There are several bands jostling for the heavy, arty interstices between the monoliths of Neurosis and Radiohead, and though healthy hiatuses have left Cave In making less entries than say, Muse, they bring the best together like no other.

Cave In started off as one of the proto-metalcore ensembles of the late 1990s, but after a few germinal genre recordings (the undisputed classics Beyond Hypothermia and Until Your Heart Stops), they switched their vibe from introspection to outer space. A major change as such is not easy: Think Kill Holiday or Corrosion of Conformity, but on Jupiter (2000) and Antenna …read on

, 07 June 2011

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Hail Mary Mallon is the melding of word-murdering minds Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic and the laser-precise cuts of DJ Big Wiz, all three Def Jux alumni and no strangers to the raps and beats in their own rights. In the interest of full disclosure, these dudes are my friends. To be perfectly honest, if they were wack they wouldn’t be.

These three have been touring and clowning together for years in different guises, and it’s obvious when you hear how well they play together. Are you Going to Eat That? is the dopest record out this year.

Production-wise, “Mailbox Baseball” sounds …read on

, 11 May 2011

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omar Almufti photographer

Rusko at Terminal 5 NYC

Damn, Rusko showed up at Terminal 5 in Hell’s Kitchen last week and tore the roof off the joint. The sold-out venue was literally shaking when I walked in and his set hadn’t even started yet. When he did hit the stage, it was straight to business, as he rinsed one bass-heavy, dubbed-out banger after another. The building felt like it was about to collapse at this point, the crowd was fucking mesmerized and even the venue staff had that look on their faces like, “Woah, who the fuck is this guy?”

Rusko’s set is a physical experience, pushing the affects of bass frequencies on the human body in a way that is truly mind-blowing. Touching on classic dub, drum and …read on

, 04 May 2011

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omar Almufti photographer

Grails at The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY

Portland-based rock outfit Grails hit up the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn last week about halfway into their tour in support of the band’s recent release Deep Politics. As casually as these guys might touch the stage and dig in to their set, beers cracked, seeming as chilling as they would be if the show was in someone’s backyard, the energy of the music they put forth is staggering.

As the set progressed it became pretty clear that these dudes are extremely well-practiced, multi-modal musicians, as instruments and drumsticks change hands and each member is given the space to explore some sounds with the variety of tools available. This was a heavy session, refined instrumentation delivered carefully with a fresh psychedelic interpretation, referencing the library music era from which the recent project takes some of its influence.

, 04 May 2011

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“I’m such a tease and you’re such a flirt…” The most important band in the world has returned with another cure for the malaise of the age. Pick one: They’ve saved rock and roll, killed rock and roll, and still emerged from the muck of the music industry well ahead of the curve. Everyone in media keeps them under the microscope to see how they will win. Again. Lean in, here’s the secret:

Radiohead makes great records.

And they do it consistently. They’re also quite adept at parsing the patterns on the horizon of the mediascape, but that wouldn’t matter if …read on

, 22 February 2011

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The King of Limbs

It’s so unfair to see a band like Deftones lumped in with bands they have next-to-nothing to do with (e.g., Limp Bizkit, Korn, Tool, et al). One listen to their latest, the delayed and embattled Diamond Eyes—the boys have been through a lot since 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist including an entire record shelved and a bass player in a coma—and you’ll hear the pedigree. Diamond Eyes proves as sophisticated as it is loud and as beautiful as it is aggressive, and Deftones as much like the Cure as they are Clutch.

, 09 February 2011

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Excuse my rant. I feel it’s important.

In the USA it seems there are two choices of mainstream news: biased or irrelevant.

Plainly put, the First Amendment of that double-edged sword known as the United States Constitution lets any media channel say anything they damned well please and label it truth, unbiased, fair, naziism—really whatever they want. A majority of the rest of the world thinks less of Americans because “they” voted in Bush Junior not once but twice, but it really wasn’t their fault. Blame Fox News, the dominant force in news broadcasting in the US, who disturbingly tagline themselves …read on

, 09 February 2011

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A few years ago, Nestlé, the Swiss chocolatiers, put their hand to making a coffee-makin’ wonder system under the name of Nespresso. I wouldn’t be wasting your precious time if it weren’t for the fact that the coffee these little pod-based machines produce is nothing far short of nectar from the coffee gods.

It exposes how mediocre and weak the stuff Starbucks et al charge you far too much for really is. It’s shocking. Shocking. (More so than European chocolate vs American chocolate—even the fancy stuff from Whole Foods. Honestly, yanks, go to Cost Plus and treat yourselves to some Dairy …read on

, 03 February 2011

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The only saving grace of The Green Hornet is that Gondry’s fans know he must be more disappointed in himself than we ever could.

For once, something being 3D isn’t the crappest thing about being at the cinema. Jesus fucking H Christ, it makes Tron: Legacy look okay! And thats the best thing I can say about it.

Look, there are plenty of people out there on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes who think it’s okay, good even, but these people are retarded, it was like being transported back to the 90s when comic adaptations weren’t big business and The Shadow, Hudson …read on

, 18 January 2011

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As much as I am already a fan of Darren Aronofsky’s work and as soft a spot as I have for Mickey Rourke, I skipped The Wrestler (2008). Though I am open to being proven wrong, the more I saw of the previews, the less I thought it was my thing. Black Swan (2010) however struck me as more of a Pi with ballet and theatre instead of computers and the stock market. It turns out that my intuition was pretty much on point, at least for the latter case. Like David Cronenberg and perhaps Stanley Kubrick, Aronofsky is very …read on

, 10 January 2011

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