Music
SLUG Magazine’s collection of reviews covering the latest and greatest of Utah-based music, covering all varieties of genre, style and type.
Local Review: Damien Fairchild – For All The Girls
If you’re at all familiar with the local music scene, chances are you know who Drew Danburry is. However, this will be the first time you’ve heard of Damien Fairchild, Danbury’s lovesick lothario of an alter ego. In For All the Girls, Fairchild sings soliloquies about every female he’s possibly ever—at one point or another—desired. … read more
Local Reviews: Daisy & The Moonshines
This band has three things that make them dangerously worthwhile: class, soul and groove. It would be difficult to listen to their music and not feel engaged in some way or another—whether it be to the visceral, bluesy feel (such as in the song “50’s Kill Off!”) or the genuine lyrics that thread the album together. … read more
Local Reviews: The Chickens
The Chickens are classic instrumental jazz by extraordinarily talented musicians. Without a piece out of place, this easy listen will keep you company from Point A to Point B, as a soundtrack to your dinner party, music to study by, music to shimmy to … the list goes on and on. … read more
Local Reviews: The Chevalier
The Chevalier is bombastic! Aaron Micheal Peat (vocals and guitar) and Konner Alek Hale (drums) are intense. It’s like listening to some really early Glassjaw demos and hearing all the promise and potential in the world. … read more
Local Reviews: Chainwhip
The Salt Lake punk scene’s own Critter fronts Chainwhip with his screechy vocal assault, accompanying a cacophonous mix of thrash and crusty hardcore. As with most demos from a local hardcore band, the lo-fi recording quality stands out at first, but only becomes more and more charming and appropriate as the release claws along. … read more
Local Reviews: American Hitmen
Listening to American Hitmen is like jumping into a Hot Tub Time Machine. Instead of going all the way back to the ’80s, this time travel adventure sends you back to the early ’90s when rock bands still had all the flash and machismo of spandex-rocking ’80s metal bands, but were also starting to embrace a little bit of a dark, moody, creative side. … read more
Local Reviews: Albino Father
This Futurists side project is, unsurprisingly, one of the better sounding, current local projects. With bluesy folk-guitar riffs, the whole EP tends to ramble on in the least boring way possible. … read more
Local Reviews: 004
The Utah ska scene of the ’90s is fondly remembered (well… by some people), and the likes of Stretch Armstrong and My Man Friday have remained in the collective consciousness of local ska nerds over the years, but 004—quite possibly Utah’s first ska band—seems to have been forgotten. Hopefully, this great collection of 004’s music will rectify that injustice. … read more
Local Reviews: Zero To Ballistic
Logan-based Zero To Ballistic describe themselves as “modern Paul Reveres with guns at their hips, bullhorns at their lips and instruments at the ready,” and their album reflects this passion for the state of the Union in its revolution-stoking lyrics. … read more
Local Reviews: Veggie Stew
Nü-metal meets butt rock on this thankfully short EP from Veggie Stew. Crunchy power chords and standard drums play under juvenile raps about partying and ego. The clichés abound here, so don’t be surprised when you hear the rhyming of “Bacardi” with “party” or lines like “I’m a terror when I flow” from the lead singer. … read more