enemies, visible legs and expensive, real-world figures trans- arms when free-running away from en- lates directly into new content for the emies, and the constant, deep darkness game—and includes characters and broken up only by glowing enemy eyes. content from the much-adored Disney Outlast is a unique and thrilling expe- roster to sweeten the pot. Bringing your rience, occasionally marred by some figures to life rarely gets old, and the tedious encounters and confusing level free-roam and level editor–based Toy design, but well worth playing through Box modes allow you to switch char- at least once. –Matt Brunk acters at will. The controls are solid, the art style is a gorgeous, whimsical toy-themed wonderland, and it’s a Pokémon X and Y brainless blast to play. I’d recommend it Game Freak/Nintendo wholeheartedly to any parent or child- Reviewed on: 3DS (exclu- at-heart gamer, aside from one signifi- sive) cant caveat: This game is expensive. Starter Packs are already a significant Street: 10.12 investment, but so is every other content After 15 years, I still can’t stop playing pack, and don’t get me started on the Pokémon. I’ve been playing it for over necessary booster pack “Power Discs.” half my life, and with every new install- You get quality figurines, but it’s de- ment, I play for hours. As I rollerbladed signed from the ground up to suck cash through the Kalos countryside, I was out of your wallet at the speed of light. amazed at how beautiful the world Easily addicted collectors beware—Dis- was. Lilac and yellow flowers lined the ney is coming for you. –Matt Brunk rivers that flowed through the region, and those rivers were especially gor- Outlast geous. Pokémon finally come to life in the battles with sharper graphics and Red Barrels constant movements—now evolving Reviewed on: PC even in battle. Malva of the Elite Four is Also on: Playstation 4 (TBA) the most beautiful battle in the game— Street: 09.04 she commands fire Pokémon, so there are lots of pyrotechnics. The multiplayer Survival horror has been scarce lately, features have been updated well. Use with the Resident Evil and Silent Hill se- of the 3D is limited, however, which ac- ries beginning to eschew their defining tually irked me a bit. There’s also a bug traits for more action-heavy gameplay. that’ll eat your saved game if you’re Even F.E.A.R. and Dead Space are not careful. It’s still the most gorgeous packed with plenty of shooter DNA Pokémon game to date, and the new from the start. Fans have begged for a features are fantastic, so I’ll be playing revival of their precious survival horror, it for many more hours. –Ashley Lippert and have been recently rewarded for their tenacity. A newer generation strips 52 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 53 Incidental Contact Jessica, was truly a CIA agent or was Andy Wright completely bat-shit crazy—her elaborate stories of being an agent, having cancer Self-Published and her house being destroyed by a nat- Street: 10.18 ural disaster revealed that there were no boundaries she would not cross to do as she pleased. Whether it was insanity or manipulation, she betrayed a man who was blinded by his love for her. I was delighted that Matt found his ground and provided a stable environment for his adopted son, Manny, while he dealt with the trials of a clearly emotionally unstable woman. –Mistress Nancy Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith William Todd Schultz Bloomsbury USA, New York Street: 10.01

Anyone with a camera can be a photog- rapher, but not every photographer can be an artist. Incidental Contact is a self- published, handprinted book of local artist Andy Wright’s photos—and not a single one is of someone snowboarding. This captionless compilation of black- and-white photographs reeks of artistic talent evidenced beyond the subject and quality of the photos. Each photo speaks for itself: engaging, political, entertain- ing and shocking. With every page turn, the arrangement of the photos, whether as a full-spread, side-by-side or in fourths, proves to be just as thoughtful a process as the single shots. The photos connect in each spread, sometimes obvi- ously, but mostly in subtle ways that sur- Elliott Smith has had a permanent spot face a story if you take the time to look in my CD collection since the ’90s, back and think—like a page from Magic Eye. when people had CD collections. His Overall, Incidental Contact is opinionat- dark, deeply personal lyrics revealed a ed, provocative, offensive, hilarious, ag- sensitive but deeply troubled soul. Smith gravating and inquisitive—it’s America, has been gone 10 years now, dead it’s youth, it’s adventure—and there are from a (likely) self-inflicted knife wound only 150 copies. I bought lucky #13. to the heart. Fans have had little in the Get yours now by emailing info@andy- way of closure until now. The first prop- wrightphoto.com. –Esther Meroño er biography of Elliot Smith is Torment Saint. This book shares intimate details Leaving Salt Lake City of Smith’s life and downward spiral. Matthew Timion Shultz writes in a caring, respectful way Self-Released of the late singer/songwriter. Beginning Street: 04.15 with Smith’s tragic childhood and end- This book is a fantastic read about self- ing with his surrender to addiction: al- discovery in an environment where it is cohol, heroin, crack and a “man purse” normal to be abnormal. It takes you on of prescription drugs he carried around. the journey of a man who finds himself Schultz attempts to shed light on the life after he had religion forced down his of one of the most poignant and delicate throat and how he learned to live health- talents of the ’90s. Torment Saint is an ily again without it. A beautiful love sto- emotional book and often hard to read. ry starts out with a couple falling in love Smith’s empathy, compassion and hu- and offering their home to three children mor only made the sad parts worse. The in need, but that is very short-lived. As book left me with closure and a deeper time passes, Matt faces a tangled web understanding of where Smith’s music of deceit and infidelity. During the first originated. It’s like listening to his songs few chapters, I was on the edge of again for the first time. –Amanda Rock my seat trying to figure out if his wife, 54 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 55 Andrew Goldring me every time. Bridges is a damn solid plainspoken warmth that comforts my of drama is appropriate, never over- start, and I’m looking forward to see- cynical heart, just like a good chicken staying its welcome or outweighing the Forgotten Harvest EP ing what they come up with next. –Matt pot pie. –Taylor Hale music, and there are some instrumental Self-Released Brunk breaks, such as in “Where Are You Street: 06.23 Cedars Now?” which seem like they’d be fun to Andrew Goldring = my B & Company The Doorman’s Cove play—all trills and long echoes. Also, bloody valentine + Dinosaur the drums sound fantastic. The qual- The World Is Your Pearl Self-Released Jr. + Desert Noises ity of this recording is worth noting, Self-Released Street: 10.19 given that The Circulars EP was made A lot of this album has the casual buzz Street: 09.27 Cedars = Caius + Tool + on a relatively conservative budget in that was prominent in the early ’90s, B & Company = Jack John- Alice in Chains though Goldring uses it wisely, favor- a short amount of time. These “limita- son + Django Reinhardt + a The Doorman’s Cove is a pretty heavy tions” clearly worked in The Circulars’ ing more refined production and care- Latin twist fully composed layers instead of the album, stone-y and dark, and the vo- favor—the performances sound well loud, experimental noise you might B & Company is Brandon “B” cals float over the riffs and drums like rehearsed, with the band’s intentions find in earlier alternative acts (looking Barker, the bassist for local project a moody dream. The vocalist has a clear from the beginning. The Circulars at you, Sonic