Contributions
Circle Takes The Square - Decompositions:Volume Number One
Circle Takes The Square Decompositions:Volume Number One Ah, so this is why Circle Takes The Square took 16 goddamn months to release the other half of their, long, long-anticipated sophomore full-length, Decompositions:Volume Number One: They just wanted to ensure the failure of apocalypse predictions on December 21, 2012, before unleashing their own self-described bout of […]
Nightmare Of You/Nightmares For A Week - Nightmares EP
Nightmare Of You/Nightmares For A Week Nightmares EP Nightmare Of You and Nightmares For A Week share little in common besides a name association and New York residence. Their pairing on this split EP is certainly an oddball matchup, but music fans diverse enough to include post-punk alongside punk in their palette will enjoy it […]
Grabass Charlestons - Dale & The Careeners
Grabass Charlestons Dale & The Careeners More than a deecade into the career of veteran punks Grabass Charlestons, who would have expected the band to undergo such a noticeable stylistic transformation? Where the Gainesville, Florida, act used to boast a sometimes forgettable but occasionally spirited punk sound often likened to Dillinger Four or a speedier […]
HalfNoise - HalfNoise EP
HalfNoise HalfNoise EP Zac Farro spent almost all of his teenage years invested in Paramore, the world-famous band he helped found in 2004. But after six years in the trenches dominating alternative rock, the drummer parted ways and then reportedly took a mere two-day break before finding himself involved in a new project with fellow […]
Hostage Calm - Please Remain Calm
Hostage Calm Please Remain Calm Hostage Calm have always resided in the left field of melodic-hardcore tropes, from the obscure emo references of their 2008 debut, Lens, to their ambitious, unpredictable high-water mark, 2010's Hostage Calm. Arguably, they leave the subgenre behind altogether on the J. Robbins-produced Please Remain Calm, which takes the classic power-pop […]
Western Medicine - In Transit EP
Western Medicine In Transit EP Western Medicine vocalist/guitarist Adam MacKinnon bears an uncanny resemblance to a younger, more haunted Dave Grohl on tracks like “Let's Get Skeptical” and “Viking Funeral,” the latter of which opens WM's In Transit EP. But taking in the EP as a whole, it's clear that this debut from seasoned west […]
O'Brother - Basement Window EP
O’Brother Basement Window EP On O'Brother's sprawling debut full-length, 2011's Garden Window, the band were wonderfully adept at drawing out six-, seven- and even 14-minute epics with a luminous, compelling array of instrumentation and layering. That skill's not quite as apparent with the more sparse conditions of Basement Window, where the band take a handful […]
Chotto Ghetto - Sparkles
Chotto Ghetto Sparkles Los Angeles’ Chotto Ghetto have been churning out a bizarre melding of alt-metal/rock and post-hardcore for some time now, with this full-length for Asian Man Records perhaps the biggest scale to showcase their strange sounds. It’s not a bad starting point for newcomers, thankfully. Sparkles is a sprawling 49 minutes where seemingly […]
Circa Survive - Violent Waves
Circa Survive Violent Waves Nothing about the path Circa Survive have taken over the last seven years has been surprising. Formed by the adored frontman of a cult favorite and a handful of seasoned musicians with strong roots in progressive hardcore, the band release a couple of incredibly well-received albums for a revered indie label, […]