It's the most wonderful time of the year! The air is crisp and the nights are drawing in, which for many of us means an increase in horror movie watching and thinking nothing of spending our hard earned cash on new spooky furnishings. The abundance of halloween decor is tempting us all to fill our houses with more candles, plastic skeletons and horror character plushies and of course we oblige because "THIS IS HALLOWEEN"!!!! Last year I put together a little list of some great horrorpunk tunes to add to your halloween playlist. This year I've decided to be a little more sedate, or maybe just a little bit more me. You see I am most definitely a home body and as much as I love to dress up for halloween I am out of my comfort zone at parties. I'd much rather cosy up at home in my Evil Dead jogging bottoms, with my fleecy spooky themed blanket collection and a selection of snacks whilst watching horror movies. This is me pretty much all year round but as halloween comes around I like to watch even more and get fully immersed. It is a ritual I have upheld for many a year now and I start to get excited from the start of September, once October has arrived I am in full halloween mode and there are a few songs and films that really make me look forward to spooky season!! 1 Francis Haines - "Trioxin Theme from Return … Read more
The local Las Vegas music scene is unique in that all of the DIY musicians and songwriters are battling against the million dollar shows that happen every night at the … Read more
Horrorpunk is for life... not just for Halloween, but lets face it, a lot of these tunes were made for Halloween party fun!! Fans of the music spend their time … Read more
Punk has always set out to be ungovernable, unruly and unapologetic. Kill your idols, destroy society, rip up the rulebook – of course. But that doesn't mean that every act … Read more
We asked our friends in Gloomy June to put together a guest list for us – a list of the six bands/artists they can agree on when embarking on a … Read more
We post a variety of features in recurring series – click below to browse them.
A regular series by Robert F.
A wide-ranging guest column written by BJ from Ancient Shores, mainly covering film but extending into philosophy and aesthetics too. Check out BJ's work on the A389 podcast.
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.
Guest column by T of Vegas
A cookery column by Nick, vocalist with metal band The Famine. Veggie/vegan friendly!
A roundup of coverage of the annual punk rock festival held in Gainesville, Florida
Our annual roundup from Gainesville, FL's famous Fest.
SPB's coverage of the annual festival in Gainesville, Florida.
Our coverage of the annual Fest extravaganza.
Our coverage of the 19th edition of the Fest – an independent multi-day, multiple-venue music festival held annually in Gainesville, Florida.
All our coverage from the long-running music festival
Articles about the Fest 21
We dive into the back catalog of a record label and ask them to nominate their most memorable releases from their label's history–with a few suggestions of our own.
An interview format where we ask a band to rate and review a bunch of music
A radio DJ profile series created by Christopher D & Matt Hutchison.
There’s so much music released, whether physically or digitally, that keeping up with what’s going on becomes almost like a full time job. With Only Death Is Real, the aim is to bring you something new.
A life lived and lessons learned by Eddie Spaghetti of Supersuckers.
Welcome to Running on Nothing, the latest addition to our stable of columns at Scene Point Blank. Running on Nothing offers a look at the world through the eyes of Kole, bassist of The Lippies, guitarist of The Bloody Lips, and gigposter artist.
We survey some of the other music releases out there. Results may vary...may get weird, but hopefully something covered here piques your interest.
A semi-regular column where we choose a specific area and give a local scene report.
Discussing the state of the music business at the kitchen table
A brief but englightening chat with an artist who reveals an interesting or unexpected story from their career
A collection of items grouped by topic, eg. "Top 5 Worst Beatles Songs" or "Top 10 best '77 punk releases".
One-question interviews with artists where we find out about the gear and equipment they use to achieve their sound.
A collection of coverage rounding up the year 2012, covering our favorite albums, shows, bands, and more, as well as asking record labels and bands about their past twelve months in music
It's the end of 2013, so here's our best-of roundup for the last twelve months.
Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2014.
Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2015.
Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2016.
Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2017.
Our summary of the best music (and more) of 2018.
Our wrap-up of the best music and more from 2019
Our wrap-up of the best music and more for the year we'll all want to otherwise forget, 2020.
Our roundup of the best music from the worst year (since the previous one, anyway).