Youth). “Saying Good- Babble Rabbit, who recruited an bit of the wailing Mars Volta vibe, EP can be heard in its entirety on the bye” kicks it all off slowly with a huge assortment of skilled musicians and which, as it’s been established, can thecirculars.bandcamp.com, so listen. echoing rhythm section and dazzling noise-makers (Djembe, megaphone, be a great mash-up with the heavy (Urban:12.13)–T.H. electric guitars, before Goldring’s vel- typewriter) to put together this delight- tunes. The tracks follow the stoner-jam vety vocals round out the sonic experi- fully funky 11-song album. It’s beautiful format, too, clocking in at almost nine Creature Double ence. Things get a little rougher with music and fully exciting in an unex- minutes on one of them, and never less Feature than four. The sound is polished and “Rolling Tree,” where the more pointed pected way. Most of the tracks revolve A Ghost Story vocals lay atop a muddy atmosphere largely around skillful acoustic guitar specific, and the Ogden-based musi- Self-Released of noise. Goldring shows a softer side playing, and it is seriously no joke. cians did a great job executing their Street: 08.21 on “Catherine” and “Whale,” the latter Tricky riffs executed so skillfully that an material. I couldn’t find any information of which gives us some emotive falsetto eavesdropper—who is a skilled guitar- online yet (the website listed isn’t quite Creature Double Feature = moans almost reminiscent of Jón Þór ist—listening in asked me in disbelief up and running), so we’ll hafta keep TaughtMe + Widowspeak Birgisson from Sigur Rós. Forgotten if the album was really local. Kudos, watching to see when we get ‘em in Harvest is raw in the right places and B! You’ve put together something to be the SLC area! –Ischa B. really illustrates Goldring’s range and proud of, and the musicians and pro- expertise at crafting intelligent noise—I duction team involved should all give The Circulars can’t wait for a full-length. –CJ Morgan themselves a pat on the back, too. A+! Self-Titled EP –Ischa B. Self-Released Anthems Brother Chunky Street: 09.28 Bridges The Circulars = The Cure + Self-Released and Stuff Wymond Miles Street: 06.16 Self-Released Anthems = Liferuiner + Street: 08.30 Comeback Kid Brother Chunky = Soul to Soul–era Stevie Ray Immediately opening with the ag- Vaughan + Lonnie Mack gressive “Bridge Burner,” which uses the imagery of a burning bridge to Brother Chunky drives the beat, all announce secession from a certain bluesy and SRV-ish with his guitar. Dreamy, ambient folk is performed corrupt nation, Bridges is a five-song He’s definitely an able guitarist, throughout this piece. The experimen- anthem against political hypocrisy and though nobody will mistake him for tation with a wide variety of instru- our national apathy. It’s fairly standard Bert Jansch. Lyrically, he’s missing ments—most notably with the alto sax, stuff for hardcore, and the lyrics are the sharp edge that characterizes Ste- marimba and flute—is crafted subtly, usually pretty on the nose, though with vie Ray Vaughan’s best work and the which materializes the vocals (by Da- less forced bravado than their typical humor of Muddy Waters, two of vis Johnson) into haunting wisdom. peers. You’ll hear tons of gang vocals, my favorite blues musicians. He’s dull The cover art, with the silhouette of and you’ll also hear plenty of break- Billy Joel, which isn’t necessarily a a psychedelic blue wolf howling at a downs, but I don’t hold it against them. bad thing. Like Billy, Brother Chunky pink moon in swirling colors of paint, I’m partial to the genre, but there’s doesn’t really have much to say, yet The Circulars’ sound, while compa- invokes a pretty accurate depiction of something passionate and earnest in sometimes he drops an absolute gem rable to several bands from a bygone the musical contents of A Ghost Story. the delivery here, particularly in Mi- on you. Take my new favorite song, era of earnest and dark, jangley pop The arrangement of the songs feels cah Merz’s vocals and in the songs “Chicken Pot Pie,” with its refrain, “I music, could be properly suited to like an ascent up a mountain—slowly “Our Only Hope” and “Bridge Build- got something to say/Chicken Pot Pie, nearly any time—simply based on the building up momentum to reach the er.” The latter is easily my favorite song it’s OK.” It’s his simplicity and honesty fact that the songs are good, the musi- summit of “Holy Temple” with a hiker’s out of the five, and its slow buildup gets that win me over here—and maybe just cians are talented and there’s no air of high, while the other songs climb pretense to deflate the mood. The level 56 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 57 up or down the peak with a calmer en- punk running through their veins, but them before. This four-track EP with Youth’s “Teen Age Riot.” An extend- ergy. –Brinley Froelich that doesn’t stop them from being un- a secret track is a pleasant surprise, ed snare roll introduces the drums in predictable. Their mix of pop-oriented opening with an undeniably catchy the first track as the reverberated and Cubworld song structure with punk angst allows and hard tune, setting a tone that re- phased guitar repeats the opening Life Is Music them to come off lighthearted, but I’ll mains consistent until the end. They’ve riff until the vocals come in, holding be darned if they don’t break into vi- packaged their energy into a paced, the last note of each simple line. The Self-Released vacious guitar playing and drumbeats killer type of western psychedelic ga- songs all blend into each other, feel- Street: 08.30 in nearly every song. Frequent use rage rock. The whole package, from ing similar and putting me in a trance Cubworld = The Dirty Heads of the ukulele is another surprise ele- lyrics to sound, is very clean. They’re I would gladly stay in longer than the + Sublime with Rome + Jack ment that adds an unusual touch of making the kind of music they want to five tracks provided.(ShredShed,12.14) Johnson western swing when used. Needless make—they’re doing it well, and it’s a –Steve Richardson Cubworld (aka Jake Kongaika) to say, their energy throughout the al- tribute to the budding garage-psych brings us a part acoustic, part party- bum is contagious. Vocals can seem scene in Salt Lake City. –Justin Gallegos The Pigeons groove album with Life is Music. The a tad whiny until matched against the Self-Titled blaring fuzz and bass drum on “Astro - album is split in the middle, with the Michael Biggs Self-Released first half containing more upbeat, nauts.” From there, the lo-fi sounds and Gold noise experimentation continue. With Street: 10.01 reggae-style grooves like “Call Me” Self-Released a total of 13 tracks revolving around The Pigeons = Iggy Pop + and horn-driven rocker “Life Is Music,” Street: 09.22 youth and seemingly unanswerable Marilyn Manson + Sound- and the second half turning the power Michael Biggs = Goblin + down, instead favoring honey-drizzled questions, FORMAL’s self-titled album garden Mirage acoustic ballads like “Beautiful,” and is enigmatic, containing an unclas- The Pigeons present a raw, rough the enchanting “If I Could Fly,” which sifiable sound. Albums like this add sound with pure punk elements, and could settle the fieriest tempers with its depth to Utah’s local music offerings. this recording has a gritty realness to ocean-wave samples, acoustic cross- –Justin Gallegos it that suggests it was recorded live. It’s picks, and saccharine-injected melo- a fresh project, with this EP marking the dies. Reggae of this caliber is seldom The Glass Gentlemen first release for the pair of musicians heard in the Beehive State and brings Self-Titled from Cedar City, and the energy and acts like Afro Omega to mind, though Self-Released vibe of the material and the perfor- Life Is Music has more of a cool-breezes Street: 10.18 mance still have that fresh perspective vibe rather than an urban dub sound. The Glass Gentlemen = Reg- of people trying stuff out