Jonah Bayer

Fact Fact Fact may be from Japan, but you wouldn't know it by listening to the band's North American debut. The band sound like they come from an imaginary country where it's acceptable to mix everything from pop-punk to screamo into a mélange of music containing no unifying themes. Oh, and did we mention they […]

The Night Is Ours There's a point on Youth Group's third full-length when vocalist Toby Martin sings, "I understand that the root of pain is beauty." That line is an apt description of the ideology behind The Night Is Ours. (There's also a line in the same song, "In My Dreams," about dressing up like Allen […]

The Tropic Rot For the past decade, experimental metalcore pioneers Poison The Well have crafted some of the underground's most sonically adventurous albums only to get continually leapfrogged by their opening acts. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that the band's fifth full-length, The Tropic Rot, is another dose of next-level hardcore that sees the band exploring […]

Wrecktrospective Over the past two decades, Fat Wreck Chords has gone from being the pet project of NOFX frontman Fat Mike to one of the most influential punk labels of all-time–and correspondingly, a collection like Wrecktrospective is long overdue. Essentially a supercharged version of the label's Fat Music samplers,Wrecktrospective is a massive three-disc, 88-song collection of songs that spans the […]

American Central Dust If you're a sucker for consistency, then Jay Farrar should be your favorite songwriter. Predictably, Son Volt's sixth album, American Central Dust, is teeming with twangy ballads, like "Dust Of Daylight," that prominently feature Farrar's instantly recognizable pipes. While his former Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jeff Tweedy has managed to reinvent himself with each […]

Curse Your Branches It's been three years since David Bazan released his debut solo EP, Fewer Moving Parts, and even longer since he stopped playing under the name Pedro The Lion. However, those of you still paying attention should know that Bazan is crafting the best music of his career. Curse Your Branches may not be as […]

Untitled 21: A Juvenile Tribute To Swingin’ Utters While they've never gotten the same notoriety as their peers such as Green Day or Bad Religion, for over two decades the California punk institution Swingin' Utters have been churning out amazing songs that defy categorization. Therefore it's only apt that there's finally an album paying tribute […]

STORY: Jonah Bayer On Jan. 27, 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs officially revealed the iPad, a new device that would straddle the middle ground between laptops and smartphones. Some think it will revolutionize our entire approach to information the same way laptops and Apple’s iPod did, while others see it as an overgrown iPod Touch […]

John Frusciante The Empyrean We hate to disappoint Red Hot Chili Peppers fans, but if the band’s hiatus yields more recordings from John Frusciante, we think it’s for the greater good. Despite his prolific solo output, Frusciante’s 10th solo album may also be his most satisfying. While The Empyrean features appearances from RHCP bandmate Flea […]