Ska music might have fallen out of the public eye since its mid-’90s heyday when The Mighty Mighty Bosstones briefly flirted with mainstream success and No Doubt’s ska-adjacent songs dominated radio, but Oklahoma City outfit Sunny Side Up is working to make sure the last horn hasn’t sounded. While the sextet started out simply trying […]
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Eureeka — Polysynthetic Fields
The record opens, appropriately, with what sounds like a garbled FM transmitter over some pillowy synth pads, eventually yielding to a pulsating dance rhythm and a hypnotic bass fuzz. The duo dabbles in the nostalgia of ’90s electronica throughout the EP’s 28-plus minutes, but it maintains an experimental edge and just enough peculiarity to keep […]
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Prettyboy — Dejvická
Abello long has been one of the most talented pure vocalists the state has to offer, but after dabbling in indie folk for a few years (and Christian music in his teens), he’s fully embraced what is an obvious penchant for ’80s-soaked pop tunes. It suits him well. Recorded in the Czech Republic, the two-track […]
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Breezy Burnz — Product of My Enlightenment
While he recalls Odd Future and Childish Gambino (“Beautiful,” “Rappin’ Ass”) in some moments, and Drake and Kendrick Lamar (the remarkably produced “Everything I Want,” “Ask Me If I …”), Burnz is very much his own rapper. He’s a lewd and crude dude — cheeky at moments, more thoughtful in others — but seemingly most […]
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MilitantxMindz — #RIOT
It’s times like this we need those enlightened messages more than ever, and yet, they’re exceedingly harder to find. Enter MilitantxMindz, a collective of “artists, freedom fighters and poets” who are starting a revolution right here in Oklahoma. And the revolution sounds pretty damn good. “Rebel Life” is right on par with the most choice […]
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aDD it up
“I try to balance drawing, graphic design and music. I use each to feed my creativity,” he said. “My first love was art. I’ve been drawing practically my whole life. That turned into a passion for graphic design. I really enjoy being able to express myself through art; it may be through words, pictures or […]
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Who is Is/Is?
Photo: Alexander Uhrich Female-fronted shoegaze outfit armed with a punk-rock sneer and swagger? Raucous ’90s alt-rock revivalists touting surf-rock melodies? Beach House boasting an edge and a litany of distortion pedals? It’s hard to say what Is/Is is, exactly, but the Minneapolis outfit appears to be that way for a reason. “The first songs that […]
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Spyda “the Wise Musician” — Mr. Metaphor
Yes, it’s filled with the typical big-balls braggadocio that has become a hallmark of most hip-hop, but what makes Spyda’s album so refreshing is the way he backs those balls up: He has a sound harder than anything on the radio right now. In a world of punk-ass Tiger Beat tween faves like Drake and […]
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Trading places
Between being a band, helping manage a record label/recording studio and maintaining a full-time day job, time management is crucial. Maybe that’s why Josh Griffin and Jonathan Eldridge — the two-man crew behind Oklahoma City blues-rock outfit The Trading Co. — have taken to writing songs and playing shows at the same time. “We’ve done […]
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Tony Romanello and the Black Jackets — Pleased to Meet Us
Sure, Romanello doesn’t have the gravitas of a Westerberg and Stinson, but he doesn’t need to. Those guys have already paved the road; let’s just let Tony and the Black Jackets drive on it. “The Way It Goes” is a good intro to the group, and a song I’m sure kills live, with its intonations […]