and seeing The album’s well-balanced production if it fits. It’s fun music, and it’s gonna gie and the Full Effect + The comes courtesy of Joshua James’ be a fun ride, so hop in and hold on! Statistics + We the Kings Willamette Mountain Studios and really I haven’t seen ‘em in the Salt Lake Val- serves to encapsulate Kongaika’s soul In some ways, The Glass Gentlemen ley, but if you’re further south, you can and elegant songwriting. My only com- share a lot in common with the psy- catch them playing all around their plaint is it’s almost too sweet—I think it chodrama of early Cursive record- ‘hood. I’m sure it won’t be long till we gave me diabetes. –CJ Morgan ings. There is that melodic, vocal-chord get the pleasure up here, too—keep a tearing sing-scream, the tendency for Salt Lake’s dark side is finally coming lookout! –Ischa B. The Dog delivery to outweigh content and the out of the woodwork. Here’s Michael Slow and Sweet sheer emotional wallop of someone Biggs’ Gold, a cassette release filled Ulteriors completely losing their shit in a song. with October imagery and cinematic Self-Released Self-Titled But the comparisons stop there. In- Italo disco sounds. Musically, Gold Street: 09.26 Pariah Music Club stead of jagged, angular progressions, is an incredible romp through classic The Dog = Star Fucking you’ve got slick power chords with a cult film soundtrack territory, a musical Street: 10.10 Hipters + Goo Goo Dolls thick film of buzzy synths, and instead montage of campy organ sounds, noo- Ulteriors = Descendents + Slow and Sweet is a mix of everything of obtuse lyrics, you’ve got lines ripped dling guitars and gasps of atmospheric Void + The Cramps from a little grunge to some bubblegum from some emo kid’s Myspace pep synths. One issue that I can’t digest is With subjects ranging from politics, pop and vocals that sound like a gritty talk. That’s fine. Cursive was aping Biggs’ vocals, which are filtered be- religion, war and corporate control, Marc Bolan. This album is awkward mid-’90s Chapel Hill indie rock—these yond campiness where they fall flat Ulteriors have taken heed to the clas- in some places, most notably in “Damn gentlemen are partying like third-wave and cheapen the already over-the-top sic punk rock sound, both lyrically and Girl,” a pop love song, and the title emo never crested. For what they do, Halloween camp of his lyrics. “Strong” musically as they so proclaim. Their number, “Slow and Sweet,” a mellow they do well. Their ragged-throated is my favorite track—it’s where Biggs’ music is highly similar to that of some love song that, oddly enough, likens delivery over an early-aughts slew of sonic manipulation shines without fil- of the more cryptic-sounding punk love to using heroin. Other songs, like pretty breakdowns and cathartic, cre- tered vocals. Though it doesn’t have as bands, like Misfits, with a hint of some “Fix,” provide a catchy, upbeat num- scendo-laden choruses are extremely unified a vision as the trendy revivalists psychobilly thrown in as well. “Broken ber, but lack excitement: The vocals well executed on 90 percent of the at Italians Do It Better, Gold deliv- Glass” is a prime example of their are gritty, mixed with heavy guitar album. The soon-to-be-playing-over-a- ers something sorely lacking in Salt slight rockabilly sound with a heavily riffs and a solid beat that’s on point. Smith’s-PA-system muzak of the Metro Lake’s music scene. –Christian Schultz blues-themed guitar riff over some de- “Switchblade” is perhaps the next most Station send-up “Radio Heart,” how- structively themed lyrics to match. They exciting number on the album, as the ever, is unforgivable. –Ryan Hall Nostalgia also include a fast-paced depiction of vocals are smooth, and the chorus is Self-Titled what’s been happening in the Middle fun and clever, combined with an edgy Max Pain and the Self-Released East—the appropriately titled “Bloody beat. Slow and Sweet is not my favor- Groovies Street: 01.01 Bodies” reminds me, lyrically, of “Holy ite album, however, there is something Nostalgia = Blessure Grave Wars” by Megadeth—how religion here to like. –Nick Kuzmack Self-Titled has been the prime fuel source for war. + Warsaw + Wipers Self-Released Overall, it’s a pretty solid punk rock FORMAL Street: 11.04 It’s not often that a baritone voice stick- EP—including subjects that most punk Max Pain and the Groovies Self-Titled ing to a few sustained notes hooks me. bands love to sing about. They hold = Night Beats + Spindrift + It’s more rare when the band comes true to the classic punk rock sound. Self-Released Psychic Ills from Utah County. It hasn’t been since –Eric U. Norris Street: 10.05 the short life of Salt City that I cared Max Pain and the Groovies certainly Send your locally released FORMAL= Ty Segall / Mod- about a post-punk group slinging have an affinity for the Texas psych est Mouse minor-key baritone vocals from Provo. albums to SLUG and we’ll scene, and this EP sounds more fo- Nostalgia’s EP opens with a guitar review them in print! FORMAL seems to have ’90s indie cused than anything I’ve heard from riff that summons memories of Sonic 58 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 59 Bad Religion its own grime. The whole album seems topper, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The Difference Christmas Songs to oscillate from stoney-riff spurts to Her high-toned vocals complement dense, distorted drone chords that ring the sparkly ’50s-style guitar tunes they Machine Epitaph out for days over shimmering symbols. lay on, though on tracks like “Always The Psychedelic Sounds of the Street: 10.29 While this may sound like a formula for Forever,” they remind me of an excited Difference Machine Bad Religion = Buzzcocks your garden-variety sludge, Blackout girl talking to a dog (“Hi, puppy!”). Psych Army Intergalactic + Hüsker Dü + The spare no opportunity to reimagine the Oddly, though, it gets my tail wagging. Records Replacements + 7 Seconds genre. Oh yeah, and don’t forget your Mellow tracks like “High Road” and Street: 11.05 bong. –Jordan Deveraux “So Far” are stylish and cool, and The Difference Machine make me think of a hifalutin fashion = Immortal Technique + Callow show I’d never be invited to. All in all, Deltron 3030 + DJ Shadow Blue Spells Static is well balanced and has catchy- The Difference Machine meld together Self-Released as-hell melodies, but it won’t be in my regular listening rotation. –CJ Morgan the meditative effect of psychedelia Street: 11.19 with urgent rhymes about spiritual Callow = Low + Lou Reed Dead Waves awakening. Dr. Conspiracy’s King Ever wondered what the tortured Take Me Away EP Geedorah–style, trance-like beat is and slowcore-laden doppelganger matched with emcee DT’s seamless of Adam Stephens (from Two Self-Released flows and Reid Richards’ witty Gallants) would sound like? Street: 12.10 lyrical tour through Marvel Comics Because if you soak his vocal styling Dead Waves = Bleach-era superheroes in “Marvel.” DJ Spytek in melancholy and swaddle it with Nirvana + Mudhoney and Conspiracy revisit 2011 single goth rock underlays, you’d have the “Psychology” and dish up an epic, hard-hitting beat. “New Pharaoh” It makes some sense to me that Bad fundamental fixings for Callow. At takes the album in an angry direction Religion would come out with a the beginning of Blue Spells, “Stop with simple drumbeats that blast Christmas record because they’ve Breathing” is a downtrodden ode that between DT’s powerfully spat-out always had some of the best vocals in serves as emotional foreshadowing lyrics: “Who are the thought police? punk rock, and to back that up, they’ve for the rest of the album. It is Writing tickets for shit you thought was always had top-notch production beautiful yet dangerously gloomy, free.” The album closer, “Awakening,” on most of their records. The record with slow jams entombed underneath brings everything in the album back is made up of eight classic holiday ominous piano chords and haunting around again and