Hello Mary Aren’t Up For Misinterpretation
Bringing a sort of Blondie energy to Emita Ox, each song feels like it exists in its own genre, with the throughline being that distorted, gravelly mix of punk and noise rock that Hello Mary come by honestly with their New York City beginnings. Wave laughs as I recall being shaken out of a mid-afternoon stupor by the warped theatrics of “Hiyeahi” after being lulled into a trance by the dreamy vocals of “Courtesy” on my first listen. “We definitely wanted to keep the listener on their toes,” she explains. “We don’t want to make it too easy. I listened to PJ Harvey right before I got on this call—I’m obsessed with and love her, but she’s definitely a poet. She’s a great musician, but she’s a lyricist. It feels cool for us to leave the stories up for more interpretation.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Blondie, Eat to the Beat
I picture the record as the subdued, voguish older sister of Parallel Lines who, for all its brazen firepower, can never quite replicate the quiet cool of Eat to the Beat. That’s not to say I am discounting Parallel Lines as Blondie’s masterpiece; I’m just saying they occupy different booths in the same club. Eat to the Beat is leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette, decked out in leather and wearing sunglasses inside the dimly lit club for no reason other than mystery; Parallel Lines is tearing up the stage with gutsy confidence in a shimmering mini dress with the tallest platform boots she could find. You need both to fill the whole thing out.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Tasha Balances Grieving Minimalism With the Grand and Dramatic Side of Beauty on All This and So Much More
The planets have genuinely aligned for Tasha Viets-VanLear. The Chicago-based musician documents her Saturn return—the period when Saturn returns to the same position it was in the sky when you were born—on her new LP, All This and So Much More. The Saturn return is about shedding your old life and rediscovering who you are in a glorious rejuvenation cycle, and that shift into a new period was tectonic for Tasha, who lays waste to a previous life and sets the foundations for a new beginning. Since her 2021 album Tell Me What You Miss the Most, the singer-songwriter—who goes by the mononym of her first name—has had encounters with grief, endured a sudden breakup, traveled the world, appeared in a Tony-winning Broadway musical and even obtained a fresh hair color—a necessary change for when life flips on its head.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Fake Fruit Have a Puzzle to Solve
Mucho Mistrust is a frenzy of helter-skelter rhythms, jangling melodies and an air of knowing introspection. Between the artful quips and self-deprecation are healthy suspicions of global catastrophe and capitalistic terror, perfecting a balance of anxiety that hit home for the trio. “Basically, it’s psychological warfare,” D’Amato says, chuckling dryly. In the album’s title track, D’Amato expresses the overwhelming madness of the conflicting messages of the fleeting foundation of capitalism with a list of contrary signs like “Do not enter, pass with care” or “Construction, Liquidation.” Mucho Mistrust is all about taking the absurdity of commercialism and laughing in its face as a way to cope with the system we are all held captive in.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Juju
Siouxsie and the Banshees created their own mystical charm with Juju. It was a horror-filled masterwork draped in a suspense that thrives on fantastical trips through the depths of post-punk’s darkest pits. Siouxsie and the Banshees have an uncanny ability to evoke sexiness via the unsettling, and Juju is their magnum opus of disquieting seduction. The record is a particularly creaky house of horrors, populated by a wailing woman dressed in all black wandering its halls with ominous screeches eking out from the guitar soundtrack, bathing the scene in delicious dread. The magical effect of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ fourth album is heavily due to their shift back to guitar-centric music, with John McGeoch’s unconventional six-string work front-and-center.
