Features / Music

Another year is over. You yawn wearily as January beckons, trying to remember what your job is and clinging onto those hastily-made new year's resolutions. Maybe one of them was to listen to more new music this year? Better slow down there, buddy. Before you start diving into 2024, you … Read more

It's 2025, somehow. When did this happen?! Okay, okay, four days ago. But honestly. It feels like 2012 was only a few months ago. Is it just SPB who's feeling a little, well, timestruck? But don't worry – we've got you. Did 2024 pass you by, too? Still not caught … Read more

Every year we diligently assemble a list of our favorite albums of the year. Each SPB staff member enters the large arena we nickname THE DOJO, and yells out the name of their top album of the year. Rival staffers quickly assemble and shout out their own highly-favored record, and … Read more

Like most independent labels, Sell The Heart started to document a scene without really asking themselves “Where do you see yourself in 15 years?” In 2010, founder Andy Pohl was barely even thinking about vinyl. In “History 101” tradition, Scene Point Blank picked out some of the label's notable releases … Read more

Shane Herrell: Rest In Power(pop) (1980-2025) The Rocker I try to live my life with as few regrets as possible. Sadly I never got the chance to hear my friend Shane Herrell karaoke Thin Lizzy’s "The Rocker." As a singing bass player we don’t have enough heroes. It might just … Read more

It's August 27, 2008. The more politically minded of you will recall that date to fall within the time of the DNC ? the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO where I currently reside. The idea of this event was fascinating to me. I come from Canada. We don't have … Read more

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SPB's top 5 favourite Swans records (in alphabetical order) 1 Filth The first Swans full length appeared in 1983 and signified a huge shift in the post-punk landscape. The evocative artwork that speaks in deep and dirty atmospheres and Gira's ability to draw you in whilst repulsing with his soundtracks … Read more

Following a year in 2014 that not only saw Tyler, the Creator get arrested for “inciting a riot” during a show but also a tragic event in which an intoxicated driver plowed into a crowd, injuring close to two dozen and killing four, many people I talked to expressed the … Read more

An Esquire article written immediately after the event describe South by Southwest 2016 as “the worst-attended, least buzzy version of the...festival in more than a decade.” Having volunteered at the Austin-Texas-based festival for my fifth consecutive year, I can somewhat agree with that sentiment. Originally started in 1987 as a … Read more

A year after the standing President of the United States attended and lectured at the South by Southwest Festival, politics were again front and center for much of 2017's event. This is unsurprising considering the mess of an election cycle that Austin, Texas, a city described by some as being … Read more

The year's third month is always a crazy time to be in Austin, what with the South by Southwest Festival taking up March's middle third, but the overall level of chaos seemed to have been raised significantly in 2018. In the day's leading up to the South by Southwest Festival, … Read more

To me this is the most exciting time of the year. It is also a very expensive time of the year. Yeah, I spend a lot on gifts around Christmas, but this is when I catch up with everything I have missed. Every music site is publishing lists of the … Read more

Here in the northern hemisphere the seasons are changing. Europe is finally getting some rain. I don’t know about you, but this really does change my mood and the kind of music I want to hear. The time for music I associate with spring and summer is over. So I … Read more

The kitchen table is the place in my home where I have spent a lot of time lately. Shortly after I finished my last column I didn’t feel too well. That quickly changed to feeling very ill as I ran high fevers. A couple of tests later and I knew … Read more

It is when browsing through a boatload of year’s end lists that I begin to suffer from a strange form of FOMO. It is not so much the fear of going to miss something, but the fear of having missed something. Although I enjoy browsing those lists a bit too … Read more

Welcome back! I hope you don’t mind the mess this time. I dislike it when people say this when you enter their house, as it usually means their house is ten times cleaner than mine. However, this time my house really is a mess. We are in the midst of … Read more

No, this is not like the movies, ok. I am not going to a restaurant and do a lot of impressions. I am just stealing a catchy title for my column. As you might remember from my last column, I was in the middle of a big renovation project. We … Read more

Discussing the state of the music business at the kitchen table Welcome back to my kitchen table. Especially welcome in these strange times. I need some distraction to steer my mind away from thoughts that turn dark in an instant. Working from home full-time means I’m spending way too much … Read more

There we are again, back for another round. I don’t know how you are doing, but I am trying to focus on the positive things in life. The fact that it is summer does really help. I mean, a bit of sunshine can really brighten up your day, doesn’t it? … Read more