leaves you on a tunes such as “God Rest Ye Merry vocal harmonizing, which will lure different level. –Darcy R. Gentlemen” and “What Child Is This.” comparisons with Alan Sparhawk Although I can’t say exactly what I and Mimi Parker on C’mon. The was expecting from this record, I have overly mesmerizing disposition of Blue Drugs of Faith to say, other than its oddball appeal, Spells won’t sober up lovesick music Architectural Failures the jovial seasonal tunes didn’t really listeners like garden-variety pop songs Malokul Records scratch the itch I got when I first would, but serves more as a “hair-of- For their follow up to June’s Kill the Street: 11.12 heard about this project. Maybe it the-dog” cure and further inebriates Youth EP, this Queens-based trio Drugs of Faith = Dead in just doesn’t live up to True North, the them via beautiful minimalistic fleshes out their penchant for abrasive the Dirt + Jawbox + Pig slowcore. It’s relieving to hear a rock vicious full-length the band released melodies via six songs of fuzz-blasted Destroyer earlier this year. And the question of band coming out of San Francisco that caterwauling with a nod to early whether releasing a Christmas album separates itself from the pretentious Pixies. Maybe it’s the latent, cooing If any genre should be bulletproof to is considered a “punk rock” thing to rock herd. –Gregory Gerulat vocals on “Big Fish” or the thrumming experimentation and expansion, it’s do? Well, I’m not even going to try and Kim Deal bass line on “Instead” and grindcore, but in 2013, strong releases tackle that one. –James Orme Cults “Anomaly” (which sound essentially by Call of the Void and Beaten to Static Pre-Nevermind with a psych-bent), but Death have challenged this notion, Blackout Columbia if filtering ’90s college rock through and Drugs of Faith are right alongside them. Blast beats provide emphasis Street: 10.15 a dollop of fuzz tone was the band’s We Are Here rather than a machinegun dominance, Self-Released Cults = Best Coast + Beach M.O., then mission accomplished. Though most enjoyable during its more which all too often subverts impact for Street: 10.25 House tuneful passages (check the mid-section love of speed, allowing these songs Blackout = The Melvins + Sleep Cults are really just sugary girl-pop on “Planet of Tribes”), the album has a to stretch out. The vocal delivery is On their debut, Blackout waste no with a tiny taste of punk. “I Know” is mite of no-wave, even hardcore in its crucial to Drugs of Faith’s formula, with time in setting their own tempo, which a time-waster intro that sounds like the veins, most evident on the discordant singer/guitarist Richard Johnson happens to be slow as fuck. The track choir girls at the First Church of Brian clamor of “Which Way.” Perhaps a (Agoraphobic Nosebleed) airing “Amnesia” progresses in a way similar Wilson, but it’s a nice lead-in for little underdeveloped, Take Me Away his grievances in a post-hardcore style to a growling motorcycle accelerating ear-parasite “I Can Hardly Make You may signal solid things to come on a that is immediately intelligible. The and decelerating all the time, resulting Mine,” in which vocals from Madeline full-length, and its great moments are area where Johnson and crew don’t in a spontaneous stagnation that Follin are almost too penetrating and undeniable. –Dylan Chadwick stray from the grind path is in subject doesn’t get anywhere, but wallows in bring to mind Cyndi Lauper’s chart- 60 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 61 matter, where they competently Black Sabbath. Moothart’s guitar Hailing from Quebec, Irish Moutarde of electronic and acoustic noise. garage-y organ to traditional pop punk left in ’84) handling skins. Though their sets out to prove that the electronic drum machines to achieve their dark lambaste the One Percent and political work could definitely be described bring us yet another Irish punk rock Auxiliary instruments like jaw-harps hooks and layered backing vocals to formula’s an institution at this point in can, in fact, be quite natural, and sound. It’s tough to rate the band on incumbents, putting to music the as blistering (especially in the track sound that their fans can drink and harmonicas find their way into the give the songs a 1960s feel. It takes a 30-year career, Tres Cabrones does that recomposition doesn’t have to be this debut single, because one of the dissatisfaction of the 2010s. The only “Loose Sutures”), and it is definitely and dance to. A mix of alternating compositions, weaving aural golden more from The Stooges than from the hearken back to their young punker familiar. –Allison Shephard two songs is a cover of Today Is thing missing from Architectural Failures the component being showcased. lead vocals—switching between strands through the track just faintly middle class, and this is refreshing. In days with ripsnorters like “Walter’s The Day’s “Willpower,” which they is another five songs to make this a full- Segall’s vocals fit nicely alongside the nearly each band member—and enough for you to find the way back all, it is a solid return to form for a little- Lips” and “Stick em’ Up Bitch,” while Phantogram transformed from its distorted, noise- length record. –Peter Fryer shredding. Fuzz is an incredible classic representation of bagpipes, accordion to the source. That source is a beating known punk band that has gone 17 iron-bellied lurchers à la “City Dump” Self-Titled EP metal roots into a gothic dirge with rock album. –Cody Hudson and banjo, played to fast-paced heart in a robot’s chest. There’s loads years without a proper release. –James and “Dogs and Cattleprods” scream Republic Records what the band calls “medieval vocal Eternal North punk rock, make for a really exciting of beauty in this album. –Ryan Hall Bennett “classic” Melvins throughout. Perhaps Street: 09.30 harmonies.” It was an awful, droning sound. Like any Irish-style band, they the band’s great statement is their mess. The titular track is decent Children Ov the Cold hERETICS iN tHE lAB Phantogram = Purity Ring + include their drinking songs like the penchant for enlisting “new” personnel enough, but didn’t at all get me jazzed Slaughterhouse Records SUTURE The KVB Lee Corey Oswald/ Cults – ½ STRFKR Street: 11.02 Sacrifice Records bittersweet “Farewell to Drunkenness” Minus One Three Man Cannon to jimmy the lineup, while still sounding to hear a full album’s worth of material. and the festive “Glasses to the Sky.” unequivocally “Melvins” in execution. It’s been a good two years since the The percussion is repetitive, its riffs are Eternal North = In Flames Street:11.12 A Recordings Songs ranging from the fast-paced “I Self-Titled “Tie My Pecker to a Tree” and “99 Nightlife EP, and four years since mind-numbing, and the vocals are dull, + Children of Bodom + hERETICS iN tHE lAB = NIN + Street: 11.26 Heard Jesus Was” and the French-sung Black With Sap Records Bottles of Beer” would play like hokey Eyelid Movements, so, of course, fans but at least until the distorted screams The KVB = Holograms / Emperor Marilyn Manson + CHANT “Olaf,” to the more relaxed “A Lad and Street: 02.05 tripe if left to any other band, but on a have been salivating for anything arrive halfway through to provide some Crocodiles + Moon Duo This Idahoan group makes me ponder Lackluster! This is your basic cross a Half” and a cover of the traditional Lee Corey Oswald/Three Melvins album, it’s a feat of demented new. Much like an appetizer before black metal frosting to the production. the possibilities if In Flames and between metal and industrial music. Irish folk tune, “The Fields of Athenry,” Man Cannon = Mumford & conviction, of commitment to craft and the main course, this New York duo One can only hope the full release has Children of Bodom hadn’t “moderned It is not horrible, and it’s put together all make for an enjoyable album. They Sons + All American Rejects identity—an excellent record. –Dylan threw us an EP while we impatiently a little adrenaline