Canadian made horror/comedy Here For Blood sees Shawn Roberts (Resident Evil/Land Of The Dead/Diary Of The Dead) as Tom, a wrestler who helps his girlfriend Phoebe (Joelle Farrow) out by taking on her babysitting gig for a night whilst she studies for exams. What would appear to be a normal night of playing video games and eating pizza with Grace (Maya Misaljevic) turns into a terrifying night of violence as masked invaders break into the house. Luckily for Grace the one night she needs a wrestler for a babysitter is this particular night. Here For Blood starts off as a typical slasher/home invasion movie, with an opening scene of two young women meeting a sticky end at the hands of a very large, bare chested, masked assailant, before the introduction to the main cast. Early on we get what we need to know about Tom, Phoebe and their friends. Then Grace and her family. The seemingly plain, conservative couple of mum, Barb (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and her new husband, Graces stepdad, Gill (Michael Therriault) before finally introducing a disinterested Grace. Everything has been ticking along okay with some funny lines but not a lot of action since the murders at the … Read more
Confession time: I was going to burn this record to the ground. I wasn’t writing a review yet, just listening … Read more
Members of Come Closer have played in Dan Padilla, Pinback, Tiltwheel, and more. While that background is helpful for setting … Read more
Paint It Black kind of burst back onto the scene the last two years. It had been 15 years since … Read more
The Manikins previous album, 2019s Bad Times, was my encounter with The Manikins. We started off a bit weird, as … Read more
The allure of ambient music and its applications in pop structures has always been an important topic for Niecy Blues. … Read more
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I have a soft spot for those noise punk and grindcore albums that blaze by in ten minutes or less. You know the kind. They're not something you listen to every day, but they are the perfect unrelenting catharsis on those days when you feel like the whole world is against you. Dohrn's self-titled debut is that kind of album. Comprised of fifteen tracks that zoom by in 8.4 minutes, this album is also a vehicle for some serious social commentary. The lyrics are extremely (anti-)political and lash out at just about everything. A couple of the songs are even in Spanish. But this is coming straight off the lyrics sheet because with a band like this, there is no hope of deciphering the maniacal shrieks. Dohrn definitely falls under … Read more
The talent and quality of Aisha Devi have been apparent since the release of her first EP, Aura For Everyone through her own Danse Noire imprint. As the years passed, Devi became more ambitious and started honing into the duality between ecstasy and mysticism. Her latter works, in 2018’s fantastic DNA Feelings yielded towards the atmospheric and ambient side, presenting … Read more
Aesop Rock seems to be the rare artist who gets better with age. I enjoyed his early work with Blockhead, but it felt like things started to take off when he took over self-production, steadily growing and hitting what felt like peak when Spirit World Field Guide came out in 2020 (followed by Garbology in ’21). Luckily for all of … Read more
In December 2019, Benefits released their “Marlboro Hundreds” single. The UK act sourced all the fury and urgency of punk, wrapping it into a devastating noise facade and powerviolence demeanor. A prime example of weaponized music, and while through the years Benefits have morphed, their poignant messaging remains. Now, their debut record, Nails, sees them revisit some of their early … Read more
Having listened to Goat’s first two records, 2013’s New Games and 2015’s Rhythm & Sound, I was firstly blown away by their minimalism, but mostly by their precision. Featuring primarily percussive elements, the act from Japan perform an etude on both technical aptitude but also creativity. I was even more impressed when I had the chance to see them perform … Read more
While this is their second overall (if Bandcamp is up to date), The Rapture and Resurgens is my first time really sitting down with a Seagulls full-length. And my takeaways match with seeing them at FEST 21 recently. It’s heavy punk that’s big on singalongs, equally angry and melodic -- and usually both at the same time. I like the … Read more
Dedication to tradition is tricky business. On one hand, adhering to existing norms carries on the legacy. On the other end, can this result in something novel? Folk music is, by definition, rooted in tradition. And while many have pushed its boundaries, they are instead labeled as experimentalists or neofolk. From the early works of Comus to the feverish interpretations … Read more
Six songs a bit shy of 12 minutes, it’s the new split EP from Time X Heist and Without Love. They didn’t waste any time so why should we? Let’s get into it. Time X Heist, a straight edge band hailing from Colorado, take the first half of the album with an optimistic, but gritty, intensity. Opener ‘Keep On Fighting’ … Read more
Alien Nosejob, the one-man project from Australian musician Jake Robertson has been releasing a lot of records. The project began a garage rock bent and recently moved into hardcore-inspired raw punk. The newest record, a 13-song collection called The Derivative Sounds Of... Or... A Dog Always Returns To Its Vomit goes full circle -- really even further back, with some … Read more
Gina Birch is a 67 year-old '70s feminist icon who smashed into 2023 with her loud bass. Originally only knowing of Gina Birch from her fame with The Raincoats experimental post-punkness, I found out that over the last four decades the godmother of punk has saved numerous audio files on her computer of her whispering, singing, and screaming to form … Read more
It’s hard to keep the classic genre styles sounding fresh, which is what makes a band like Chain Whip so vibrant. The Vancouver hardcore band play tough-sounding, angry, loud, and fast punk – the type that makes yoo want to punch things. Heck, they named the band Chain Whip and the record is called Call Of The Knife. It’s aurally … Read more
Drone music is a deceptively difficult genre to get right. Sure, anyone can play very slow and heavy, letting the feedback carry them into obscurity. But in truth, it is all about what happens in the space in between, and the feeling that the artists can transmit. The Immortal Samsara Travellers are more than capable of delivering exactly that with … Read more
Ocean County, New Jersey four piece, Meteor Police, mean business and have gone above and beyond to ensure their debut album New Type Destroyer gets the attention it deserves. This ten track album showcases their talent not just as musicians but the whole package, from recording quality to the artwork and marketing of the finished product. New Type Destroyer arrived … Read more
I really liked Some Legacy when it released, listening a lot in 2019-2020. Then it kind of slipped off my radar, as records tend to do as somebody who gets a ton of new music. Now, Billy Liar is back with new record and this one is equally vibrant. Billy Liar is a Scottish musician, sometimes playing solo and sometimes … Read more
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cake, Iron & Wine, Meat Puppets, Blind Melon, Peaches, Neutral Milk Hotel, Lemon Demon and The Sugarcubes. While stylistically these bands are essentially alien to one another they do have one unifying quality. Bands named after food and drink have a long lineage. As a side note, I have a major beef with online lists of … Read more
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