Alternative music, cult films, and pop culture explored through a Gen X lens — with reviews, interviews, and a deep-dive podcast.
Prong: ‘Prong’ Review: Tommy Victor and co. encompass all their diverse sonic elements on eponymous album. ★★★★ Prong has never been a band content to stay in one lane. Since emerging from New York’s hardcore scene in the late ’80s, Tommy Victor has spent decades welding together thrash, hardcore, groove metal, industrial and post-punk. The band’s […]
Queens of the Stone Age ‘Perfecth’ Review: QOTSA learn to love their flaws on strange, understated new album. Queens of the Stone Age have never been content to stay in one place. From the desert-rock stomp that established their reputation to the dancey grooves and atmospheric detours of their later work, Josh Homme and […]
Ministry go out in a blaze of industrial metal glory on politically charged new album. ★★★★ Al Jourgensen has called quits on Ministry before, only for the frontman and founding member to eventually reconvene when he felt he had something left to say about our geopolitical hellscape. But now it feels like he actually means […]
The Church conjure psychedelic hymns on ambitious and intricate new album ‘Lacuna’. I’ve probably covered The Church more than any other band on this site, and for good reason. Their intoxicating blend of psychedelia, shimmering guitar soundscapes and alternative rock cast a spell on me in high school, and I’ve never looked back. Best known […]
‘Newly Sentient Being’ Review: SWANS’ “Big Sound” incarnation reaches its ultimate apotheosis on epic live album. SWANS’ new live album, Newly Sentient Being (Oct. 2, Young God Records), is the monumental final document of the band’s “Big Sound” era, capturing a group at the apotheosis of 15 years of extreme sonic expressionism, where beauty and brutality, […]
Godflesh “Decay” Review: Industrial metal titans wind down their unholy reign with an album both apocalyptic and transcendent. There has always been something inherently hostile about Godflesh. Since Streetcleaner detonated into the industrial-metal landscape in 1990, guitarist/vocalist Justin Broadrick and bassist Ben Green have made music that sounds less like something designed to entertain than […]
Dinosaur Jr. There Near Review: Thirteen albums in, noise-rock power trio still roars. On There Near (August 28th via Jagjaguwar), the band’s 13th full-length album and their first collection of new material since 2021’s Sweep It Into Space, J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph return with an album that is both unmistakably Dinosaur Jr. and […]
John Carpenter’s ‘Cathedral’ Review: The Horror Master gives his synthwave sound a metal makeover on graphic novel soundtrack. John Carpenter is more than just a filmmaker behind some of the most iconic and influential horror and sci-fi films ever made. His creativity has never been confined to the director’s chair. He’s a filmmaker, composer, musician, […]
Hair Metal Veterans Turn Up the Heat in Central Texas Leander’s Haute Spot lived up to its name this week, with soaring temperatures making for a sweaty evening under the Texas sky. Fortunately, the scorching weather did little to dampen the enthusiasm of fans who packed the venue for a double bill featuring West Coast […]
The Church honor their 45th anniversary with The Singles Tour, a career-spanning set at Austin’s Long Center. Aussie psychedelic act The Church are best known for their dreamy single “Under the Milky Way”. But to die-hard fans, they’re equally revered for deep cuts from their entire catalogue. This makes the group’s current Singles Tour (1980-2025) […]