Our favorite music and more from the year 2022
Our roundup of the best music of the year 2023
In celebration of a legendary music venue, we've asked some of the staff to reminisce about the bests shows they've seen there. Here are Jon and Jenn's top five shows held at the Glass House: Jon Halperin Glass House Booker I only went two years before I found five of my favorite shows...I am sure if I went through the … Read more
Let me do this in my best vintage Dan Aykroyd from SNL voice. Do YOU need more excitement in your life? A little PICK ME UP in these weird times? The "WEIRD AND DIRTY MUSIC" you never knew you needed? Look no further than Wet Cassette’s new compilation album THE COMP VOLUME 1! Here are 20 tracks, 20 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED … Read more
David Bowie, one could argue, is the most influential artist ever. I may get some shit for that comment, but he had done more to marry music, art, fashion, and theater into one arena than anyone before or since. His tendrils reach far into the fine arts world and everything he touched was way before its time. Even his last … Read more
Sometimes you reach a point in your life when something inside of you just breaks and no matter what you do, you can't fix it. You hate your job, you hate your apartment, you hate the city you live in. I had currently reached that point in my life when I decided to move from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Seattle, Washington. … Read more
Multi-day music festival Riot Fest returns to Douglas Park in Chicago for its twelfth year, September 15-17th. The independent music festival specializes in punk, rock, alternative, metal, and hip-hop. Not to mention, there will be carnival rides, sideshow performers, and top-notch food vendors added to the mix of performers. If that wasn't reason enough to attend, here's the top ten … Read more
Pitchfork Music Festival returns to Union Park in Chicago for it's twelfth year (except 2005's "Intonation Music Festival" tag) July 14-16. As usual, it's three full days diverse acts, food, shopping and pre-and-post events. Here's five of the must-see artists at the 2017 installment. 1 LCD Soundsystem This is the first Pitchfork LCD plays in support of a new album … Read more
TV theme songs are their own art form: they aren’t singles and they aren’t cinematic scores. Instead, they have to be memorable while predominantly setting the tone for the upcoming program. There’s a reason few pop songs are successfully regurgitated into the form and there’s another reason why, thirty years later, people can still sing you their favorites. And it’s … Read more
1 Devin Townsend – "Tall Latte" (Ziltoid, the Omniscient) Ziltoid is an impeccably funny album. Not only is the premise itself spectacularly silly (an alien destroys Earth because our coffee sucks), but Townsend peppers his humour throughout in the most subtle of ways, making the album an absolute delight to listen to from beginning to end. But what really makes … Read more
1 Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction Admit it: you love this album just as much as everyone else. And with good reason; GNR's debut Appetite for Destruction is a pretty fucking awesome album. It's the classic 80s heavy metal album, filled from end-to-end with nothing but sweet riffs, amazing solos, and Axl Rose's distinctive vocals. So how did … Read more
The challenge of listing the definitive "best" album openers is perhaps impossible. While we're dedicated at SPB to challenging the odds and defying convention, that might be a steep request even for us. Instead, we've chosen some of our personal favorite openers from records across a variety of genres. Inevitably, we'll miss your favorite – let us know below what … Read more
Boasting a packed, diverse lineup of bands and musicians, Beacons Festival has something for everyone. These are the acts which have caught our eye and are sure to catch yours too... 1. Danny Brown Sunday, Loud And Quiet stage, 19:00 The Detroit rapper has hit the busiest stage of his career so far, building on the success of critically acclaimed … Read more
Whoa-oh is both a pop-punk staple and a songwriting trick that finds its way across many genres. Is it a gimmick to create an easy anthem; a cheap way to fill in syllables; or does it not matter at all because, in the end, the songs that use it have burrowed their way into your memory giving a lasting memory … Read more
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 of decay is testament to his power. 2 The Great … Read more
It's E3 season. A time when new games get debuted and companies embarrass themselves with a dance-off to demonstrate their newest product. We thought we'd take the time to appreciate the tunes that danced their way into our hearts and our minds from some of video gaming's biggest franchises. Despite how recognizable some music from video games can be, it … Read more
We've all had them - songs where the lyrics passed you by in a blaze of blissful ignorance, until one day you stopped and suddenly heard, as if for the first time, the surprisingly different words that the singer was singing all along. Here, in no particular order, SPB documents our five most confusing songs whose meanings eluded us the … Read more
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