Darkness is a funny thing. Sometimes it can be filled with emptiness and despair but, if you look hard enough, it can also contain a wink of hope and elements of profound beauty. Over the years, many, many bands have tried to create dark music and most have failed, often times comically. It takes more than some de-tuning, minor chord progressions and charcoal-hued eye makeup to make music that is moody but also has a complexity and depth of character....

Darkness is a funny thing. Sometimes it can be filled with emptiness and despair but, if you look hard enough it can also contain a wink of hope and elements of profound beauty. Over the years, many, many bands have tried to create dark music and most have failed, often times comically. It takes more than some detuning, minor chord progressions and charcoal-hued eye makeup to make music that is moody but also has a complexity and depth of character....

The day Justin Pearson stops forging underground supergroups will be a sad day in the music world. JP, as he is known by his loyal subjects, has nourished an entire sub-culture within the San Diego music scene. As co-owner of record label Three One G, author of two books, and member of too many bands to keep track, Pearson is carving his way into the heart of San Diego’s music culture. The newest offering from Pearson (playing as frontman on...

Hey Junky,Awright, I can't make dis long – since ol' fi' dollar Billy went onn'is honeymoon, I ben trying ta keep myself occupied an' – how wid'e say it? – "pursue other avenues." Anyway, I'm a little slower than usual when it comes ta bein' onna run, so I gotta make dis quick. I nabbed a coupla primo songs fo'ya, n' I wis gonna throw 'em inna full-lentgh SWAG Report, but I ain't got time so dis is gonna hafta...

Oh, before I go,I always thought it was kind of weird how, when folks get married, there's all this gift-giving, but those who couldn't make the party don't get anything. That doesn't seem right to me, so I've commandeered the SWAG Report again to offer you fine readers a little celebratory wedding gift: a bunch of free music! Not only that, but it's a pretty sweet deal too; you're getting some fine new Americana, some other bits and pieces and...

Dearest readers, It is with great joy that I make this announcement: I'm getting married. That's right, my five-year squeeze Heather has agreed to walk down the aisle with me. While I've long maintained that I don't need some expensive jewelry or a piece of paper to know when I'm committed to someone and she has held a firm stance of "never, not ever again," we figured neither of us was going anywhere and it seemed like as good a...

One always has to wonder what wavelength some musicians are on – and that fact always comes to a head each time they're asked to contribute an endorsement of another group. You've seen these things before; on the front of Grandpaboy's Dead Man Shake, Paul Westerberg likened the sound of the guitar to “a knife fight in a phone booth” (which is kind of funny, given Westerberg is Grandpaboy) and Tom Waits has likened John Hammond's voice to the sound...

For as many bands who have come along and changed the face of rock n' roll over the years, there have been an equal or greater number of equally deserving groups who came close, but fell just short of the level they should have achieved. The perfect tragedy of the matter is, while some bands break and become household names and leave an expansive and fantastic crater in the place where they impacted rock n' roll, some other great bands...

Someone, somewhere has to be wondering how this EP didn't get made sooner. For the last sixteen years, Me First and The Gimme Gimmes have been raiding/defacing the vaults of pop history and churning out their own versions of what they find in the spirit of punk rock karaoke – so it's surprising to think that no one considered taking a crack at some bands from Japan; the birthplace of karaoke. It must have finally dawned on someone in the...

Hey junkie,I know I say dis a bunch but, wow, are you a lucky little buncha punks'is week. I nabbedja some pure, white hot-an'-addictive gold! Ann'it ain't no small amount neither! I nabbed new tunes from Asa, Chuck Ragan an' Cuff The Duke fer starters, ann'at ain't all bitch! As Im' sure y'ev heard, Wilco's gotta new reckid comin' out this month annis time, the band has gone old school: it's gonna be released onn'eir own label called dbpm an'...