in it, as well as a up” their sound. The key theme on this well, but nothing really stands out. The sound like a fun band to see live, and + Portugal. The Man Chadwick wait for the release of Voices. There’s better sense of what exactly the band little EP is the guitar melodies, electric typical, grinding guitar riffs and slower I’d bet it gets crazy. –Eric U. Norris no real pretense here: All four tracks is out to accomplish. –Megan Kennedy The first side of the album, Three or acoustic. It kind of makes a guy feel bass lines are reminiscent of those that have been plucked from the new full- Man Cannon, instantly made me Mick Turner like it’s the early ’90s and so many we have heard over and over at the length, with the main single, “Black Jeffrey Novak feel like I was in an independent film Don’t Tell The Driver Saxon Scandinavian groups hadn’t become local strip club. I did find the slow, Out Days,” being the standout with its Lemon Kid about teenagers falling in love. The Drag City Records Unplugged and Strung Up shadows of themselves. There’s lots harmonic, piano-type keys and voice infectious chorus and striking rhythm. Trouble In Mind Records sound was very punk influenced, but Street: 11.19 UDR Music of inspiration here, from the early samples on “[963]” to be very relaxing But the other three, while good in their Street: 11.19 captured more of a laidback, slower Mick Turner = Bonnie Street: 11.19 Swedish scene right down to vocal and calming. The opposite “[369]” has own ways, just blend together and Jeffrey Novak = Tom Waits tempo and softer melody. The other “Prince” Billy + Smog Saxon = Angel Witch + aspirations and more in the way of to be my favorite track on this release sound as if they’re lacking passion. It’s + John Cale side, Lee Corey Oswald, was a little Accept guitar tones. The title track punches with its banging, aggressive drumbeats Don’t Tell The Driver would be the not bad, but it isn’t great, and it just bit more garage-band angst with the border of epic with some fancy and experimental noise–type sound. I Cheap Times’ Novak is a literal one- perfect album to ease a panic makes you question why they bothered less of the laidback feel. Both sides and memorable guitar licks. Then, to was much more impressed with their man band, taking on all musical duties attack. The calming themes and to do this EP anyway. Unless you’re a meshed well and were produced well. go above and beyond, it throws the track, “sINCERELY yOURS,” from one on this, his third solo album, and his minimal arrangements engage an collector or you really need the single Some highlights of the album were listener for a 180 as the melodies get of their previous releases—at least it second full release this year alone. Being handpicked by Anton overall feeling of peace, soothing now, save your cash for the full-length. “Interdependence,” a relaxing, folk- harsher. With “Approaching the Veil,” was seductive with its lyrics. I do see While there is nothing specifically Newcombe of Brian Jonestown the thoughts to ease you into a safe –Gavin Sheehan styled alternative song, “Dream Song,” things get all black metal—like when that there is a lot of potential for this wrong with being prolific, sadly Massacre to be on Newcombe’s place. Turner focuses on the elements a faster-paced track with sort of a boy- symphonic black metal was still good. band, as the vocals and talent are therein lies his problem: It is all too record label speaks volumes for The of the instruments, and not as much on band feel to it, and “Bullshit Stories,” a Poor Remy This is a beefy EP for the folks who there, but I just did not hear a lot of much to be truly appreciated. Not KVB. Minus One’s combination of the vocals—although, when present, slower acoustic track that sounds good Bitters dig the older versions of the equated creativity on this release. –Mistress that his schizophrenic approach to shoegaze, post-punk and noise is quite they feel epic, but in an angelic way. musically, but has vocals that show Lee Self-Released bands. –Bryer Wharton Nancy making music is all unpalatable—it is an alluring brew. Its melodic sense is “Over Waves” did this best, as vocalist Corey Oswald shouldn’t try to stray too Street: 11.12 more a case of a little going a long, a break from the pure heaviness and Caroline Kennedy-McCraken far from the punky alternative sound Poor Remy = Lullaby for the long way. One assumes that the darkness of their past recordings. enhances the melody by giving it an Fuzz Ills they showcase in the rest of the album. Working Class + (The Civil unintentionally yet appropriately titled Either way, these guys use synthesizers operatic quality. The instrumentation Self-Titled Hideout From The Feeders –Julia Sachs Wars – Jenny Lewis) In The Red Aloe Music opener, “Endless Repetition,” sounds in a way that nods to Suicide and felt loaded with a Southwestern vibe, like a first-stage demo on purpose, or Silver Apples. But it’s their guitar- making it feel as though I was traveling Over the course of a 36-year career, Street: 10.01 Street: 11.12 The Melvins Simplistic musicality is complemented that the title track is really dreadful, driven energy that calls to mind Joy alone by horseback across the well with heavy harmonizing on this Saxon have proven themselves to be Fuzz = Sic Alps + Charlie Ills = Blank Dogs + Modest despite the briefly creative drumming Division more than anyone else when Tres Cabrones desert landscape, especially in “The album. The combination expresses the undisputed masters of heavy metal and the Moonhearts Mouse + Her Space Holliday that it starts with. The voice of punk I hear each song. It’s slightly dark, Ipecac Navigator.” I definitely enjoyed this angst and fulfillment simultaneously songwriting. Even after all these years, This album mixes aspects I’m fond was never meant to be melodic, but but it’s sort of beautiful, and you can Street: 11.05 album. –Brinley Froelich without sounding contradictory. While the band sounds tighter than ever. of—catchy progressions matched on Novak screams way too much. The dance if you want to. It’s not the way The Melvins = Butthole the album was only four songs long, I Biff Byford’s voice has morphed bass and guitar that give the rhythm only time things come to fruition is you dance when you’re in a club, but Surfers + My War/In My Mount Eerie was not left wanting. The violin section into that of a gravelly heavy metal a thickness I could move to—with on “Pictures On A Screen,” where his the way you dance when you’re in Head–era Black Flag + Pre-Human Ideas on “Wrecking Ball” is gorgeously wizard, while Paul Quinn’s expert aspects I could leave behind, like mostly restrained vocals finally match a your head, lost in sonic bliss. –Justin Lysol-era Melvins P.W. Elverum & Sun bittersweet and articulated melancholy riffcraft has only been strengthened by vocals that sometimes sound a little too coherent melody. –Dean O Hillis Gallegos Street: 11.12 skillfully. Poor Remy have found a modern production values. Unplugged and Strung Up much like Isaac Brock, for example. Mount Eerie = Electric President way to reiterate a modern twist on is a cavalcade of re- But then songs like “Colleen” pull me KILN The Last + Alaska in Winter a quintessential style of American recordings, orchestrations and acoustic in with high-pitched, thin guitar riffs Meadow:watt Danger music, without sounding routine or takes on a selection of Saxon’s greatest that complement the choruses, and Stripped down and re-recorded, unimaginative. This can be attributed material. The soaring orchestral swells Ghostly International End Sounds Mount Eerie composed an entire album vocals that now remind me of those Street: 11.11 Street: 11.05 mostly to their constant harmonizing. of “Call to Arms” contrast beautifully on Wavves’ “Green Eyes.” The next out of pieces of previously recorded against the morose and powerful live KILN = Autechre + mOck The Last = Descedents/All + Seriously, there isn’t a single lyric