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Avi Salem on May 10, 2018
In their three years together as a band, the Echo Park-based members of Cheap Tissue have taken their origin story and transformed it into a mantra: punk rock straight from the gutter. Formed under a fire escape next to a dumpster, the band pays homage the proto-punk and garage rock outfits that…
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Mike Huguenor on May 10, 2018
Hot Snakes a tendency to show up in dire times. In the early 2000s, the San Diego all stars released a trio of dark, vaguely threatening punk albums that followed closely on the heels of Y2K, 9/11 and the Iraq War. Then, in 2005 they disbanded. Now, as we slip through the…
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Yousif Kassab on May 2, 2018
Somewhere around 2010, young musicians all over the country rediscovered the power of pairing emotionally vulnerable lyrics with jangly, guitar-driven hooks. Joyce Manor soon emerged as a top talent in this so-called emo revival. Their 2016 effort, Cody, saw the band push their frenetic sound in new directions—with an acoustic track, a…
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A decade and a half before EDM producers like Calvin Harris, Diplo and the late Avicii became the new rock stars, electronic music brushed fleetingly up against the mainstream. Groups like Basement Jaxx, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy uploaded their bombastic tunes to American airwaves in the mid- to…
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Mike Huguenor on April 12, 2018
Dark, brooding and atmospheric, Punish the Blind is the first full-length by local black metalheads ColdClaw. On it, the San Jose band mix thrash, death and black metal to create a space as forbidding as the grim death march that adorns the record’s cover. Beginning with an unaccompanied guitar intro, the album…
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Mike Huguenor on March 29, 2018
Though they never quite achieved mainstream success, Prong has always lived at the intersection of genres. As an early developer of both industrial and groove metal, they had a major hand in shaping heavy music throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, influencing everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Lamb of God, and…
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Mike Huguenor on March 29, 2018
Nothing says a fun night out on the town like the words “dying fetus.” Luckily, Dying Fetus the band is there to deliver. As one of the early founders of tech-death (technical death metal), Dying Fetus blaze through death metal riffs with tightrope precision, turning on a dime into sudden and disgustingly…
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Avi Salem on March 29, 2018
Since their formation in 1995, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO have adhered diligently to a single mantra: “Do whatever you want, don’t do whatever you don’t want.” The band’s stratospheric scope of work—a mix of psychedelic rock, layered instrumentals and avant-garde electronica—has occupied a prominent place in the experimental…
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Stephen Perez on March 22, 2018
It’s been a year since Needle to the Groove hosted Egyptian Lover and Peanut Butter Wolf at The Ritz. This weekend, the local record shop is doing it again. Renowned producer and recording artist Prince Paul will be on stage, spinning complex alternative beats with a traditional hip-hop twist. Known for collaborations…
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Stephen Perez on March 22, 2018
Seminal SoCal punks T.S.O.L.—or True Sounds of Liberty—are back with a new record: The Trigger Complex, their first studio album in more than a decade. Since 1978, the Long Beach band have blended fast-paced bass riffs with grungy surf-guitar melodies. As early proponents of American hardcore, T.S.O.L. are known for bringing a…
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