Waxahatchee
WAXAHATCHEE One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically […]
Waxahatchee
WAXAHATCHEE One of the hardest working singer-songwriters in the game is named Katie Crutchfield. She was born in Alabama, grew up near Waxahatchee Creek. Skipped town and struck out on her own as Waxahatchee. That was over a decade ago. Crutchfield says she never knew the road would lead her here, but after six critically […]
Maria BC
MARIA BC “Maria BC is a classically trained vocalist, a dexterous guitarist, and a songwriter with an innate gift for vast, stately melodies, but the defining strength of their music is the mood: an overarching melancholy that shadows everything like heavy storm clouds.”—Pitchfork Ohio-born, Oakland, CA-based artist Maria BC (they/them) has slowly opened up their […]
Sheer Mag
SHEER MAG Sheer Mag have labored to carve out a discernibly singular position within the canon of contemporary rock: toggling with ease between the refined flourishes of a “connoisseur’s band” and the ecstatic colloquialism of populist songwriting—yet displaying no strict loyalty to either camp—their sound, while oft-referenced, is unmistakably and immediately recognizable as theirs alone. On Playing […]
Julia Holter
JULIA HOLTER “My heart is loud,” Julia Holter sings on her sixth album Something in the Room She Moves, following an inner pulse. The Los Angeles songwriter’s past work has often explored memory and dreamlike future, but her latest album resides more in presence: “There’s a corporeal focus, inspired by the complexity and transformability of our […]
Orchid
ORCHID It’s a little known bit of punk lore that when Bruce Springsteen wrote “everything that dies someday comes back,” he was specifically referring to the reunion of the New England band Orchid. Maybe the Boss was a prophet, maybe I’m lying, or maybe Orchid’s obsessions (black jeans rather than blue, roller rinks, mixtape nostalgia, […]
The Virus & The Pist
One Step Closer
ONE STEP CLOSER One Step Closer signal a sea change with Songs for the Willow. With last year’s This Place You Know, the band had already mastered a unique stripe of mournful melodic hardcore informed by eclectic emo influences. But on Songs for the Willow, they’ve tapped into a dynamic, emotionally powerful, and sonically intricate […]
Slater
SLATER From seductive club bangers to therapeutic, night-time-cruising tunes, Slater has solidified his role as a tastemaker and star of the new wave of alternative pop. Since 2013, Southern California’s rising underground sensation, Slater, has blended the best elements of alternative, pop, and hip hop into a new, unique sound all of his own. Smooth, […]
Cheekface
CHEEKFACE When we last left the arguably interesting adventures of Cheekface, they’d released the minor phenomenon “Emphatically No.” The band’s sophomore album bowed at #1 on Bandcamp’s alternative and vinyl sales charts, became a college radio staple, and propelled the L.A. talk-singing trio into packed houses of Cheek Freaks across the US. So I guess […]