track, “Coma”—a dark song with material, dubbed over with new, auto- where only one person is singing. Folk recording of “Iron Wheels.” They even + Richard D. James–era The Stooges + Wednesday moving bass lines, a semi-prominent tuned vocals. Apparently, the songs transforms into alt-country at the end revisit some of their oldest material, Aphex Twin Week ’80s-era synth sound and little guitar— were originally designed as demos of “Cave Eyes,” concluding the album with a solid re-recording of “Militia works for me, too. If the whole album Meadow:watt. Megawatt. Get it? Punk rock is such a hard genre to define. to instruct touring bands, but were pleasantly. Try this one out for a hiking Guard” and an acoustic take on On this release, Fuzz is made up of Ty sounded like the cluster of goodness KILN’s exploration of the juxtaposition Once you think you’ve got it figured soon after turned into a minimalistic, trip or a day in nature. –LeAundra Jeffs “Frozen Rainbow.” This is no mere re- Segall, Roland Cosio and Charlie in the middle, it would get more plays of the natural and the manmade is out, a band like The Last pops up on quasi-futuristic version of Mount Eerie’s mastering—these songs still resonate Moothart. These guys have worked from me, but how it is gives me mixed extended beyond the title and into the your radar. The Last formed in the late original songs. So, basically, this is a Psalm Zero with the passion of their original together a ton, and for good reason—it feelings. –Steve Richardson music of meadow:watt. KILN combine 1970s in Hermosa Beach—part of the side project that reworks songs from recording, adding a compelling new Ocean Roar and Clear Moon in a much Force My Hand sounds great. This time around, Segall various guitar and bass lines with same scene that spawned Black Flag Last Things Records dimension to Saxon’s glory years. and Cosio make up the rhythm section programmed beats and hefty amounts and Red Cross. The lineup is solid— more experimental way, by using new –Henry Glasheen Irish Moutarde For their 19th (!) studio offering, Street: 11.19 (the former on drums and the latter of post-production editing to create when you pair the Nolte brothers with lyrics and expanding on each song’s Raise ’Em All Aberdeen’s infamous sludge trio returns Psalm Zero = Godflesh + Big on bass) and Moothart is tasked with something wholly organic and wholly the powerhouse punk rhythm section of original idea. Phil Elverum voices Soviet Soviet Self-Released to its original 1983 incarnation with Black guitar. It is definitely closer to early crafted. The result is an oddly pastoral, Karl Alvarez and Bill Stevenson, everything on the album, his voice Street: 09.17 Buzz Osborne on guitar, drummer Fate conventional heavy metal than any of mid-tempo record that simmers in you end up with the sort of alchemy ranging from very deep to melodically This is a short, two-song EP from this Irish Moutarde = The Real Dale Crover playing bass and Felte the previous releases—you’re going slightly off beats at the behest of a that is both pop-sensible and face- high-pitched. Though on the surface NYC-based duo, who use mostly McKenzies + NOFX original drummer Matt Dillard (who Street: 11.11 to hear a ton of people compare it to sturdy bass line and gorgeous waves melting. Mike Nolte adds a it may seem simple, Pre-Human Ideas electronic instruments like synth and 62 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 63 Soviet Soviet = Tubeway up working beautifully. Instrumentally, + Ride + Skywave at its most complicated, it uses only Army + The Spits + Bloc Vaadat Charigim (Hebrew for background vocals and a piano Party “Exceptions Committee”) is an Israeli while Sumie’s voice spins gracefully shoegaze band from Tel Aviv. The When Fate begins, the full richness of around, intricately weaving each piece World Is Well Lost is their debut album. the music, along with the double-time together into the stunning closer that is Though its songs are sung in Hebrew, dance beat, doesn’t prepare me for “Sailor Friends.” “Midnight Glories” is translation is not necessary—this the voice of Alessandro Costantini. a dreamy, nighttime delight reminiscent record’s ambition is perfectly clear. The It’s not that his voice doesn’t mesh of Eisley. Perfectly orchestrated, its World abounds in primary shoegaze well with the overall sound—it does. ethereal, no-frills approach allows for elements: swirls of lush guitar and It’s perfect for the crunchy bass that the listener to be completely enchanted nostalgic, monotone vocals. Tracks sits on the forefront of the album’s from beginning to end. In the case of here move in and out of noise and mixes, allowing the guitars to create Sumie, simplistic does not equal basic meandering sonic contemplation, texture or melodic leads reminiscent of in any way. –Allison Shephard Holograms’ synth work. I just didn’t with a dark energy reminiscent of + Asphyx expect a voice almost indistinguishable Tonight Sky Slowdive’s Souvlaki. Let Vaadat from that of Gary Numan’s on any Charigim remind you why you love the This review is a bit late, considering the Tubeway Army track. The similarity Self-Titled genre. –Christian Schultz full-length from Warmaster is unleashed really sinks in by Fate’s fourth track, Sunstrom Sound already (reviewed in the November “Further,” as Costantini sings, “And you Street: 11.05 The Warlocks SLUG), and this split EP from Humilation tell me why, you tell me why,” breaking Tonight Sky = Boards of Skull Worship and Warmaster was somewhat of a precursor—or a little taste of what the the second “why” into two syllables Canada + Lemon Jelly Zap Banana/Cargo bands had to offer. The two tracks from and two notes—a vocal maneuver As the name suggests, the influences Street: 11.26 Humiliation here, actually, are quite a not skimped on throughout the album. behind Tonight Sky (created by The Warlocks = Dead bit better than what they put forth on –Steve Richardson Jason Holstrom) involve a lot of Meadow + Brian Jonestown their full-length, containing a lot more stargazing and space stuff. With that, Massacre/B.R.M.C’s The meat to them and some riffs right out of SQÜRL Holstrom weaves electronic melodies Effects of 333 Realm of Chaos. Warmaster’s half of the with danceable beats, layered with EP #2 split sees them doing much of what they ambience invoking the nature of ATP Recordings did on the full-length with equal aural space—empty and vast. “Deep Blue Street:11.05 punishment. Disregard the full-length’s and Green” takes you in the opposite SQÜRL = Purling Hiss + display—this is a track-exclusive release direction, to the depths of the ocean, Horses In The Sky–era A and meant to be played on turntables but the weightless sentiment remains. Silver Mount Zion + Sic Alps pumping the deadskin collection that While I dug the instrumentation, the Spoiler alert: SQÜRL is Jim continuously builds up in your speakers vocals didn’t really resonate with Jarmusch’s newest musical project. back into your nasal cavity. Vinyl me, and I’d probably like this album Name recognition can only travel so hoarders take note: This release is on more without them. Nonetheless, the far, however. Even if Mr. Jarmusch nice, blood-splattered wax and limited arrangements are groovy and fresh, weren’t involved in this project, I would to 500 copies. –Bryer Wharton still find this short stab of engineered and would probably serve well as a no wave destruction paired with the soundtrack for a scientific documentary Weekend Nachos for kids. –Brinley Froelich lethargic and caustic wail of major– Still chord stoner riffs and a warped, Tracy Shedd Relapse warbled approximation of the music Most of the record, much like their Street: 11.11 of the American West to be more Arizona prior effort, The Mirror Explodes, is a Weekend Nachos = Crossed than worth my time. This is pretty New Granada shoegazy affair redolent of ethereal Out + Despise You + Hatred fascinating stuff. Coming off a brilliant Street: 11.12 My Bloody Valentine