PASTE MAGAZINE
It’s Not Too Late: A Lifetime Measured By Jeff Buckley’s Grace
As someone who struggles to connect with their emotions physically, I am drawn in by musicians who move me. When I listen to Grace, it’s one of the rare times I feel every nerve ending tingle, every synapse fire, every cell dance—it brings my body to life. I feel truly present. I spend a lot of time floating outside my body, thinking about reaching the stars and beyond, but there is something about the down-to-earth nature of Buckley’s existence as an artist that grounds me. His battered, soulful tone touched me in an indescribable way, even when I was nine. It’s incredible how this unassuming guy could evoke such visceral emotions from everyone around him, that before my dad put “Hallelujah” on he was merely a stranger.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Influences Playlist: GUM / Ambrose Kenny-Smith
The electrifying psych-rock title track captures the daze of trying to be present in the world following a period of immense grief. “What’s it gonna take to shake ya / And leave it behind,” Kenny-Smith poses as a question to himself to find a way to draw him out of the darkness. His late father’s presence lingers on “Dud”—co-written by Broderick Smith himself—a funky eulogy of letting go with love as Kenny-Smith quite literally sends his father off into the sunset singing “Father, I bid you adieu / The man out of time, I’ll see you soon.” Kenny-Smith’s soulful vocals continue to dominate on “Minor Setback” paired with a Tame Impala-esque poppy synth from Watson but with a groovier flair that is expanded on in “Old Transistor Radio.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Following the Light of Sour Widows
When I think of Sour Widows, an image of an intricately tangled web of vines nestled in a misty wood comes up. Yet this tangle of vines is dotted with the most alluring exotic flowers you’ve ever witnessed. That dark yet beautiful imagery really captures the ethos of the Bay Area slowcore trio. Dual-band founders/singers/guitarists Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson have endured enough tragedies in their existence as a band for multiple lifetimes. The project became an outlet for them to memorialize those feelings and work their way through them. Their debut album Revival of a Friend gives you a peek into that deep forest of anguish and optimism while showcasing the trio’s commitment to challenging themselves musically as a band.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Robber Robber Get Unpredictable
Up in Vermont, a small indie scene has been quietly thriving in Burlington—well known as where Phish started 41 years ago, where Caroline Rose’s home base was when their career began catching on and, now, is where Greg Freeman hails from. With a population of just under 50,000 people, the amount of talent hidden along the banks of Lake Champlain is astonishing. Fueled by UVM college students, bands are popping up all over the city, playing in local venues like the Radio Bean, setting up backyard jams and hopping on open mics. Amongst the throngs of twenty-somethings looking to make their mark, Zack James and Nina Cates—along with bandmates Will Krulak and Carney Hemler—are putting their stamp on the burgeoning scene.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The Mischief, Pleasure and Levity of Pretty Sick’s New Era
Though the change from guitar-heavy, gutsy rock ‘n’ roll to flashy, bass-loaded beats could feel like a stretch, for Fuentes, it wound up becoming an organic next step in the band’s musical progression. “I spend about as much time at raves and clubs and my friends’ DJ sets as I do at my friends’ band sets at DIY venues,” she admits. “It doesn’t feel like those worlds are too different from each other these days. I feel like rock and electronic co-exist under the umbrella of alternative. Everything [on Streetwise] just came together really organically and naturally. There wasn’t much of a plan going into it just kind of fell into it.” Even though she is leaving the distorted grime and wistful teenage malaise of Makes Me Sick Makes Me Smile behind, the new six-song EP still packs a punch with the hefty production from Arthur Nyqvist, who goes by the moniker Woesum.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The Mysterines Embrace the Next Day
After Metcalfe and I spend time gushing over David Lynch’s bizarre yet affecting art—a massive inspiration for Afraid of Tomorrows—and chatting about memoirs, she and Crilly explain why they felt an earnest desire to set their grunge past ablaze and search for a new sound that felt more in tune with where they are now. “It was a refresh to try and find that spark with creating again,” Metcalfe says. “I think if you stick to the same thing over and over again, it becomes a bit tedious. So ripping that whole thing up and injecting in more of what we were listening to and expand on it.” “I think that was the initial idea to start writing the album. It was quite an intimidating thing, but it was quite exciting, too,” Crilly adds. “We just needed to do something that excited us again, whether that was a hip-hop album or heavy metal.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Font Collage Rhythm and Absurdity Into the Dynamic, Dominant Strange Burden
After two years of having only one recorded track to their name, Font have finally bottled their sonic lightning into Strange Burden—a seven-track debut that boasts a skillful balance between intellectual sophistication and unbound creativity. In pure Talking Heads fashion, rhythm and absurdity drive every aspect of Strange Burden. Font pair unlikely things together in a collage of delightful musical textures that waltz together in harmonious glee—as if they are reaching through the stereo with a guiding hand and asking you to dance. And, with beats like these, you can’t help but move. Even when operating through a multitude of moving parts, each sound still stands strongly on its own. In a band with two drummers, hefty bass, dynamic sampling and a dominant lead vocal, there stands the possibility of swallowing themselves whole, yet throughout each track, Font walk the fine line with unmitigated grace.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Finom Give Their 10-Year Chemistry a New Name
A decade ago, Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart embarked on a journey together to explore what they could create in a world outside of their classically trained past. The Chicagoans knew how to mold their voices together in a powerhouse vocal combination—not as a duet but a pair of individual voices complimenting each other in a boisterous melody. All they needed was the freedom to make some noise, so they looked to the electric guitar—an instrument neither musician was trained on—to push the limits of their sound and create space for artistry rather than going into auto-pilot on instruments that they know all the intricacies of by heart. Throughout their 10 years together, Cunningham and Stewart have performed as Homme and Ohmme, and now, due to an unwinnable legal battle and an effort to find a name that is uniquely theirs, they are Finom.
