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Golden Shitters

Music Education

Interviews / Don't Quit Your Day Job • June 23, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not just to pay the bills. Jobs provide new challenges, personal fulfillment and, yes, some rent or gas money. How an artist spends their time by day will influence the creative process at night. In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Scene Point Blank looks at how musicians split their time, and how their careers influence their music (or how their music provides escape). In this edition, we chat with Matt Ellis of Golden Shitters. He calls the band his passion project, or “loss leader,” while also working as a Rock Band Teacher / Music Teacher at Noise Pollution Rock School in Hamilton, Ontario. Scene Point Blank: You told me in pre-interview prep that you are more of a band leader than a music teacher. To get started, tell us about the school. As principal, what is your role with your co-workers? (Very) broadly speaking, what do they do, compared to what you do? Matt Ellis: I run Noise Pollution Rock School. I teach 3-5 kids at the same times, ages 5 to 17. I show them how to play easy songs: Ramones, Beatles, Stooges, Green Day, or anything else that gets them excited. I show them how to play together and show them how to be in a band. I don’t teach music theory or offer one-on-one lessons. While we learn chords and song structures this is more like a “let’s … Read more

Punk Under The Sun

Interviews • June 22, 2026

Punk Under the Sun – Interview with Joey Seeman and Chris Potash Some music scenes become legendary — New York, … Read more

Commerce or Amusement? #1

Regular Columns / Commerce or Amusement? • June 9, 2026

Are You In The Music Business? Or Just Involved In Music? Interview Series #1 Featuring Jordan Stamm of Drunk Dial … Read more

J Mau & The Kiss Off

ASL interpreter

Interviews / Don't Quit Your Day Job • June 8, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not … Read more

Latest album reviews — browse all

Lice (Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman)

Vol. 4: Miami Lice
Rhymesayers (2026)

This EP released kind of suddenly, back in March, right before a bunch of stuff hit the fan in my life outside of SPB. Which means the EP felt sudden, but this review has been stewing for nearly three months with a lot of repeat listening along the journey. At eight songs in length, it's short but sweet, and as … Read more

Various Artists

There Is No Sun - A Tribute To Jay Reatard
Sonic Church (2026)

The late, great Jay Reatard was a prolific master of rock n roll gems. Whether it be with his earlier budget-punk act of his namesake, Reatards, his synth-punk projects Lost Sounds and Angry Angles, or his solo material as Jay Reatard, Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr. was an incredible songwriter. Those aforementioned bands are just a smattering of units he’s been … Read more

The Dwarves

Jenkem
Greedy, MVD (2026)

The Dwarves first cut me off on my path with their 1986 garage-rock debut, Horror Stories, on Voxx Records. Been a fan since. Over the forty years they've been around, some albums hit, some didn't connect as much. Their last main outing, Concept Album, bloated into a 26-song deluxe CD. Jenkem returns to familiar territory: 14 tracks screaming by in … Read more

David J

Tracks From the Attic Revisited
Independent Project Records (2026)

Sometimes musical circles take decades to close. Just ask Fleur De Lys and their catchy cover of The Who’s '60s freakbeat rarity, "Circles." For those of us digging through dusty crates at the margins of post-punk, a first introduction to mid-century mystic Eden Ahbez didn't come from a Nat King Cole hit. It came straight from the liner notes of … Read more

Additional album reviews

Physicalist

Self Titled
Dirt Cult (2026)

F.Y.P is one of the rare bands that I'd say nobody sounds like -- but in the past two months I've caught myself making that comparison twice. First while listening … Read more

Dylan Thomas

Todo se desvanece
Burnt Toast Vinyl (2026)

When bands spend months slowly piecing together an album with cheap gear, limited time, and apparently an alarming amount of terrible beer, it’s kind of romantic. Not romantic in the … Read more

Book Review

Adam Steiner

Darker with the Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs of Love and Death
Rowman & Littlefield (2023)

Adam Steiner doesn’t just break the earth with a spade with this book; he actually digs deep into the fertile soil to enter the cobwebbed crypt. He approaches the catalogue … Read more

Six Going on Seven

Human Tears
Spartan Records (2026)

Late 90s post hardcore and emo feels impossible to recreate now. That’s not because the sound itself is gone, but because the tension behind it was so specific to that … Read more

The Bug Club

Every Single Muscle
Sub Pop (2026)

  I got kind of obsessed with reviewing this record after I heard the first single “Watching The Omnibus” which they released digitally earlier this year. I could probably just write … Read more

The Cascadian Divide

To the Sky
Independent (2026)

The Cascadian Divide is a Washington state based melodic skate punk band that formed during the infamous COVID lockdown. Although it started as an experiment, it soon became a passion … Read more

Jungle Rot

Cruel Face Of War
Unique Leader (2026)

Twelve albums and more than three decades into their career, Jungle Rot remains one of death metal's most reliable institutions. While countless bands have spent years chasing technical excess, progressive … Read more

Overcalc

Fruits of the Decision Tree
Sleeping Giant Glossolalia (2024)

Some instrumental records create atmosphere while others create movement. Fruits of the Decision Tree feels like it creates an entire environment. It’s unstable, mechanical, strangely beautiful, and constantly in motion. … Read more

News headlines — browse all

DazGak! adds vocals on new EP

Posted in Records on June 29, 2026

Irish post-hardcore band DazGak has a new EP out next month with 6 songs in 18 miutes. The record is called Stimpy, out on Floodlit Recordings in the UK and Smithsfoodgroup DIY in the Netherlands. Members of the band also play in God Alone. Calling themselves "math pop," Stimpy marks … Read more

Live Agriculture

Posted in Tours on June 29, 2026

Agriculture is set to take last year's The Spiritual Sound album on the road this fall on a month-long journey with Uniform and Pure Hex. Dates below. Read more Agriculture … Read more

PJ Harvey goes to space

Posted in Bands on June 28, 2026

PJ Harvey shared a single called "Voyager," available as a 7" from Partisan Records now. Meant for her next album, English physicist Professor Brian Cox invited Harvey to write a … Read more

Squid Pisser's Throat Slave

Posted in Records on June 28, 2026

Squid Pisser just announced the August 29 release of a new "full-length EP" called Throat Slave, coming via SKiN GRAFT/Sweatband Records. Read more A single is out now: Read more

A Lost Weekend with Phoebe Bridgers

Posted in Records on June 28, 2026

Indie rock hitmaker Phoebe Bridgers is back, sharing "Lost Boys" from a new album out on Dead Oceans this August, Lost Weekend. It's the first new material from Bridgers since … Read more

Fever Dream continues into fall

Posted in Tours on June 28, 2026

Celebrating 10 years since the release of Fever Dream, Greg Puciatio's The Black Queen has added a second run of tour dates to the project's 2026 schedule. Following previously announced … Read more

Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji's And Their Power Was Alive

Posted in Records on June 27, 2026

Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji haved teamed up for a new 7-track collaborative record called And Their Power Was Alive, out Sept. 25 on Whited Sepulchre Records. Faith Coloccia is … Read more

Album stream