static and Surge collaboration with lute revivalist Josef Tracy Shedd = Anna Nalick dreampoppy vocal melodies. But van Wissem, this largely instrumental, + Missy Higgins for the fans of the jaunty hooks and On Still, Dekalb’s long-standing jock sprawling compilation of psychedelic violence unit continues mining the paths If this was playing in a room, you could crunch of Phoenix, don’t be daunted guitar explorations of dissonance and by the airy melodies of this one, for carved on Worthless, juicing on some repetition is as good as any Jarmusch leave for a few songs and not miss of Relapse’s recording muscle to ratchet much. All 13 tracks are quiet vocals this is easily corrected with volume. film: disconnected, adjacent to popular The album opens up with “Dead their sound a tad cleaner. The “jack- culture and unmistakably idiosyncratic. over strummy, uncomplicated acoustic rabbit fast bit/thunder-sludge slow bit” guitar and vapid, romantic lyrics. Cat Generation,” which is a jam-rocker If you needed another reason, akin to some of their more energized formula is very much intact, and played SQÜRL’S cover of Hank Williams’ Power sets the bar pretty high in very much to perfection on “S.C.A.B.,” my mind for the genre of “chicks with psychedelic thunder from the past. Skull “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” is the Worship really reaches its potential “Ignore” and “You’re Not Punk.” Still, best I have ever heard. –Ryan Hall guitars and pretty voices,” and while the album manages to distinguish itself Shedd fits the criteria, her approach on fourth track “Silver & Plastic”—a scumbag confessional along the on slight sonic detours, like with the Sumie lacks any sort of edge or defining haunting middle passages of “Watch quality. “All the Little Things” features a same lines as “Thursday’s Radiation.” Self-Titled At times dim and cathedral, at others You Suffer” and “Late Night Walks.” male singer and sounds like something John Hoffman’s vocal plasticity, Bella Union that gets played at Starbucks. Given lavender and surreal, Skull Worship is Street: 12.03 a communion with the dead, but it is in which ranges from harrowing shrieks that her cover of “Teenage Riot” by to guttural bellowing and intermittent Sumie = Agnes Obel + Feist no way a reanimation of their records Sonic Youth is the coolest track of the grooving (“Yes Way” and “Broken + Gregory and the Hawk of yore. –Jordan Deveraux album, I think that Shedd would have Mirror”), compares to others of the ilk. more success if she gave songwriting Quiet, melodic and delicate, Swedish Warmaster/ Ultimately, though, the band plies their sweetheart Sumie makes her guitar a break and stuck to covers. wares where the most bread gets but- sing so sweetly in the most minimalistic –Kia McGinnis Humiliation tered: punishing power violence with an way, proving you don’t need elaborate Self-Titled occasional metal flourish. Unrelenting, instrumentation and production to Vaadat Charigim Slaughterhouse Records/ cruel and occasionally even catchy, Still make quality music. Blending European The World Is Well Lost Dead Beat Media is yet another installment in a practically and Japanese imagery, Sumie invokes Burger Records/Warm Ratio Street: 06.02 flawless discography. –Dylan Chadwick complex lyrical ideas, creating an Street: 11.12 Warmaster/Humiliation = More reviews at interesting juxtaposition between the Vaadat Charigim = Interpol Bolt Thrower + Benediction slugmag.com. simple and the intricate, which ends 64 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 65 66 SaltLakeUnderGround slugmag.com 67 Will Hoge, Red Wanting Blue - State - Burt’s Miss DJ Lux - Downstairs James Shepard, Ferocious As They Room Intra-Venus & The Cosmonauts, Alien Tony Holiday - Green Pig Come, Thomas Koch - Why Sound Landslide, SCROmance - City Limits Bipolar Bears - Hog Wallow Gritts Green - Woodshed Wednesday, December 18 DJ Politik - Downstairs The Swinging Lights, Gravital, Cody Just Wanna Dance - Zest Happy Birthday, Joshua Joye! Jackson Cash - Egyptian Theatre Robinson - Kilby Happy Birthday, Alex Cragun! Daniel Day Trio - Garage Dada Life - Park City Live Sunday, December 29 Quad Wednesday - Brighton The Pillar - Green Pig Archeopteryx, Pinecone Radio, The Happy Birthday, Catie Weimer! Corey Smaller - Hog Wallow Royal Bliss - Kamikazes Pelicant’s - Shred Shed Geek Show Movie Night - Brewvies Beware Of Darkness - In The Venue The Fission Breakers, The Dharma Blues Audioflo - Urban Leftover Salmon, Bill Payne Big Shiny Geek Show Pub Quiz - Kilby Liz Woolley, The 3 Suns - Why Sound - Park City Live Get your event listed for free in print, online - Lucky 13 Blood On The Dance Floor, Farewell Funk & Gonzo - Woodshed Wisebird - Urban and on your iPhone app! Sign up for a free SLUG calendar account at slugmag.com/calendar. The Pelicant’s, Squash, Parchment My Love, The Relapse Symphony, Haley - Shred Shed Rose - Murray Theatre Saturday, December 28 Monday, December 30 Friday, December 6 - Complex Big Shiny Geek Show Pub Quiz The White Buffalo - State Room The Devil Whale - Urban As We Speak - Muse Music Fetish Ball - Area 51 Sleep For Sleepers, Workday Release, Pick up the new issue of SLUG - All-Wheel Sports Productions - Lucky 13 SLUG Localized: The Circulars, Adventure Club - Park City Live The Number Ones - Bayou Casting Quarters, Double or Nothing Anyplace Cool! - Eccles Center DC Fallout, The Last Gatsby - Shred Shed Fossil Arms, Alexander Ortega Thursday, December 19 Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing The Cover Dogs - Brewskis - Kilby Schubert & Tchaikovsky - Abravanel The Black Lillies - Garage 1000-Word Keepsakes - SLCC - Urban Happy Birthday, Traci Grant! Winter Market - Rio Grande Gravetown, SCROmance - Burt’s Elephant Revival, Shook Twins Genre Zero, La Madness, Matthew & 2013 Jingle Bell Run/Walk Community Writing Center Battle Of The Bands: Night 5 - Velour Kurt Bestor - Abravanel This Bird Of Dawning - Rose Wagner Boris Lukowski, Jared Pierce, Jordan - State Room The Hope - Bar Deluxe - Gateway Mall What Makes Me Tic? - Tower Theatre Tr3ason, Harbinger, False Witness Jamestown Revival, Charles Ellsworth Sloths, And I The Lion, The Sky Above & Peterson - City Limits Salt City Poetry Slam - Weller Book Jazz Brulee - Bayou Caveman Blvd. - Green Pig Coyote Vision Group, Tavaputs, Penta- - Why Sound - Bar Deluxe The Earth Below - Shred Shed Late Night Alumni - Depot Works Zodiac Empire - Brewskis Stonefed - Hog Wallow gram Crackers, Red Telephone - Urban The Baby Formula - Brewvies People’s Market 7th Annual Chris Kennedy - Downstairs Racoon Dog, The Saintanne, Vincent Skellum, Tetris Fingers, Dsz Khensu Battle Of The Bands: Night 3 - Velour Saturday, December 14 Circle The Stars - Burt’s Tuesday, December 31 Draper & The Dirty Thirty, Shadow Pup- - Kilby Mr. Lucky Blues - Bayou Mark Chaney & The Garage Jazz Happy Birthday, Xkot Toxsic! pet, Us Thieves - Burt’s Simple Treasures Holiday Boutique Thursday, December 12 The Breakfast Klub - Brewskis Allstars - Garage Zodiac Empire - Bar Deluxe Jake Miller, Action Item, Air Dubai - Ogden’s Union Station Free Press, Jazz Jaguars - Burt’s Life Has A Way, Jackass Bone - Burt’s Caveman Blvd. - Green Pig Eric McFadden - Brewskis - Complex Suicidal Tendencies, Terror, Trash Talk, Holy Water Buffalo - Downstairs Trainwreck - City Limits Talia Keys, Gemini Mind - Hog Wallow MAKJ, Drezo, Timone, Highjack’d, Lavelle Dupree - Downstairs The Inspector Cluzo - Park City Live Mark Chaney & The Garage Jazz DJ Scooter - Downstairs Sepia Ria, 90’s Television - Kilby Ross K - Depot Son Of Ian - Green Pig Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing Allstars - Garage David Williams, The Pentagraham Cody Taylor, Jason Tyler Burton, Paul DJ Mom Jeans, DJ Angr Mngmt Stonefed - Hog Wallow Winter Market - Rio Grande Morgan Snow - Hog Wallow Crackers - Garage Travis, James Henrie - Muse Music - Downstairs Allred, Larusso, Tate McCallum-Law, SB Dance: WTF!, Peter Breinholt Anthropology, The