PASTE MAGAZINE
There Is Still Time: The Euphoria, Dysmorphic Fantasia and Nostalgic Terrors of the I Saw the TV Glow Soundtrack
I Saw the TV Glow’s musical and narrative arcs collide as Sloppy Jane’s song “Claw Machine” saunters into frame. When Maddy reappears in town, she and Owen go to a bar on the outskirts of town—and it’s at this moment that she explains to him that they are actually Isabel and Tara, that the existence they’ve long believed to be real is, in fact, not, as Sloppy Jane’s Haley Dahl croons an absolutely stunning ballad. Dahl’s old bandmate Phoebe Bridgers, too, makes an appearance onstage with her, and the whole scene plays out like something you might have seen at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks. It’s Lynchian from beginning to end, and Dahl singing “I think I was born blue, I think I was born wanting more” sets Owen’s destiny aglow, as he unlocks moments of his own repression—including him trying on a dress at Maddy’s house. If Julee Cruise was David Lynch’s muse, then perhaps Haley Dahl is Jane Schoenbrun’s.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Bauhaus, In the Flat Field
Bauhaus seduce you into their world of spectral darkness and vampiric bliss with “Double Dare.” After trying to replicate the energy they summoned in a John Peel session, they got the rights to their original performance, which they put on the final cut of the album. In the Flat Field opens with an ominous beeping paired with the screech of Ash’s menacing guitar, which morphs into an infectious beat as Murphy taunts, “Don’t cower in night fright / Don’t back away just yet.” Though the 1988 version of the album opens with “Dark Entries,” the foreboding challenge to delve into the noir of Bauhaus’s collective consciousness feels like a more fitting way to kick off their debut album. “Double Dare” is a far more biting version of what they explored on their first few singles, showcasing a thunderous sound that encapsulates all of In the Flat Field.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Nell Mescal Sets Out on Her Own
One thing that Mescal has always brought to her music is brutally honest storytelling, and her debut EP brings us—according to her and seconded by me—to her most vulnerable song yet, “Warm Body”—which is an array of folk textures blended with the yearning guitar strings of Bon Iver and narrative lyricism of Birdy. The entirety of Can I Miss It For a Minute? finds Mescal working through a broken friendship and getting personal with how this loss of a person she loved affected her during such a tumultuous and uncertain and transitional part of her life. Though she has trepidations about sharing things so personal to her through song, Mescal is steadfast in her commitment to getting her feelings out of her head in some way, shape or form.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Tierra Whack’s Multi-Hyphenated, Multi-Dimensional Authenticity
Even though it became a catharsis, Tierra Whack never intended to write WORLD WIDE WHACK—or, at least, she didn’t intend to make an album riddled with such immense emotional truth. “I would go to the studio three or four times a week, and I would only make sad shit,” she explains. “Every day wouldn’t be so sad. You can be depressed and still be smiling and making jokes. My team would make heavy beats, and I couldn’t think of anything. Then they made a slow beat—a sad beat—and I’d hop on and let something out.” There is an overwhelming sense of melancholia throughout WORLD WIDE WHACK. Yet, Whack still manages to bring some of her past humor to tracks like the cheeky opening of “INVITATION” (“I’m just not like a fan, more like air conditioner”) and the funky electro-beat of “SHOWER SONG.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Rainbow Kitten Surprise: Through the Ringer and Then Reborn
Melo has spent so much time with this record, not only writing it but also living through the experiences she needed to expel in order to make it in the first place. “I’ve been trying to write this for so long, and it feels so good to be past it,” she says. “I usually don’t like to listen to an album after it’s [sent for mastering]. I usually just move on but pick it up years later. But with Love Hate Music Box, I’ve been hanging out. I don’t want to go so fast that I forget what it was like to make this record or how it feels to have it done. And [I] just count that as a win. When you’re writing, it’s always like a little bit of a fight for your life. I feel relieved and proud to do something that really represents what’s gone on in the past six years. I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed the process. It’s been hard. But that being said, I’m happy to have gotten it all out.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow
The narrative brilliance of “White Rabbit” is what got me into Jefferson Airplane, thanks to my tween obsession with all things Alice in Wonderland. The track features prominent characters and imagery from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and Grace Slick’s writing also draws inspiration from the rise of LSD in counterculture and the hippie community in which psychedelic rock received its namesake in the first place. The track follows a marching drum beat layered with Kaukonen’s subdued guitar-playing, slowly building to an eruption of Slick’s contralto urging us “When logic and proportion / Have fallen sloppy dead / And the White Knight is talking backwards / And the Red Queen’s off with her head / Remember what the dormouse said / Feed your head.” A lovely reminder to drop another tab.
