
Album Review: Code Orange - Forever
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Roadrunner; 2017] Rating: 7.5/10 Key Tracks: “Forever,” “Bleeding In The Blur” If Turnstile’s mastery of bouncy power chord grooves and neo-P.M.A. persona have made them the “good guys” of the current hardcore landscape, Pittsburgh’s Code Orange are its snarling, brash heel characters — many fans of the genre love to hate them, but their ability to make innovative heavy music is undeniable and has kept them relevant in the scene for almost hal

Album Review: Kevin Devine - Instigator
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Procrastinate!; 2016] Rating: 8.5/10 Key Tracks: "Freddie Gray Blues," "Both Ways," "I Was Alive Back Then" Kevin Devine is a songwriter’s songwriter. His greatest works don’t grab you by the eardrums right off the bat; they pull you slowly inward, the beckoning combination of voice and guitar executed as perfectly as can be. There’s no overwhelming sense of urgency to his work, despite the impressive wealth of material he’s released over the

Album Review: Dance Gavin Dance - Mothership
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Rise; 2016] Rating: 5/10 Key Tracks: "Philosopher King," "Betrayed by the Game" “Post-hardcore” is pretty much the weirdest genre in all of music. On one hand, there’s bands like Fugazi, Bear vs. Shark and At the Drive-In, ones that earn unanimous praise from critics and casual listeners alike and are universally lauded for their creativity and influence. On the other, there’s the generation of bands that came after them — Chiodos, From First

Album Review: Infinity Crush - warmth equation
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Joy Void; 2016] Rating: 6/10 Key Tracks: “drowning here with all my friends,” “flightless” warmth equation, the latest bedroom pop opus from Infinity Crush (a.k.a. Julia Brown’s Caroline White), can be labeled as “dreamy” to the extent that it basically feels like the sonic equivalent of being asleep. This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed White’s past musical endeavors, but first time listeners are likely to be surprised by ho

Album Review: Every Time I Die - Low Teens
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Epitaph; 2016] Rating: 6.5/10 Key Tracks: "Glitches," "Petal" Every Time I Die don’t try to reinvent the wheel with each new release, but that’s far from a bad thing. The Buffalo metalcore quintet have reached their eighth full-length LP with Low Teens, and from a listener’s perspective there’s nothing all that new going on — just the same riff-heavy, southern fried aggression (topped of course by vocalist Keith Buckley yelling his head off) t

Album Review: Touché Amoré - Stage Four
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Epitaph; 2016] Rating: 8/10 Key Tracks: “Displacement,” “Eight Seconds,” “Skyscraper” Touché Amoré aren’t a pretentious band by any means, even though they may come off as such to some. Although some core fans lamented the more drawn-out, reverb heavy direction they took their last full length Is Survived By, it remains almost impossible for the melodic hardcore quintet to write a song that doesn’t feel fully communicable and down to earth thr

Album Review: Helms Alee - Stillicide
By Eli Shively, General Manager [Sargent House; 2016] Rating: 6/10 Key Tracks: "Untoxicated," "Dream Long" “Honing your craft” — three words many musicians use with pride when referring to sharpening technical chops or mastering the songwriting process. It is not, however, a phrase commonly heard out of the mouths of those on the aggressive end of the spectrum, players who push things to the brink of hard fast loud-ness, precision be damned. No one told Seattle sludge-rockers

Track Review: Modern Baseball - Everyday + Apple Cider, I Don't Mind
By Eli Shively, Reviews Editor [Run For Cover; 2016] Rating: 7.5/10 Perhaps the most hotly anticipated pop punk release of this year, Philly quartet Modern Baseball’s Holy Ghost stands to be yet another tell-all entry in the musical diary of dual twenty-something songwriters Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald. Judging by its first two singles, “Everyday” and “Apple Cider, I Don’t Mind” the pair’s individual styles are only getting stronger and more distinct with time. The singles

Preview: The D-Rays, Bummers, Slackluster / Nov. 14 / Jackie O’s
By Eli Shively, Reviews Editor Jackie O’s / Sat., Nov. 14, 2015 Let’s set the scene here: It’s a chilly November evening, the work/school week is over, and you’re looking for a warm, cozy atmosphere and some good old-fashioned rock 'n’ roll to help you unwind. If this sounds anything like your state of mind this coming weekend, look no further than Jackie O’s on Saturday the 14th for what’s sure to be a killer show. On the bill are three Ohio bands (two of which are from righ

Album Review: Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Style
By Eli Shively, Contributor [Matador Records; 2015] Rating: 3/5 Key Tracks: “Sunburned Shirts,” “Something Soon,” “Times to Die” Will Toledo, the creative mastermind behind the lo-fi indie rock project Car Seat Headrest, can almost be defined as an artist by the phrase “wise beyond his years.” Once a teenage Bandcamp fiend, churning out collection after collection of various bedroom experiments, he’s now signed to Matador and presumably preparing to put the past behind him an