Pelicants, Birthquake Gamma Rays - Green Pig Guard Cats, Babylon, Muzzle Tung Bernadette Peters - Eccles Center Alan Hanson, Mason Jones - Kilby - Rose Wagner - Kilby Back Wash - Hog Wallow - Shred Shed Photo: Sada Ranis Destroid, Dirtyphonics, Kill Paris, V2 Jeff Tweedy - Kingsbury Sub For Santa Benefit Show - Salt Haus The Codi Jordan Band - Lumpy’s South Ink Wars Party 3 - Hotel Mortigi Tempo, Temples, Red Yeti Allstars, Drumlojik, Grimblee, Destroid, Betty Hates Everything, Von Andeck, The Roadkingz - Scorez The Lower Lights - Masonic Temple Reverie - Kilby - Velour Dirtyphonics, Kill Paris - Saltair In Ship Down, The Last Wednesday, Save The World Get The Girl, Grass Bad Kids Present The Lillith Affair: Turned To Stone, Visigoth, Moon Of Kendall Karch - Why Sound Elephant Revival, Shook Twins Amahlia - Lo-Fi Cafe - Shred Shed Fundraiser for YWCA - Metro Delirium, Huldra - Lo-Fi Cafe - State Room ARxT SLC - Local Colors Gallery Arthur Christmas - SLC Main Library The Porch - Storytelling - Muse George Lopez - Maverik Center Friday, December 20 Matty Mo, MaxPain & The Groovies, Diaz Mackie - Lumpy’s South Write a Poem-Make a Gift! - SLCC Ririe-Woodbury: Momentum Bad Kids Present: Nightmare Happy Birthday, Liz Phillips! Flash & Flare - Urban The Danger Kids, Bombshell Academy, Community Writing Center - Rose Wagner Before Xmas - Metro Happy Birthday, Jesse Anderson! Tri-Polar Bear, Queenadilla - Muse Music UMFA Holiday Market - UMFA Best Of Friends, Josh Withenshaw, I/O, No Sleep, Wild Apples, Happy Birthday, Thy Doan! Wednesday, January 1 Simple Treasures Holiday Boutique The North Valley, The Future Of The Dylan Jakobsen, The Fence - Shred Shed Breezeway - Muse Music Kurt Bestor - Abravanel I Am The Ocean - Urban - Ogden’s Union Station Ghost, Wildcat Strike, Breakers - Urban Holiday Gift Making Class Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing Mantis Jackson - Bar Deluxe Sub For Santa Benefit Show - Salt Haus Isaac Russell, Timmy The Teeth, Forest - Silverschmidt Design Ririe-Woodbury: Momentum, Ring A.M. Bump - Bayou Thursday, January 2 Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing Eyes - Velour The Band Of Heathens - State Room Around The Rose - Rose Wagner 2013 Christmas Cheers Film Fest Happy Birthday, The Roadkingz - Scorez September Say Goodbye, Both The Indie Ogden Awards Melissa Pace-Tanner, Dan Waldis - Brewvies Sumerset Bivens! Eagle Twin, INVDRS, La Verkin, Die Off Gallows, Derek Simmons - Why Sound - Union Station - Sandy City Hall Filth Lords, The Glorious Bastards, Joe McQueen Quartet - Garage Cult Leader @ Urban Lounge 12.20 with INVDRS, Oxcross and Light/Black - Shred Shed Manic Focus - Urban Donner Party House, The Wasatch Fault, Wrong Around - Burt’s The Cat In The Hat - SLAC Sunday, December 8 Battle Of The Bands: Night 4 - Velour Nostalgia, The Contras - Shred Shed Zion I, Michal Menert, CunninLynguists Friday, January 3 Draw Something Show - Studio Of Death Valley High - Burt’s DIY Workshop - West Elm Pres- Write a Poem-Make a Gift! - SLCC - Depot Holiday Market - Trolley Square Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Eccles Center Pick up the new issue of SLUG - Living Art Johnny Richter, Sozay - Lo-Fi Cafe ents Christmas Packaging with Community Writing Center Jackson Cash - Egyptian Theatre Third Saturday: Word Art - UMFA The George T. Gregory All Stars Anyplace Cool! And...Go! Improv Comedy Show - Sub For Santa Benefit Show - Salt Haus Shantel Nielson - West Elm Vienna Teng, Alex Wong - State Room In Ship Down, Merchant Royal 9th Annual Holiday Cocktail Party - Green Pig Sugar Space Phinehas, Cities Of Desolation, Cries Of Skewed News, Alexis Olsen, Jordan People’s Market 7th Annual - Fat’s Bar & Grill - Urban Utah Blues Society - Hog Wallow Happy Birthday, Cody Kirkland! When The Fight Started, Kiss Me Kill The Captive, Ivy & Ashes - Shred Shed Duncan, Rorry Forbush - Why Sound Holiday Market - Trolley Square Utah County Swillers, Blue Moon Velour’s Christmas Special - Velour Faraday Le Soleil - Kilby Fox Street - Brewskis Me, Candy’s River House - The Royal Bip Bip Bip, Big Wild Wings, Strong Bombers - Garage Dance Evolution - Woodshed Leftover Salmon, Bill Payne Reverend Horton Heat, Jello Biafra, Old Fifteen - UMOCA Monday, December 9 Friday, December 13 Words, Guard Cats - Urban Terrence Hansen Trio - Green Pig - Park City Live Man Markley - Depot Mic Masters: Playoff Round 7 - Uprok WInds Of Plague, Impending Doom Afro Omega - Bar Deluxe Battle Of The Bands: Finals - Velour Marinade - Hog Wallow Sunday, December 22 Strong Words - Shred Shed Tony Holiday - Hog Wallow Dubwise - Urban - In The Venue Double Helix - Bayou Paul Christiansen, Clayton Pabst, Ali Yazzi - Kilby Jackson Cash - Egyptian Theatre Micky & The Motorcars - State Room Dubwise - Urban Provo Gallery Stroll - Various Galleries Winds Of Plague, Impending Doom, Bassmint Pros - Brewskis Hansen - Why Sound Kathleen Frewin - Muse Music Talia Keys, Gemini Mind - Garage Eagle Twin - Urban Book On Tape Worm - Velour Ogden’s First Friday Art Stroll - No Bragging Rights, City In The Sea, Moneypenny, Blinded By Truth, Sugar The DayLates, Dreascape Divers Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing Park City’s Last Friday Gallery Stroll Various Galleries Destruction Of A King - In The Venue Bone - Burt’s - Woodshed This Bird Of Dawning - Rose Wagner Monday, December 23 - Various Galleries Salt Lake Gallery Stroll - Various Cate Le Bon, Kevin Morby - Kilby The Roadkingz - Devil’s Daughter Justin Townes Earle - State Room Seaholm Mackintosh, Some Kind Of Galleries The Lower Lights - Masonic Temple Miss DJ Lux - Downstairs Sunday, December 15 And...Go! Improv Comedy Show Nightmare - Burt’s Seve vs. Evan - Velour Moe. - Park City Live The Rhythm Combo, The Haole Boys Happy Birthday, Casey Morgan! - Sugar Space Julie Perry - Why Sound Battle Of The Bands: Night 1 - Velour - Garage Bad Boy Bill - Downstairs Cult Leader, INVDRS, Oxcross, Light Tuesday, December 24 MiNX, ESX, Merchant Royal - Woodshed Miss Brawling Beauty, Miss Je Ne Sais Morgan Snow - Garage Black - Urban Happy Birthday, Ben Trentleman! Tuesday, December 10 Quoi, Outlaw Entertainers, Men Of 10th Anniversary Open House Colt Ford, Moonshine Bandits Saturday, December 7 Happy Birthday, Ryan Hall! Obsession - Gino’s - Les Madeleines - Westerner Wednesday, December 25 Schubert & Tchaikovsky - Abravanel Happy Birthday, Thomas Von Andeck - Green Pig Sparkling Snowflake Soiree - Mixx The Saintanne, The Crook & The Bluff, Happy Holidays! Pin Me Up By Ashley Marie’s 3rd Winkley! The 2:13s, Fission Breakers - Kilby Toby Beard - State Room Mortigi Temple - Woodshed Annual Rockin Rockabilly Charity The Lower Lights - Masonic Temple My Jerusalem, The Pillar - Lo-Fi Cafe Thursday, December 26 Event - Bar Deluxe Everlast - Park City Live The Lower Lights - Masonic Temple Monday, December 16 Saturday, December 21 Mark Chaney & The Garage Jazz Latin Jazz Factory - Bayou People Of A Feather - SLC Main Library Lou Reed Tribute featuring The Laddels Jerry Joseph Duo - State Room Happy Birthday, Michael San- Allstars - Garage Nigel & The Metal Dogs - Brewskis Midlake, Sarah Jaffe - Urban - Muse chez! Devareaux, User, Cobol - Urban Utah County Swillers, Knuckledragger Battle Of The Bands: Night 2 - Velour Sizzla, The Tribe Of I - Park City Live Tuesday, December 17 Kurt Bestor - Abravanel - Burt’s Holiday Pop-Up Shops - Q Clothing Dear Rabbit, Aaron Wolcott, Joey Natural Roots - Bar Deluxe Friday, December 27 High Desert Blues Band - City Limits Wednesday, December 11 Ririe-Woodbury: Momentum Brandin - Shred Shed Tim Kidder Quartet - Bayou Chalula - Bayou American Hitmen, Johnny K And Krew, Quad Wednesday - Brighton - Rose Wagner Diller Scofidio + Renfro Kap Bros. - Brewskis The Pillar, Backyard Possums - Brewskis Opal Hill Drive, Joe Pack & The Pops Christian Coleman - Hog Wallow Jamestown Revival - Shred Shed - SLC Main Library The Gammarays, Monkey Knife Fight The Illuminati - Complex

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