Latest features browse all

Golden Shitters

Music Education

Interviews / Don't Quit Your Day Job • June 23, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not just to pay the bills. Jobs provide new challenges, personal fulfillment and, yes, some rent or gas money. How an artist spends their time by day will influence the creative process at night. In Don’t Quit Your Day Job, Scene Point Blank looks at how musicians split their time, and how their careers influence their music (or how their music provides escape). In this edition, we chat with Matt Ellis of Golden Shitters. He calls the band his passion project, or “loss leader,” while also working as a Rock Band Teacher / Music Teacher at Noise Pollution Rock School in Hamilton, Ontario. Scene Point Blank: You told me in pre-interview prep that you are more of a band leader than a music teacher. To get started, tell us about the school. As principal, what is your role with your co-workers? (Very) broadly speaking, what do they do, compared to what you do? Matt Ellis: I run Noise Pollution Rock School. I teach 3-5 kids at the same times, ages 5 to 17. I show them how to play easy songs: Ramones, Beatles, Stooges, Green Day, or anything else that gets them excited. I show them how to play together and show them how to be in a band. I don’t teach music theory or offer one-on-one lessons. While we learn chords and song structures this is more like a “let’s … Read more

Punk Under The Sun

Interviews • June 22, 2026

Punk Under the Sun – Interview with Joey Seeman and Chris Potash Some music scenes become legendary — New York, … Read more

Commerce or Amusement? #1

Regular Columns / Commerce or Amusement? • June 9, 2026

Are You In The Music Business? Or Just Involved In Music? Interview Series #1 Featuring Jordan Stamm of Drunk Dial … Read more

J Mau & The Kiss Off

ASL interpreter

Interviews / Don't Quit Your Day Job • June 8, 2026

There are a lot of misconceptions about the life of a musician. Most musicians have day jobs – and not … Read more

Latest album reviews browse all

David J

Tracks From the Attic Revisited
Independent Project Records (2026)

Sometimes musical circles take decades to close. Just ask Fleur De Lys and their catchy cover of The Who’s '60s freakbeat rarity, "Circles." For those of us digging through dusty crates at the margins of post-punk, a first introduction to mid-century mystic Eden Ahbez didn't come from a Nat King Cole hit. It came straight from the liner notes of … Read more

Physicalist

Self Titled
Dirt Cult (2026)

F.Y.P is one of the rare bands that I'd say nobody sounds like -- but in the past two months I've caught myself making that comparison twice. First while listening to the new Dumpies LP (spoiler alert: they cover F.Y.P on that same record) and now as I listen to the Physicalist debut EP. The interesting thing here isn't the … Read more

Dylan Thomas

Todo se desvanece
Burnt Toast Vinyl (2026)

When bands spend months slowly piecing together an album with cheap gear, limited time, and apparently an alarming amount of terrible beer, it’s kind of romantic. Not romantic in the polished indie film sense. More romantic in the sense that you can actually hear people chasing a feeling before life pulls them in different directions. That tension sits at the … Read more

Adam Steiner

Darker with the Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs of Love and Death
Rowman & Littlefield (2023)

Adam Steiner doesn’t just break the earth with a spade with this book; he actually digs deep into the fertile soil to enter the cobwebbed crypt. He approaches the catalogue like a forensic scientist examining the maggots on a corpse—meticulously analyzing the rot and the details of decay to chart exactly how long the body has been decomposing. He gets … Read more

Additional album reviews

Six Going on Seven

Human Tears
Spartan Records (2026)

Late 90s post hardcore and emo feels impossible to recreate now. That’s not because the sound itself is gone, but because the tension behind it was so specific to that … Read more

The Bug Club

Every Single Muscle
Sub Pop (2026)

  I got kind of obsessed with reviewing this record after I heard the first single “Watching The Omnibus” which they released digitally earlier this year. I could probably just write … Read more

The Cascadian Divide

To the Sky
Independent (2026)

The Cascadian Divide is a Washington state based melodic skate punk band that formed during the infamous COVID lockdown. Although it started as an experiment, it soon became a passion … Read more

Jungle Rot

Cruel Face Of War
Unique Leader (2026)

Twelve albums and more than three decades into their career, Jungle Rot remains one of death metal's most reliable institutions. While countless bands have spent years chasing technical excess, progressive … Read more

Overcalc

Fruits of the Decision Tree
Sleeping Giant Glossolalia (2024)

Some instrumental records create atmosphere while others create movement. Fruits of the Decision Tree feels like it creates an entire environment. It’s unstable, mechanical, strangely beautiful, and constantly in motion. … Read more

Fangus

Emerald Dream
From The Urn Records (2026)

The needle drops, and there’s no introductory sweaty handshake. Fangus doesn’t care for niceties; they’re ready to get down to brass-knuckle business. With their debut full-length, Emerald Dream, the Montreal … Read more

Drakulas

Midnight City
Dirtnap, Wild Honey Records (2026)

I’m assuming Midnight City is the “fictionalized New York-esque metropolis” where the band/gang members of Drakulas survive(d in the mid to late 70's;). It’s also the third album by this … Read more

Lethal Limits

Elevate EP
GhettoBlaster Productions (2025)

As far as I can gather Jeff Corso has been playing in bands in the Bay Area for the past 20 years but seems like exclusively hardcore until now. Full … Read more

News headlines browse all

A Lost Weekend with Phoebe Bridgers

Posted in Records on June 28, 2026

Indie rock hitmaker Phoebe Bridgers is back, sharing "Lost Boys" from a new album out on Dead Oceans this August, Lost Weekend. It's the first new material from Bridgers since 2022 and her third album overall. Read more The Lost Tour Dates: September: 09.14.26 — Indianapolis, IN @ Gainbridge Fieldhouse* … Read more

Fever Dream continues into fall

Posted in Tours on June 28, 2026

Celebrating 10 years since the release of Fever Dream, Greg Puciatio's The Black Queen has added a second run of tour dates to the project's 2026 schedule. Following previously announced … Read more

Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji's And Their Power Was Alive

Posted in Records on June 27, 2026

Faith Coloccia + Tashi Dorji haved teamed up for a new 7-track collaborative record called And Their Power Was Alive, out Sept. 25 on Whited Sepulchre Records. Faith Coloccia is … Read more

30,000 Monkies and lots of explosions

Posted in Records on June 27, 2026

Belgian band 30,000 Monkies has a new album on the way, a record called Super Rebound, out on Sept. 18. The band also shared a video for the title track, … Read more

Svjetlost The Forever Silent

Posted in Records on June 27, 2026

Dutch doom outfit Svjetlost, a solo project from Jamie Kobić (Gavran), will release a debut album called The Forever Silent on July 24. The new record, coming via Shadow of … Read more

2 new PUPs

Posted in Bands on June 27, 2026

Canadian punk band PUP shared a new video today for "Concrete," a one-year-in-the-making video from last year's Who Will Look After The Dogs? album. “About a year ago, on our … Read more

Heavens To Betsy to tour

Posted in Tours on June 27, 2026

On Thursday, Heavens To Betsy played their first show in 32 years in Portland, OR. The band followed the event with bigger news: a US tour that hits the West … Read more

Album stream