Last week, the highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V was released, making almost $1 billion on its first day. Coupled with the fact that gross revenue from video game sales eclipsed that of the film industry in 2005, it seems logical that video game culture would have begun making inroads into other realms of pop culture. Digital music has always made reference to the midi tracks of early video games; as technology changes the tools we use to make music, the impulse to revel […]

I saw Grooms play their album release party for their new full-length Infinity Caller at Death By Audio on August 31st. It was maybe the first time I’d been to the venue since the summer began where it didn’t feel like a sauna. The gig was full without being packed in a way that would encourage belligerence. Like a lot of their 90’s throwback peers, Grooms and their fan base nurture a kind of slacker-oriented, music nerd atmosphere at their shows, […]

Shannon and the Clams make classically stripped-down music: over tautly-played guitars, the interweaving vocals of Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard lay out surreal narratives. It’s a timeless style, and it works. Their new album, Dreams in the Rat House, continues their tradition of taking a solid garage-rock sound and taking it to surreal places. (Think The Cramps; think Panther Burns.) It doesn’t hurt that both Shaw and Blanchard also make music as part of other, equally impressive, groups: Hunx and His Punx and […]