
The Spaces of Athens DIY: The Hardcore House of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
By Jennifer Castaneda, Contributor The Hardcore House of Ruther Bader Ginsburg opened its doors to music lovers on June 23, 2015. Burst of Rage, Free At Last, Sarduakar, and Killjoy played on as teenagers moshed on hard-wood floors with the lights on. DIY shows are shows that are usually held in areas outside of a typical, designated venue. They are a non-standard way of giving artists and musicians a platform to showcase and share their talent. These musicians are oftentimes


Feature: Fall Folk Fest 2015, the Finale
By Devon Hannan, Contributor “Incredible. This is the testament of the power that music brings,” Haden DeRoberts said after a quick conversation about one of our favorite places, Bonnaroo. After reflecting upon my interview with the creator of Athens’ own Fall Folk Fest, I wondered if he knew that he was doing exactly the same thing as the beloved 500 acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee--bringing people together for a common cause. His own festival has served as a metaphor for


Group Feature: Bands We're Afraid to Admit We Like, Part 2
#DeathtoCool2k15. More ACRN writers spill what band they're afraid to like, so toss on some Dave Matthews Band and get readin'! Shem Krey, Sales Director/Foo Fighters Expert: Foo Fighters The first record I ever bought was a 2011 reissue of the Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape. I didn’t own a record player at the time, so I put it on the wall as an idol for my devotion. Four years later and I’m still a die-hard Foo Fighters fan. These days the record is warped and poppe


Group Feature: Bands We're Afraid to Admit We Like, Part 1
At the heart of every "cool kid," every "alternative" young adult is a dorky soul with guilty pleasures. Here at ACRN Media, we don't think ANYTHING should be a guilty pleasure. Even though we're familiar with that naturally anxious sweat that follows the realization you've been listening to RiFF RAFF while your Spotify is public, we think it's time to smash the notion that some things are cool and others are not. That's why we conned our writers into admitting what cool band


Feature: Bowlin' with Diet Cig
Text and photos by Julia Leiby, Music Director Alex Luciano is an Energizer Bunny. She hops around onstage, a wide grin across her face, while her bandmate Noah Bowman hammers away at the drums, composed, precise and determined. The two create earnest, funny and honest pop songs as the band Diet Cig, and they’re in the middle of a month long tour. It is their third this year. I caught up with the pair before their set at Mahall’s, the Lakewood bowling alley/venue, with Sheer


Feature: Aquabear Legion Supports Local Musicians
By Eli Shively, Contributor
Aquabear Legion isn’t a record label, nor is it a PR company, a music blog, or a booking agency. As a matter of fact, it probably could best be described as all of those things combined into one. Since its inception in 2004, the brainchild of Athenians Brian Koscho and Todd Jacops has done whatever it can to promote Ohio music, refusing to be pigeonholed into one category or another as an organization. This versatility almost comes out of necessi


Feature: Fashion Meets Music Festival 2015
By Diana Buchert, Contributor Fashion and music. Those two worlds don’t often come to mind together when only one is mentioned, but the relationship has always been secretly cohesive. Runway models trot down the catwalk to the beat of a song, and fashion statements such as Michael Jackson’s sequined glove are pop culture icons. For a festival to feature these two things and satisfy both sides of the spectrum is a huge undertaking. Fashion Meets Music Festival, which came to t


Group Feature: Bands We Pretend to Like Because We Think We Should
In the realm of alternative and subversive music lovers, there's a strange, unspoken rule about tirelessly defending and worshipping a certain class of bands. If you happen to feel contrary to the worship of these particular bands and artists, it becomes a precarious situation in which you feel as if you cannot say a single bad word about the artist without becoming a social pariah or losing some of your "hip cred," whatever the hell that means. I think it comes down to the f


The Vinyl Revival: Bad Timing Records
By Brittany Oblak, News Editor **Editor's note: Since this interview took place, Bad Timing Records has a total of 27 releases. Lately, it seems the word “revival” follows just about everything, especially in music. Even when something wasn’t really defunct to begin with, its shift back into the center of the cultural zeitgeist is incorrectly analyzed as some long-awaited resurrection. However, there is a specific resurgence that truly deserves the title--the one pertaining t


The Back Beat: Celebrating Punk History in Athens
By Sarah Weingarten, Staff Writer The Athens music scene is the humming heartbeat to a good number of Ohio University students' social lives. Going to house shows and bar venues, seeing out of town and local bands play is what students' weekends consist of. But 30-some years ago, that wasn't the norm. Being in a college band was an unlikely goal, but being in a punk rock band in this tiny, sleepy Appalachian town was more of a far-fetched dream. Four Ohio University students-