As his music suggests, the Canadian experimentalist known as JayWood (real name Jeremy Haywood-Smith) is the type of guy who enjoys thought-provoking conversation about topics like manifestation, astrology, and mysticism—not in a blind follower kind of way, but in a loose and curious, self-reflective way. He offers glimpses of these ideas throughout his new release […]
Maynard James Keenan’s Puscifer project will return early next year with its first album in five years, Normal Isn’t, which will arrive Feb. 6 from Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG. The lead track, “Self Evident,” is out now in tandem with a video filmed at a special album preview event at Exchange L.A. in August. “Instead of […]
Every year, I’m relieved not to be attending Coachella. I went for the festival’s first 10 years, then limited myself to the surrounding parties. My last trip was in 2013, when the lineup looked like I had personally curated it, and I had such a miserable time that I swore off the desert for good. […]
This new series highlights on-the-record conversations that didn’t make it into the published feature, with text directly lifted directly from the transcript. Anything off the record remains off the record. By the time I interviewed Ace for his February 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without feature, the weekly series was in its third year. He […]
The history of recorded music is not long. There are records available from the very earliest days of sound reproduction, which in its familiar form was invented by some guy named Edison in New Jersey. If your favorite band is or was Bon Jovi, it’s possible that one of Bon Jovi’s great-grandparents was alive when […]
Though Boris has been steadily releasing albums since 1996, there will always be a before and after Pink for the band. Formed in Tokyo in 1992, Boris has released 29 studio albums, 14 EPs, and seven live albums since its inception. However, Pink remains their zenith, a sprawling 47-minute masterwork that marries sludge metal with […]
Sometimes you have to blow things up and start over again to some degree, even if things were working in the first place. A fresh start, a blank canvas, can inspire the creative process like the first time. But does it count as starting over if you’re doing it with your day-ones? Besphrenz, the genre-defying […]
If you’ve been wondering what Of Monsters and Men have been up to in the six years since their last album, the answer is: a lot. The Icelandic folk-rock group released a documentary, Tíu, and an accompanying EP in 2023 to mark the 10th anniversary of their debut, My Head Is an Animal. In the […]
First, we need to note that Tortoise releasing a record with anyone other than Thrill Jockey after a 30-plus-year relationship is a shocker for a group not known for dramatic changes. It’s akin to Autechre abandoning Warp! Anyway, the important thing about Tortoise is that their last two albums before the International Anthem/Nonesuch-reared Touch — […]
If you’ve not yet heard producer/artist/DJ REZZ’s music, today is the day. Her work is unlike anything you’ve ever heard, or likely ever will. Simultaneously introspective yet emotive, REZZ’s midtempo cinematic bass music ranges from hypnotic minimal tech to dark industrial, but mostly lives in the realm of the unexplored. Her live shows carry the […]