Lifelines Out Of A Bored, Teenage Suburbia
As a teenager in the Atlanta suburbs, the mail was my way into punk. Occasionally, Media Play or Turtle Music would carry CDs from Polyvinyl and Victory...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day (September Edition)
I didn’t write a Viking’s Choice Guide to Bandcamp Day for August, though my wallet says otherwise. Let’s keep this short: on the first Friday of every month...
The Night Pylon Returned (And WUOG Shut Down)
Pylon is one of my favorite bands of all time, discovered while watching a VHS copy of documentary Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out at Wuxtry Records in the summer of...
Tunisian Nu-Metal, Swedish Freak-Folk, Chaos Pop
Has a bass line ever broken your heart?I had to get out of the house. Took the car out to a brewery an hour away just to pick up a case of nerdy beers,...
Void-Cracking Metal, Kenyan Grindcore, Russian Hardcore
The boys are back in town. Krallice inspires intense reaction. Not just from metal gatekeepers pounding on keyboards — does anyone actually care about them...
When The Microphones Became Mount Eerie
“Universe, I know you.”The Microphones’ Mount Eerie was released in 2003, smack dab in the middle of my college years — you know, when everyone’s an...
Christian Horrorcore, Auto-Tuned Minimalism, Convulsive Screamo
Midwestern by birth; Southern by the grace of God. My family moved to the Atlanta suburbs in 1990 and, within months, I knew: This feels right. The humidity,...
I Want To Rewrite History
If you ever want to feel an acute sense of impostor syndrome,sit on a panel about the future of radio with actual public/community radio vets when you’ve...
Vietnamese Drone, Madrid Punk, Soft Glitch
How to have a quintessentially D.C. summer: devour a bushel of crabs accompanied by Natty Boh and friendsget a soft-serve cone (with sprinkles) as local...
Thick And Sticky
Like the muddy Maryland waters from which crabs are spawned, there is a gleaming sweat to Old Bay’s hot sauce. Paprika, cayenne, celery salt, black pepper,...
Lizard Brain Metal, Weirdo Rap, Goth Heartache
Corny is a corny word.Yet whenever someone cool on Twitter calls something corny, it’s devastating. The Discourse around Hamilton returned to the timeline in...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day (July Edition)
Hey y’all, it’s been a minute, so let’s get right into it. It is, once again, Bandcamp Day, when that platform waives its revenue fees for 24 hours to help...
Unnerving Punk, Urdu Goth, MIDI Synth-Pop
“Sensitive people have a hard time negotiating the world sometimes.”Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark was musing on his bandmate, the talented saxophonist Sarah...
Nepalese Grindcore, Pocket-Busting Free Jazz, Boot-To-Throat Punk
“Tough to stay present when the present feels wrong.” — Shannen MoserFew recent songs cut into our real-life Groundhog Day as “World’s Best Magician.” Philly...
Shredded Fusion, Burnt Screamo, A Sonic Anaconda
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (KJV, Ecclesiastes 1:9)“It’s a wild...
Slimy Garage-Rock, Cornholio Grind, Anime Noise
The room was already dark, with someone hunched over portable cassette players, effects pedals and a tangle of patch cords. I handed the door person $10 and...
Annihilation Jazz, Buchla Pop, Atmospheric Pedal Steel
“We must become an unrelenting blast furnace.”Not every musician knows how to talk about their music. That’s understandable: so much of the creative process...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day
Y’all, two weeks in and we already have a special edition. I mentioned in the previous newsletter that today, May 1, Bandcamp is waiving all of its revenue...
Stargate Drone, Snotty Punk, Black Metal Romance
Hi. This is how I use Bandcamp: Bandcamp, one of the few don't-call-it-a-streaming-services that actually cares about the well-being of the musicians who use...
Improvised Punk, Liberation Noise, Bummer Doom
Hi. If you’re getting this newsletter, it’s because I like you. (Not like you-like you, but you know.) You filled out an extremely informal survey on what...
