Alternative music, cult films, and pop culture explored through a Gen X lens — with reviews, interviews, and a deep-dive podcast.
Placebo ‘Never Let Me Go’ Review: alternative rock vets sound reinvigorated on first new (and very topical) album in nearly 10 years. It’s been almost a decade since Placebo put out a studio album (2013’s Loud Like Love). Fans could be forgiven for wondering if the band had splintered or ran out of juice, because […]
Killing Joke ‘Lord of Chaos’ Review: UK postpunk masters return with 4-song EP, featuring new material and ‘Pylon‘ remixes. It seems like whenever life seems completely fucked, when all hope appears lost, we have one silver lining: new music from Killing Joke. Somehow the band are ever attuned to the times we are living in, emerging […]
Why ‘The Batman’ Is The Best Batman Movie Ever: A deep dive into what makes the Matt Reeves’ 2022 Batman reboot starring Robert Pattinson as The Caped Crusader the best yet. After multiple delays and much anticipation, Director Matt Reeves’ The Batman has finally been unleashed upon cinemas, giving audiences a new Dark Knight, this […]
RIP Mark Lanegan: His Essential Playlist: We celebrate the late singer’s legacy with a 30 song Spotify playlist. Today, the music world lost a titan, the gravelly voiced, inimitable vocalist Mark Lanegan, has died at the age of 57. While the details are scarce (the singer had been suffering after a long and treacherous bout […]
Simon Bromide ‘Following The Moon’ Review: The Bromides’ frontman strikes out on his own with solo debut album. As one 1/3 of the trio The Bromides, Simon Bromide (real name Simon Berridge) has earned a solid rep for his particular brand of indie rock. But with that group currently on hiatus, he’s venturing on his […]
Failure ‘Wild Type Droid’ Review: veteran space rockers express earthly concerns on expansive, bottom-heavy new album. This feels like a good place and time to abandon the space iconography and theme once and for all. In a lot of ways, this album feels like a return to earth. All minds have been called back to […]
Cat Dowling ‘Animals’ Review: Irish indie artist’s latest release offers a layered and empathetic look at romance and relationships. Irish chanteuse Cat Dowling’s latest album Animals opens with the title track, and its winning mix of surreal lyrics, urgent verse and beatific chorus is a microcosm of the material contained within. The new album, produced […]
SLIS Podcast Episode 42-Albums Revisited: U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ Turns 30: we look back on the album that reinvented U2 for the 90’s on its 30th anniversary. 30 years ago this Thursday, U2 released Achtung Baby, the 1991 opus that helped them roar back to relevance after being sidelined by the commercial and critical disappointment of […]
The Darkness ‘Motorheart’ Review: UK glam rockers bring simple pleasures to complex times on first album since 2019’s ‘Easter is Cancelled.’ We didn’t wanna make a lockdown album. In the beginning of that thing, there was a lot of lockdown music coming out, and it was music that was influenced and informed by the experience […]
November Music Roundup Playlist: a playlist of new tunes from veteran and emerging artists to provide your fall soundtrack. As we’ve just scraped by Halloween and enter the third month of autumn, moods rise and fall depending on the weather and depending on where you are located. Also, in this age of Covid-19, it ultimately also depends […]