PASTE MAGAZINE
gglum: The Best of What’s Next
Smoker’s imagination has always run rampant. During her childhood back in Croydon in South London, she emptied her kitchen cabinets and created a quasi-drum kit from Tupperware and chopsticks to write songs for her parents. She recalls the first thing she remembers writing: “I’d written some excellent narrative about me going to the jungle and making friends with the animals and bringing them back into London. But they all got on with my friends better than I did and became humans. I performed it for my parents, who were trying to hold in their laughter the entire time. And then I got really upset because they weren’t taking me seriously with my Tupperware drums.” Even from a young age, Smoker created her lyrical narratives in a world of glum.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Hana Vu Exits Her Comfort Zone
The pinnacle of this perceptible world is the Romanticism cover artwork, which is based on Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi—with Vu standing-in for Holofernes. It’s richly tragic and vivid, mimicking the drama of the album’s soundscape and bringing the spirit of the 18th-century Romanticism movement to life in a way Vu never imagined. “I’m so grateful that anybody is inspired by my songs or art. There are things that I can’t do. So it’s very freeing to relinquish energy and control on something so important to me,” she says. “When I’m writing the album, it’s very emotionally laborious and intense. If you’re constantly working on something that ultimately serves your own expression, it’s not spiritually good for you. Even if I am constantly working to release or make music, I have to train myself not to take it all super personally and have it all be such an extension of myself.”
PASTE MAGAZINE
Hole’s Live Through This Gave Us Femininity That Embraced Its Gnarly, Flawless Truths
With a cover inspired by another underestimated complex female character, Carrie White, Love told us who she was even if people weren’t ready to listen. Like many autres of the female experience before her, Love’s lyricism drips with misery—anthems for the girls who lost their innocence too young and became doomed to continue living in a world that couldn’t hold them. Live Through This is a Dorian Gray-esque portrait of womanhood, showing how ugly it can genuinely be.
PASTE MAGAZINE
How Grace Cummings Became Ramona
Grace Cummings’ voice sounds like it has lived a thousand lifetimes’ worth of stories waiting to be told—and, on her latest album, Ramona, she finally gets to tell those stories on her own terms. While Cummings’ voice was as captivating as ever back two years ago, it arrives on Ramona like the center-stitch in a tapestry of dense, dramatic and ornate instrumentation and experimentation—thanks to a flashy combination of Cummings wearing new creative clothes and teaming up with producer Jonathan Wilson.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Ramones, Brain Drain
On May 23rd, 1989, the Ramones were knocking on death’s door. Their lead songwriter had officially left the band; they were in various states of disarray, affected by detrimental mental health issues, debt problems and a general apathy towards chasing a wind of commercial success that felt like it would never come. Unbeknownst to this crumbling band, their final album as the Ramones we all knew and loved would give them the radio hit they were desperately waiting for—but they were already dead and buried before they could celebrate getting what they had patiently scratched and clawed at for decades.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Janis Joplin, I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
Janis Joplin sang with more than just her voice, though. She sang with every fiber of her soul. After years of being weighed down by the cosmic might of the Holding Company, she needed to break free to truly let her voice unwind—and her voice was as vulnerable as it was tough. The persona and personality Janis carried, too, mimicked this dichotomy; outwardly, she was a bluesy spitfire, always cradling a bottle of Southern Comfort, but on the inside, she only craved acceptance and adoration. Yet, without those dueling forces within, she would never have been the star she became.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The Cure’s 40 Greatest Songs Ranked
Over their history together, the Cure have released three of the greatest alt-rock albums of all time—Pornography, The Head on the Door and Disintegration—and have left a mark on five decades of music. From their debut LP Three Imaginary Boys through their 2008 (for now) finale 4:13 Dream, the Cure have cemented their legacy as one of the greatest bands to ever make music together—so, it’s high time Paste looks at the best of what the West Sussex goth heroes have to offer.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The 50 Best Original Songs Written for Films
Tonight, the 96th Academy Awards will air and award some brass to the top achievements in film over the last year. And it seems that Billie Eilish is set to win her second Best Original Song Oscar in the last five years, a feat that only 26 other musicians—including Elton John, Giorgio Moroder, Henry Mancini and Randy Newman—have accomplished in the award’s 90-year existence. While “What Was I Made For?” is a worthy and compelling frontrunner, the Academy doesn’t always get their picks correct—and they rarely offer a nuanced, accurate portrait of the best that film had to offer in any given era.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Time Capsule: Queen, News of the World
