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 […]
punk
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Royal rush
For the guys of the Nashville-based Blacklist Royals, 2012 was a bad year. “2011 was really good for us,” said Nat Rufus, lead singer and guitarist, noting the group was coming off its debut disc and the Warped Tour. “And then 2012 happened. We had all these new songs written and the plan was to […]
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Ever so Slightly
Nearly 20 years in, and California’s Slightly Stoopid is still on top of its game. The reggae-punk fusion act released its seventh studio album, Top of the World, last August to its highest Billboard chart position to date. “It’s amazing. We’re living a blessed life,” guitarist, bassist and singer Miles Doughty said. “I don’t know […]
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Out with a Bang
Photo: Doug Schwarz Oklahoma City punk-rock outfit The Boom Bang is headed to the big glass house in the sky, exiting this world in a blaze of smoke bombs, cheap beer, broken glass and partial male nudity. Pizza cookers, firework vendors and local music fans alike mourn the loss of one of the greatest live […]
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Mac ’n’ cheese
Photo: Brad Elterman Things can move pretty fast — faster than you want, sometimes. Just 22, Canadian garage rocker Mac DeMarco recorded his 2012 debut EP, Rock and Roll Nightclub, as a personal, private experiment of Ramones-influenced power pop slowed to a creep, and brandished the cover with a lipstick-smearing selfie. An unexpected hit, it […]
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Music explosion
Most bands never get the chance to meet their musical heroes. The dudes of Diarrhea Planet get to hang out with theirs on a near-daily basis. “Right when I started school in Nashville, I went out to a club and watched Jeff the Brotherhood play. It blew my mind,” guitarist Emmett Miller said. “I wanted […]
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The Fabulous St. Knicholas Cage — Shit Surf
The four-piece might become a National Treasure if it keeps producing music as good as it does on Shit Surf; this five-track effort is pretty Kick-Ass, not once rolling Snake Eyes. Shit Surf departs off like a maddened criminal flying Con Air with “Duane & The Eddies” boasting a guitar lick that will melt your […]
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Ex marks the hot
Photo: Renate Winter Conventional isn’t really Ex-Cult’s thing. The Memphis punk outfit, which is set to perform Monday at The Conservatory, inked a deal with a hometown label within a remarkably short time frame and played its first show mere months after formation. In the time since, an unwavering deluge of momentum has hurled these […]
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Tiger would
Everyone in their mid-20s to 30s arguably carries a certain guilty pleasure for the pop-punk and pre-guyliner emo tunes of the likes of Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and Blink-182. Oklahoma City’s own Tiger Lily is more upfront about its appreciation. Luckily, a new generation of bands, including The Wonder Years and The Story So […]
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Listen up again
Following up our list of 2012’s best local albums, here are our picks for the 10 top singles. 1. Sooner the Sunset, “All Because of You”If there is a formula to writing the perfect folk pop song, Graham Colton clearly has it, and to give him an equally formidable singer-songwriter to play off of (Lindsey […]