Play It Loud – “Desolation” by Dead Lucid
For as long as there’s been alternative music, there has been the Guitar Freakout: a noisy, cathartic, sprawling song that’s perfect to close a set or an album. It provides a chance for a band to let loose, throw caution to the wind and, if you’ll pardon the technical jargon, really go to town on […]
“(Don’t Let The Dragon) Draag On” – King Krule
When I first heard “Out Getting Ribs”, the breakthrough single from King Krule (fka Zoo Kid, aka London-based singer-songwriter Archy Marshall), I was in my freshman year of college, trying to pump out a history essay within a night. I had procrastinated long enough, and I needed to focus, so I put on a Spotify […]
Indie Rock Isn’t Dead – Try “Til’ I’m a Ghost” by Modern Moxie
Indie rock is not dead. People say that it doesn’t occupy the cultural zeitgeist like it did in the 90s; to this I say, fair enough, but neither does Helen Hunt, and the last time I checked she’s still alive. Just because something isn’t at the forefront of the national conversation doesn’t mean it’s ceased […]
Oliver Hazard Charms Us with Boyish Folk Rock | “Gold Teeth Girl”
“Gold Teeth Girl”, a new song by the Waterville, Ohio-based folk rock band Oliver Hazard, will sound familiar if you listened to indie rock radio in the early 2010s. At the time, indie-folk bands like The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons were enjoying unusual mainstream success, racking up Top 10 hits and Grammy Awards while […]
Cellophane Sam – “At War with the Present”
“At War with the Present”, a new song by indie folk act Cellophane Sam, starts off simply–almost too simple, in fact. Over some pretty-but-basic guitar chords, Cellophane Sam (who doesn’t say his real name on his website) sings: “Like a light in the dark/Like the wind through the trees/Life appears and it plays out its […]
Pretoria Presents 60s-Pop Throwback, “Gently”
It’s been fifty years since the end of the 1960s, and yet it still looms large over our pop culture landscape. One of the most acclaimed television shows of the past twenty years, Mad Men, is essentially a series-long exploration of the entire decade, from its carefree beginning to its turbulent end (and the scotch […]
Reese W. Makes Bluesy Debut with “Julianna (What Have I Done)”
Reese W., the singer-songwriter behind the new song “Julianna (What Have I Done)”, does not have a website of his own. If you were to search “Reese W” or “Reese W singer” on Google, you’d find pages of results on Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon. His only online presence is his Spotify page and his […]
“The Font”: Jackson Dyer’s Deeply Poetic Single from ‘Inlet’
Subtlety is not inherently more noble than bombast. Sure, it’s easy to shun big dumb pop hooks in favor of your favorite indie artists, and it has the added bonus of making you feel intellectually superior to people on the Internet, which is what we’re all after at the end of the day. But there’s […]
Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners – “BC, Victoria”
Here is a list of Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners’ band members, along with their nicknames, taken directly from their site: Mitch “Eat a Whole Bag of Grapes in a Day” Cutts, Nic “Richy Mitch” Haughn, Jakob “Cashew” Ervin and Ryan “Yung Craigslist” Lavallee. Now, obviously, those nicknames are tongue-in-cheek; this is not a […]
The Brook & The Bluff “Pastels” Strays from Indie Territory
The Brook & The Bluff is an evocative name; perhaps you’d expect it to be the name of an album rather than a band, but it’s evocative all the same. It not only suggests natural splendor, but a pastoral, old-fashioned vision of that splendor, the kind you might see in a storybook illustration. Coupled with […]