In the mid-1970s, there was a tidal wave of change sweeping the music industry. An ear-splitting new sound was taking the forefront, as bands like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones drew attention and spurred a rising punk subculture. This new craving for music that disrupted society as much as the current state of music led bands like Queen, who thrived in the opulence of prog-rock, to adjust to put on new clothes or get left behind. Following a less-than-favorable critical reaction to their fifth album, A Day at the Races, Queen was under pressure to revive their fanbase or die trying.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The Black Opry is Changing the Way We Think About Country Music
Many Black country music fans, like Black Opry founder Holly G., historically haven’t been able to enjoy their favorite musicians because of the genre’s unsafe and unwelcoming environment made up of majority white conservative fans. Following the summer of 2020 and the growing Black Lives Matter social justice movement, Holly began to dive into other people’s work on creating space for Black artists in the country music community and was inspired to amplify them herself.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The 30 Greatest David Bowie Songs of All Time
Rock music as we know it today wouldn’t exist without its wildest, glittery rebel, David Bowie. In his over 50 years of being active in the industry, he influenced culture as much as he influenced music. He was a pioneer of the glam rock genre, a significant influence on the punk rock movement, an innovator of theatricality, an auteur of fashion and a symbol of queer freedom. Bowie’s impact throughout his life—while expressing his passion and perspectives on the world—is still unbelievable in many regards.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Chelsea Wolfe Builds a Labyrinth of Power, Hope and Despair on She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
Chelsea Wolfe has always had an insatiable taste for darkness. For more than 15 years, she has been the supreme of her musical coven, carving out her place as one of her generation’s boldest and most eclectic artists. Elusive like the raven, Wolfe effortlessly glides between neofolk, blues, doom and alt-metal throughout her discography. Regardless of genre, she often finds herself in the lyrical abyss, wading through the void with a special delicacy that comforts more than it frightens. She finds herself in a similar space on her most ambitious work to date, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She.
PASTE MAGAZINE
The Cosmic Reinvention of Declan McKenna
Intentional or not, his third record feels like a spiritual sequel to Zeros, as McKenna explores the weird and wonderful universe it took all of his sophomore endeavor to travel to. The vast darkness and unknown of space found him unable to control the destination, similar to his rise to fame, but now that he has inhabited this new mysterious plane—that could still be controlled by billionaire overlords—he still finds his own identity and courage to stand on his own after the tumultuous journey.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Alan Palomo and His Revivalist Rebellion
For better or for worse, 2023 was the year of comebacks. With Harrison Ford returning as Indiana Jones, an unfortunate Willy Wonka revival and an unlikely Beatles reunion, Alan Palomo—the artist formerly known as Neon Indian—returned as a more original version of himself. In a time where marketability and virality are plaguing a music industry that is more capitalistic than ever before, the Mexican-American singer/songwriter looked towards the past to capture the essence of elusive artists and see where the roots of capitalism began to grow. World Of Hassle, Palomo’s first album under his own name, is the retrospective of a musician who has watched the industry of his passion morph into a beast he’s unsure he wants to partake in.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Survivor Is Better Than Ever in Season 45
Basic voyeurism aside, the mirror of our society that the Survivor team has created will always remain relevant because people are constantly changing. Society is always changing. So, how people react in particular situations, even if it’s the same immunity challenge or game move, will continuously change. Probst is always saying how the game is evolving—to an exhaustive degree at times—but he’s right.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Jonathan Rado Pays Tribute to His Fallen Heroes on For Who The Bell Tolls For
“I suppose if a man has something once, always something of it remains,” Ernest Hemingway said in his 1940 novel For Whom The Bell Tolls. For multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer/songwriter Jonathan Rado, what remains are memories of his close friends Richard Swift and Danny Lacy, both of whom passed away a few years ago—sparking Rado’s journey through grief immortalized in his second solo album For Who The Bell Tolls For.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Font Remain True Without Relinquishing Control
In the age of technology, can musicians succeed without plastering themselves all over the internet? For Austin-based post-punk quintet Font it’s not only possible, it’s an integral part of their essence. The experimental band is a conglomeration of the five twenty-somethings’ passion for making music that feels good rather than trying to sell a persona.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Mt. Joy and the Art of Togetherness
PASTE MAGAZINE
Five years for most people is encapsulated in photographs and old memories but, for frontman Matt Quinn, it’s etched in Mt. Joy’s music. To Quinn, the quintet’s folksy music exists in a dichotomy between the abstract and vividly real. If he could create a piece of art to epitomize their sound visually, it would be a collage of objects that shouldn’t exist together in the first place.
