Malibu Ken Selftitledphoto: turntablelab.com Can we give it up for my main man Aesop Rock? Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Oh, you don’t know who he is? Well, shame on you. He’s one of the foremost examples of why rap music is still as exciting and relevant as it ever was, as long as you know where to find it. See, instead of these fakers, rapping about how much bullshit they have, how big they are, and how they’re better than...

Yes! It’s the End! The end of the year! The end of the decade! The end of our current layer of epidermis! Everyone is making lists, but now, more than ever, we can proudly say we have the ONLY list worth looking at if you want the best recommendations for music, movies, and TV shows of 2019. Holy cow, did we NAIL it! We’ve thought about you, dear reader, all year long, and how you can enrich your life by...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into The Drew Thomson Foundation’s self-titled debut album. “What is the secret to making a pop record in the twenty-first century?” Such was the root of a conversation I had with my daughter last week, but it all began with talking about how much music has changed in what could be perceived as a very short period of time. Since it has bearing on the dialogue, it’s worth pointing out that it was...

BattlesJuice B Cryptsphoto: turntablelab.com Back when Late Night television was worth watching, you could count on them as a source or news, comedy, and music. It’s how I discovered a lot of bands including Battles. Watching them on Jimmy Fallon performing Futura, I was immediately transfixed: the stage presence, the style, the weird placement of the drummer’s crash cymbal. All of it was interesting. I heard the song once and it permanently lodged itself in my brain. Gloss Drop was...

Photos by Brittany Rose QueenIG:...

Gremlins You know how some people like to have an argument about how Die Hard is a Christmas movie? It was cute back when it first happened, but now it’s just seems tired. I could say the same thing about the movie Shazam! What it boils down to is that people seem to need an excuse to watch Die Hard, and they shouldn’t need the Holiday season to do that. On the other hand, there are...

Well, thank God for Jimmy Fallon. I know, strange way to start a live show review, huh? But, it’s related. Hear me out. Back in the day when late night television was worth watching (your John Stewarts, your David Lettermans), there was a little show called Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It had decent comedy, good guests, and great music. The Roots were the house band, after all. But, they also had some pretty amazing musical guests. The Pixies played...

Hoooo boy! It’s that time of year again! We just spent a grueling weekend with our families for Thanksgiving, seeing people we would rather avoid, commuting in a hellscape, and realizing that the pit of small talk is bottomless. But now it’s time to reorient ourselves and get ready for the Holiday season that actually matters. As always, we are featuring some old favorites, revisiting some previous companies, featuring new ones, and coming out of left field on one or...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the All That Matters Is This Matter LP by Holy Beach. Someone wise once said that “Variety is the soul of pleasure. Variety is the condition of harmony. The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new. Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavor.” In that spirit, The Deftones once totally reinvigorated heavy metal music by simultaneously making their approach...

A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the “Hold Fast”/”Demons” 12” picture disc single by the Drowns. Ignoring the fact that the very idea of a two-songs-on-one-side, digitally printed twelve-inch single could easily be defined as the height of twenty-first century indulgence (and, potentially, the pinnacle of missing the point from a ‘back to vinyl’ analogue-lovin’ standpoint), it’s awfully difficult to argue against the quality of the two songs which appear on this preview release for...