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: Gift Anon – Mum’s the Word
Gift Anon Mum’s the Word Gift Anon = Radiohead + Sunny Day Real Estate Scattered offbeat drumming blends perfectly with guitar strumming that gets chunky like Radiohead sometimes (“Heaven Help Us”) and jagged and slanted, like peaks on a marathon-runner’s heart monitor, at othes. Heaps of reverb helps the darkness go down smooth and sugary,
Local Review: The Invisible Rays – Self-Titled
The Invisible Rays Self-Titled Feroz Records IR = the Damned + Graves + the Corleones The Invisible Rays play often-slow, almost dirge-ish creep punk filled with plodding buzzsaw bass riffs, mournful or shouted vocals and sometimes-droning-sometimes-rocking synths. Their upbeat songs are much more tolerable than the slow ones, and I’m actually in favor of axing
Local Review: Iota – Three Tons
Iota Three Tons InSonicBloom Iota = Clutch + Fireball Ministry Iota, who, again, just to drive the point home, should be signed to Small Stone, combine the fast, catchy stoner fury of such luminaries as Fu Manchu and Clutch (“Demon Seed/Last Ride”) with slower, driving head-bobbingness that recalls Acid King (but not quite as slow).
Local Review: Medicine Circus – Bottle Rockets of Emotion
Medicine Circus Bottle Rockets of Emotion Medicine Circus = Big Star + T. Rex + Alice in Chains Medicine Circus combines the best of 90s alt-rock with some grunge, catchy, accessible hooks, some technical sweeteners and 60s psychedelia. There is something mainstream and not-mainstream about it; it echoes the better moments of Vertical Horizon and
Local Review: Mushman – Eddie Do
Mushman Eddie Do Kitefishing Productions Mushman = Simon and Garfunkel + Puff the Magic Dragon Quirky feelgood, almost childish lyrics, many of which are centered around this Eddie character, twine their way around sparse, intricate guitar work to produce an album people could be singing around the indie-rock campfire for years. Nerdy and sensitive, sometimes
Local Review: Never Never – EP + LP
Never Never EP + LP NN = My Chemical Romance + Cathedral The vocals of Never Never are the metal equivalent of screamo—one minute (or at least half of the record) is intimate-disturbing-melodic crooning, the next is guttural screams. It’s a catch-22 because during the quiet parts are the only times that you can understand the
Local Review: The Second Opinion – Flesh Except Dust
The Second Opinion Flesh Except Dust Second Opinion = Mayhem + Burzum + Aodl + Ramsses + Skullflowers I think with a name like Second Opinion, I was expecting West Valley nü-metal crap trying to redeem itself with second-rate female vocals. O how far from the truth. Open your arms to chilling industrial/noise that seems
Local Review: Drew Danburry – Besides
Drew Danburry Besides … Drew Danburry = Elliott Smith + Bright Eyes Drew Danburry vulnerable, naked-heart-on-the-sleeve, psychologically-helpless indie-rock folk spillings—it’s not bad, alright? But the song titles are the best part: “It Starts With Indigo, Orange and Green,” “It Ends with Red, Violet and Orange,” “Coming Around Like the Karate Kid.” It’s best when Drew
Local Review: The Horns – Yellow T EP
The Horns Yellow T EP The Horns = Girls Against Boys + fast Melvins At least, mine came with a section of yellow T-shirt with hand-drawn flowers on it courtesy of Dave Styer, one-half of The Horns’ double-pronged axe-destroying machine. The Horns, my favorite new local band, put the “I” back in “merciless.” Self-gratifying crunchy,
Local Review: State & Stereo – The Reservoir
State & Stereo The Reservoir Gloworm Records S & S = The Strokes + Modest Mouse + Julian Tulip’s Licorice I just found out about this charmingly mopey band called Julian Tulip’s Licorice, and there are moments when State & Stereo remind me of the better parts of them, even though I’m confident State &