The 15 Greatest Horror Movie Soundtracks of All Time
I have always lived for horror. I was the kid who would go to the library in elementary school and check out Goosebumps books on rotation. I was the one telling scary stories at the lunch table—which may have gotten me in trouble a time or two. All of that love for being scared has grown into a deep appreciation for how horror is so much more than just visual media.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Sun June and the Beautiful, Surreal Sustainability of Abstraction
The group’s third album, Bad Dream Jaguar, is the moody, atmospheric product of pandemic isolation, which required Sun June to learn how to create music together from a distance. Stripped away from the jam sessions of Somewhere and the touring life that conjured Years, Colwell and Salisbury found solace in each other during that period of seclusion—creatively and romantically.
PASTE MAGAZINE
How Maria BC Let Go of Their Past Lives
Growing up is hard to do. For Maria BC, that means more than just getting older. It means shedding their past lives. Understanding who we are is life’s most complex mission but, to have a truly complete sense of self, we must look back before going forward. Maria BC aimed to solve that difficult inner battle on their sophomore album Spike Field.
PASTE MAGAZINE
What We Saw at ACL Festival 2023
Austin has been, lovingly, called the Live Music Capital of the World for decades, and one of the reasons it received such an honor was on display across the last two weekends. Austin City Limits Festival turned 21 years old this year and, along with the fitting introduction of liquor to the general admission crowd, it celebrated with a packed line-up of ACL Festival veterans and new faces alike.
PASTE MAGAZINE
10 Femme and Non-Binary Rock Bands You Need to Know
Men have led rock music for decades, but women and non-binary artists keep the subversive spirit alive by bringing oppressive truths to the ears of anyone who will listen. In honor of sharing those shouts of rage, we’re bringing you a mix of folks who have been swinging around the scene for years—and some newer acts who’ve captured lightning in a bottle.
PASTE MAGAZINE
Media and Music: How Disney’s “A Goofy Movie” Defined Tevin Campbell’s Career
While Disney isn’t known for creating R&B icons, they accidentally made one in 1995 with Powerline. Tevin Campbell’s superstar character only needed two songs to become a cult icon.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Selling Out Or Growing Up? 10 Years Later, Bring Me The Horizon’s ‘Sempiternal’ Remains an Integral Part of Their Sound
After signing with a major record label, Bring Me The Horizon refined their metalcore sound with its fourth album, creating a unique combination of heavy electronic tracks leading to lasting success 10 years after Sempiternal’s release.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Album Review: Kali Uchis Explores The Cycle of Love in Red Moon in Venus
In her third studio album, Kali Uchis invites us into her femme fantasy world of love, lust, and heartache through her romantic lyricism packed with Colombian influences and angelic vocals.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Interview: Water Gun Talks DIY Music Production and Their Brooklyn Influence
The self-described “swaggy, sticky, and authentic” five-piece band sat down with Afterglow to talk drunken recording sessions, their love of Deftones, and their anticipated upcoming single, “Bryn.”
