SLUG Magazine’s collection of reviews covering the latest and greatest of Utah-based music, covering all varieties of genre, style and type.

Local Reviews: Going Second

Local Reviews: Going Second
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As I’m growing out of my pop-punk phase, it’s getting harder and harder for these types of bands to impress me.  Going Second has caught my ear though.  This band has managed to incorporate all the aspects that make a pop-punk band good, while most bands nowadays seem to only focus on one.  … read more

Local Review: Drew Danburry – This Could Mean Trouble, You Don’t Speak for the Club

Local Review: Drew Danburry – This Could Mean Trouble, You...
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I’m no musician––I have no musical talent in any bone of my body––but I still have to wonder how any one can sit down, create an album like this and call themselves artists. Hold on, let me take a step back and sugarcoat it a little. Danburry’s attempt at making a quirky and “unique” album deserves at least a pat on the back.  … read more

Local Reviews: DJ 2BE

Local Reviews: DJ 2BE
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Over the years, I’ve found that artists who incorporate reggae into their sound have some ironically hilarious similarities to certain types of ganja connoisseurs. On one hand, if your music is just some new-wave reggae mash-up hippy gangbang, it resembles that guy that you try to avoid at all costs because he smokes 20 hours a day and goes on about the same ol’ shit he has been for years.  … read more

Local Reviews: Cherubin

Local Reviews: Cherubin
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Being a local, I still have to admit that Utah’s metal scene leaves a lot to be desired. That said, I’m not entirely jaded, and this album did manage to catch me off guard. Whatever fucked up inspirations Cherubin have resulted in a particularly gloomy, dismal and completely satisfying experience. … read more

Local Reviews: Blue Sunshine Soul

Local Reviews: Blue Sunshine Soul
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Diversity within the local scene isn’t always celebrated and is usually even harder to come across within the environs of a six-piece entity like Blue Sunshine Soul. Perhaps the fact that the majority of the members of this collective are professional musicians helps to keep egos in check and let the individual voices present come to the fore.  … read more

Local Reviews: Tough Tittie

Local Reviews: Tough Tittie
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Tough Tittie has the greatest band name of all time. How could there ever be a band name that could ever compare to the perfection of Tough Tittie? It transcends life. The only thing that can compare with their band name is their choice of album title.  … read more

Local Reviews: Skud Missile Smugglaz

Local Reviews: Skud Missile Smugglaz
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This EP surprised me, as most great local hip hop/rap does. The beats are interesting, the production utilizes samples well and the emcees are on point with some really well-versed rhymes. It is VERY nice to see a local group bringing up political ideas that challenge the mainstream with questions about the quality of westernized lifestyles and the wars fought in the name of the American people in the guise of “freedom.”  … read more

Local Reviews: Mary May I

Local Reviews: Mary May I
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Have you ever heard those bands that seem to dabble in many different genres, but don’t really have a core or a niche? That’s how Mary May I is. They’ve got a punk crust with post-punk sauce, nu metal crumbs drizzled over chunks of groove rock, baked in an indie-rock oven.  … read more

Local Reviews: Drop Dead Julio

Local Reviews: Drop Dead Julio
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Drop Dead Julio (pronounced “Jewlio”) is a band that transcends genres. This band is so subtly complex that words probably won’t be invented for hundreds of years to even begin to describe the amount of layered lyrical and musical mastery provided to our ears on The Stories We Could Tell. Wait, no. They’re actually the exact opposite.  … read more

Local Reviews: Jef Doogie

Local Reviews: Jef Doogie
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Something Original is good, solid underground rap in the style of most solid underground rap: old-school production and angsty subject matter.  The last part is what kept me from really loving this album.  … read more