10. Johnny Polygon The Nothing 2013 belonged to the introspective rappers — the ones who found their strength in going soft and whose heads, hearts and souls lay open for listeners to poke around in. Tulsa emcee Johnny Polygon tips open his brain like a cap on The Nothing, baring weed-soaked nuggets of self-truths that […]
Depth
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The Best Local Albums of 2013
10. Johnny Polygon — The Nothing 2013 belonged to the introspective rappers — the ones who found their strength in going soft and whose heads, hearts and souls lay open for listeners to poke around in. Tulsa emcee Johnny Polygon tips open his brain like a cap on The Nothing, baring weed-soaked nuggets of self-truths that are […]
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Groomed for success
Brooklyn-by-way-of-Oklahoma indie outfit Grooms is just over a month removed from releasing Infinity Caller, its best album to date. It’s a record that almost didn’t happen at all, though. “We weren’t sure if we were going to finish it, really. Once we did finish it, we weren’t really sure whether to try and put it out at […]
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Heart-shaped rock
Chris Harris has listened to a lot of albums in the past 20 years, but Nirvana’s grunge-rock masterpiece In Utero is one the local musician (Depth & Current) and producer (Hook Echo Sound in Norman) hasn’t been able to shake. When he and friend Mickey Reese (El Paso Hot Button) first discussed collaborating on a […]
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Music Made Me: Chris Harris
The Cure, Disintegration (1989) This record was released when I was 15, but I don’t really remember listening to it a lot when it came out. I started playing guitar when I was 17, and it was probably sometime around 19 that I revisited it and realized that my guitar playing was subconsciously influenced by […]
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Vulgar incident
You’re doing something right when the powers that be shut your show down early. Denton, Texas’ experimental duo Vulgar Fashion endured this rite of passage on May 30, when the owners of a posh Dallas nightclub called The Dram instructed the two to call it quits a mere 20 minutes into their set. The band […]
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Norman Music Festival 6: Day 1
Best Case for a Main Stage Spot at Norman Music Festival 7:Horse Thief Sometimes you hear bands in a small room and know they won’t be playing there much longer. You definitely got that feeling watching Oklahoma City’s Horse Thief at Opolis Thursday night. The outfit didn’t rely on crowd favorites off Grow Deep, Grow […]
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Range rovers
When Ruth Smith and Derek Kutzer began making music together as Blackstone Rangers in 2011, they didn’t know what kind to make. Today, the now-trio — with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Daniel Bornhorst — still, proudly, doesn’t know. “We haven’t honed in on our sound, and I don’t think that we should, honestly,” Smith said. […]
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Depth & Current — Transient
Transient, the Norman noise outfit’s second LP (if you can call it that) marks a departure from the sprawling psychedelic anthems of its self-titled debut. At eight songs, this mini-album effort clocks in at less than 14 minutes, with each track less than two minutes. The band — front man Chris Harris, guitarist Derek Lemke […]
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New shift
“I really like the Oklahoma film and comedy scene,” Nghiem said. “I wanted to do a project that wasn’t too heavy and involved a lot of local people.” Clerks Too, which debuted today on YouTube, was in part inspired by an unauthorized remake of Star Wars that he and his friends saw online. “I was […]