Stephanie Thornton

Southern California’s Militarie Gun is a newcomer with extensive experience in the field of hardcore punk. Multi-instrumentalist Ian Shelton started this project alone early in the pandemic, later recruiting four others to accompany his sing-scream vocals: guitarist Nick Cogan (Drug Church), guitarist William Acuña, drummer Vince Nguyen (Modern Color), and bassist Max Epstein. They released two EPs this year: All Roads … Read more

In June 2020, Kanye began dropping breadcrumbs to hype an upcoming full-length. First, a single with Travis Scott accompanied a tweet announcing the song would be on his next album, God’s Country. Neither that track nor album title made it to the final release. A stream of tweets with false titles, artwork, and release dates followed. After Kanye’s third high-profile listening … Read more

This year, Moon Duo released their seventh album, Stars are the Light, on Sarced Bones. Many of their signature spacey psychedelic elements are here: droning saturated guitars, looping synths, dual hypnotic vocals. But Moon Duo have another motive this time around -- getting our bodies moving.As they depart from machine-driven krautrock rhythms, they often slow down the tempo and bring in … Read more

This LP sounds like something that teleported here from my moody early-2000’s CD rack, which they acknowledge with their self-description of “grown-up punk”. The distorted chord progressions recall Sugarcult and Samiam while the grainy country-tinged vocals bring Gaslight Anthem to mind. The lyrical themes of alcohol and heartache nod to their influences as well, but the vocals lose their soul … Read more