AFTERGLOW ATX
Release Radar - January 2023: Teeth by Die Spitz Album Review
Far from just another riot grrrl copycat, the talent and rotating cast at the mic sets the stage for these true renaissance women to leave behind the grime of their humble beginnings to bust through the rock scene with their unique perspective.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Media and Music: Time Traveling Through 1980s Music in “Donnie Darko”
What is the perfect landscape for a hypnotic, dream-infiltrating bunny named Frank, heralding the end of the world? An 80s gothic New Wave soundtrack.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Media and Music: How Suspiria (1977) Fuels Fear Through Italian Synth-Rock Band Goblin
Suspiria’s visceral, unsettling score was the perfect co-star for Jessica Harper as Suzy Bannion, as she uncovers the secrets of a prestigious German dance academy.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Media and Music: The Devastating Use of Zeppelin in "Sharp Objects"
When an addict searches for a murderer in an isolated Midwestern town, the only logical soundtrack is the haunting honesty of Led Zeppelin.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Bad Religion: The Religious Cannibalization of Ethel Cain in ‘Preacher’s Daughter’
Religious imagery pours out of every song on Ethel Cain’s debut, from the sins of a family to a betrayal that rivals Ptolemy’s.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Drag Queens Facing Demolition: Inside The Fear The Performers Face
Now adorned in a beautiful beaded gown with a flawlessly beat face to match, Bocanegra swallowed his fear, went out to do what he loved and hoped make enough tips to start saving for the uncertain future.
CLASS ASSIGNMENT
Pleasure Venom at Austin City Limits
Ripping through the early morning heat on the final day of Austin City Limits 2022, local punk band Pleasure Venom kicked off the Barton Springs stage with a bang, or more appropriately, a shriek.
KVRX 91.7 BLOG
One Hit Wonders: How The Rickroll Revived Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up"
AFTERGLOW ATX
What happens when a one hit wonder resurfaces 19 years after its release? The most iconic meme of all time.
4 of the Most Iconic Walk-Up Songs in MLB History
AFTERGLOW ATX
Music and sports go hand in hand, but in baseball, a player's entire persona is defined by one thing: their walk-up song.
Wine and Cheese: Tierra Whack and Waterparks
Tierra Whack and Waterparks are two artists that could be confused for stand-up comedians with their humor-heavy lyrics and upbeat musicality. In fact, their strange (and debatably cringey) lyricism adds an unexpected level of cool to their music.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Playlist: Angry Girl Music of the Indie Rock Persuasion
AFTERGLOW ATX
Whether you’re in your hateful shrew era or just want some female rock to jam to, our girl Kat Stratford has you covered.
Bring Me The Horizon: One Band’s Journey from Metalcore to Electro-Rock
Through years of experimentation, metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon proved that emo wasn’t just a phase. The group took influences from popular music to blend screamo with electronic music to create their signature electro-rock sound.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Release Radar - October 2022: Ariel Zetina’s Cyclorama Album Review
AFTERGLOW ATX
Breaking through the white male domination in electronic music, Hispanic DJ Ariel Zetina makes her mark with debut Cyclorama.
Drag and the Art of the Lip-Sync: How Queens Entertain
There is more to being a drag queen than a freshly beaten face, a blinding sequin outfit, and an impeccable tuck. A significant part of drag performances are powerful lip-syncs complete with kicks, splits, and death drops.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Release Radar - October 2021: Liily’s TV or Not TV Album Review
Los Angeles-based alternative rock newcomers, Liily released their debut album, TV or Not TV, the perfect blend of anti-establishment punk and manic grunge.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Release Radar - March 2022: The Let Go’s Delete My Feelings EP
Packed to the brim with airy beats, dreamy vocals, and laid-back riffs, alt-pop duo The Let Go combine their American roots with their adopted UK home to create a vibrant-yet-gritty second EP.
AFTERGLOW ATX
Pussy Gillette Musician Profile
The self-proclaimed genreless group has been categorized as punk in the media, even with their ranging sound on their self-titled debut. "Everything tends to have a genre-specific thing now, so we'll go with it.”
MUSICIAN PROFILE
Aries Turns Show Into a Roast
"You guys don't know anything about music, huh?" Aries playfully jests after the small but lively crowd at Come And Take It Live started moshing before the beat dropped in the rap-heavy track "One Punch."
LIVE SHOW REVIEW
Jimi Hendrix Discography
The 1968 LP opens with a slow submersion into the world of Hendrix's female interests or "electric ladies" through the eery instrumental "...And The Gods Made Love" that parallels falling down the rabbit hole.
ALBUM REVIEW
Austin’s oldest venue remains iconic as SXSW returns for 2022
A small, intimate venue housed on the bustling street of South Congress, The Continental Club opened its doors in 1955 and has endured as an iconic part of Austin music history.
MUSIC NEWS FEATURE