United States of America
I write about arts and culture for publications like Vice, The Village Voice, and Animal New York, host a punk music radio show called Distort Jersey City on WFMU, and produce a podcast about pizza called Slice Harvester.
A year and a half ago, I snuck through a back door into a show that Silent Servant was DJing in Brooklyn. It was right around when I first started hearing the dark techno that Silent Servant and his cohorts of the now-defunct collective Sandwell District were making.
Ben Trogdon edits the cult punk fanzine , plays drum in the band Ivy, and has been photographing the underground American punk scene since 2006. On November 13, Ben displayed his photographs in public for the very first time.
Photo Reed Dunlea "We live here, and we're in control of this fucking city," says Sam Ryser, a Brooklyn native and prolific punk musician and artist, about his brand new shop. "That's part of the beauty of this alleyway.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was spattered with what appeared to be red paint Monday as protesters flooded Times Square to protest a Missouri grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown earlier this year.
Lagwagon has been a band for 25 years. One year, they played 284 times. Somehow, it took me a trip to Mexico City, over a decade after I constantly listened to their Live in a Dive album, to actually see them play a show...and it was awesome.
Opening the iTunes Store. If iTunes doesn't open, click the iTunes application icon in your Dock or on your Windows desktop. Progress Indicator We are unable to find iTunes on your computer. To download and subscribe to Radio Harvester by Slice Harvester, get iTunes now. Already have iTunes?
The Ukiah Drag just released a seven-inch single on Wharf Cat Records. "Dirt Trip," backed by a Coasters cover, is a haunting, evil, backwoods ballad. It is a devil's swan song, coaxing the listener to dig their own grave. You are slowly drawn in by it, hypnotized, as it hangs heavily over you; you can almost feel its weight bearing down.
all photos by Nikki Sneakers Jock Club recently blew up Nothing Changes, a weekly show at Home Sweet Home in Manhattan, with a mesmerizing and high-energy set of deep house. It was his 20th birthday and his last night of tour, and there is not much that could have stopped him from transforming the intimate gathering into an epic party.
"Holy shit, pretty girls dance when you play this," said Jeremy "Mush1" Mushlin as he recounted playing the trumpet while cheerleaders danced to his high school marching band. A couple decades later, and after a long career in New York's underground reggae scene, Mush1 is a little less surprised by his listeners' reactions.
Emma Kohlmann's art is an abstract, hyper-sexualized version of Raymond Pettibon. Like Pettibon, she is very much connected to the current punk scene; she has done work for Thurston Moore/John Moloney, HOAX and Natural Law. Unlike Pettibon, she is a strong, young 2014 woman, and her work exhibits sexual taboos of a more consensual nature, as opposed to his masculine domination.
Willie Silva, a lifelong resident of Red Hook (photo: Emrys Eller) Do New Yorkers believe, two years after Superstorm Sandy decimated the area's coastline, that they're safer from future storms and devastating floods?
The moment that Laundry Room Squelchers began playing, immediately following a pummeling set from hometown sludge heroes Holly Hunt, the wildest bar that I've ever been to was brought to a level that would have been considered completely unacceptable anywhere that is not Churchill's Pub in Miami.
"Why's a Dog" was released on DJ Dog Dick's The Life Stains LP on HOSS Records almost a year ago. The accompanying video, directed and edited by Joe Skinner and premiering here, is a bizarrely mesmerizing complement to the cacophony of synth and vocal effects, guitar, bass, drums and other sounds crawling through this song.
Greatest City In The World Fanzine Issue #1 This is a fanzine based out of NYC about NYC. Interviews with Crazy Spirit, The Men, and Death First. Also includes an NYC venue report, food stuff, movie stuff, and Seinfeld stuff. 300 copies SOLD OUT. Read it online here.
Body of Light, two brothers from Tempe, Arizona, have been making some insanely catchy dark synth pop lately. The song in this video, "Limits of Reason," is no exception. Here they have teamed up with Los Angeles trippy video artist Amanda Siegel for a highly textured and brightly colored visual experience, complete with cool industrial dance moves, gloves that look like they are made of leather, and a chain.
Live Sessions with The Men, Crazy Spirit, Night Birds, etc.
"The music I would say is interesting, but I think that the band's importance lies more in the ideas behind it and the way that we engage with people," says Sean Ragon, the mind behind Cult of Youth. They will soon release their third LP on Sacred Bones Records, their magnum opus thus far.
Photo by Nikki Sneakers Nancy, a ripping two-piece garage rock hit machine, is the culmination of a friendship that began a decade ago at Camp Northstar for Boys in Hayward, Wisconsin. Their path has since taken them from the Midwest to Brooklyn.
I recently caught Arctic Flowers play their record release show in Portland for their new LP, Weaver, out on Deranged Records (North America) and Sabotage Records (Europe). The last time I saw them live was at a weekday matinee show in a vegan straightedge loft in Brooklyn, which was frankly one of the top ten most awkward DIY shows I had ever seen.
"They make me viscerally happy. I love to look at them. Sometimes they almost make me feel sad because they make me so happy," says Emily Stebbins, a curator at The Smile Face Museum. The museum was founded in 1992 by Mark Sachs in his basement in Maryland.
Uniform is the brand new project from Michael Berdan and Ben Greenberg that, according to them, "is the soundtrack for our society's collective nervous breakdown." To me, it sounds a lot more like the soundtrack for their individual nervous breakdowns. Uniform brings together a prolific front man and a prolific sound whiz.
The last time I saw Unicorn Hard-on play live, a gorgeous golden retriever named Jackson laid on stage as Valerie Martino, who has been making music under that moniker since 2003, ripped into her pulsing, high-pitched, and bizarre dance anthem "Wet Pet."
Y'all think you've had fun before? Try spending a Sunday afternoon at a Body Count music video shoot in Brooklyn. And then ending the day in a street brawl.