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When Karen Peris Sings, "Are You All Right?" 😢
December 1, 2020
Karen Peris on The Innocence Mission’s ‘Glow’ tour in 1995. In bedrooms and on highways, these were my coping mechanisms with grief. 2020 is not over, yet,...
Black Metal Misandry, Iranian Dub, Cello Shred
November 17, 2020
Some newsletters I read: Constellations: Marissa Lorusso's tender lists of loves, loss and memory put me in a reflective mood every Tuesday morning, just as...
Viking's Choice Podcast: Gnarly Rae Jepsen
October 30, 2020
For me, the Halloween cover band is hallowed ground. In them, the true colors of your favorite artists, your friends, the cool kids you see at shows but dare...
Russian Mosh & Gloom, Spanish Psych, Brazilian Black Metal
October 21, 2020
In 2020, I fell down the rabbit hole of Russian Bandcamp.It started innocently, as one does, with a throwback ’90s vegan straight-edge metalcore band. Turns...
Airbending Autumn
October 14, 2020
The foliage moved like murmuration.Sitting with a cup of oolong tea, looking up at a mountain with autumn colors, I witnessed a patch of yellow’d trees move...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Friday (October Edition)
October 2, 2020
I swear when this whole thing started that it was called Bandcamp Day, then at some point, the collective unconscious (aka Twitter) decided it’s Bandcamp...
Pipe Organ Drone, Lava Lamp Jazz, Serene Hardcore
September 23, 2020
20 years later, I still listen to When the World Sings more than Kid A. Fine China’s debut album is one of those under-heard, underrated and under-loved gems...
Loudness Is Next To Godliness
September 15, 2020
I was born partially deaf.Folks are always surprised to hear this, considering my love for music and that I’ve made writing and producing stories about music...
Lifelines Out Of A Bored, Teenage Suburbia
September 8, 2020
As a teenager in the Atlanta suburbs, the mail was my way into punk. Occasionally, Media Play or Turtle Music would carry CDs from Polyvinyl and Victory...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day (September Edition)
September 4, 2020
I didn’t write a Viking’s Choice Guide to Bandcamp Day for August, though my wallet says otherwise. Let’s keep this short: on the first Friday of every month...
The Night Pylon Returned (And WUOG Shut Down)
August 26, 2020
Pylon is one of my favorite bands of all time, discovered while watching a VHS copy of documentary Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out at Wuxtry Records in the summer of...
Tunisian Nu-Metal, Swedish Freak-Folk, Chaos Pop
August 25, 2020
Has a bass line ever broken your heart?I had to get out of the house. Took the car out to a brewery an hour away just to pick up a case of nerdy beers,...
Void-Cracking Metal, Kenyan Grindcore, Russian Hardcore
August 11, 2020
The boys are back in town. Krallice inspires intense reaction. Not just from metal gatekeepers pounding on keyboards — does anyone actually care about them...
When The Microphones Became Mount Eerie
August 7, 2020
“Universe, I know you.”The Microphones’ Mount Eerie was released in 2003, smack dab in the middle of my college years — you know, when everyone’s an...
Christian Horrorcore, Auto-Tuned Minimalism, Convulsive Screamo
August 5, 2020
Midwestern by birth; Southern by the grace of God. My family moved to the Atlanta suburbs in 1990 and, within months, I knew: This feels right. The humidity,...
I Want To Rewrite History
July 28, 2020
If you ever want to feel an acute sense of impostor syndrome,sit on a panel about the future of radio with actual public/community radio vets when you’ve...
Vietnamese Drone, Madrid Punk, Soft Glitch
July 21, 2020
How to have a quintessentially D.C. summer: devour a bushel of crabs accompanied by Natty Boh and friendsget a soft-serve cone (with sprinkles) as local...
Thick And Sticky
July 15, 2020
Like the muddy Maryland waters from which crabs are spawned, there is a gleaming sweat to Old Bay’s hot sauce. Paprika, cayenne, celery salt, black pepper,...
Lizard Brain Metal, Weirdo Rap, Goth Heartache
July 8, 2020
Corny is a corny word.Yet whenever someone cool on Twitter calls something corny, it’s devastating. The Discourse around Hamilton returned to the timeline in...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day (July Edition)
July 3, 2020
Hey y’all, it’s been a minute, so let’s get right into it. It is, once again, Bandcamp Day, when that platform waives its revenue fees for 24 hours to help...
Unnerving Punk, Urdu Goth, MIDI Synth-Pop
June 17, 2020
“Sensitive people have a hard time negotiating the world sometimes.”Beauty Pill’s Chad Clark was musing on his bandmate, the talented saxophonist Sarah...
Nepalese Grindcore, Pocket-Busting Free Jazz, Boot-To-Throat Punk
May 27, 2020
“Tough to stay present when the present feels wrong.” — Shannen MoserFew recent songs cut into our real-life Groundhog Day as “World’s Best Magician.” Philly...
Shredded Fusion, Burnt Screamo, A Sonic Anaconda
May 20, 2020
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (KJV, Ecclesiastes 1:9)“It’s a wild...
Slimy Garage-Rock, Cornholio Grind, Anime Noise
May 12, 2020
The room was already dark, with someone hunched over portable cassette players, effects pedals and a tangle of patch cords. I handed the door person $10 and...
Annihilation Jazz, Buchla Pop, Atmospheric Pedal Steel
May 5, 2020
“We must become an unrelenting blast furnace.”Not every musician knows how to talk about their music. That’s understandable: so much of the creative process...
Viking's Choice Guide To Bandcamp Day
May 1, 2020
Y’all, two weeks in and we already have a special edition. I mentioned in the previous newsletter that today, May 1, Bandcamp is waiving all of its revenue...
Stargate Drone, Snotty Punk, Black Metal Romance
April 28, 2020
Hi. This is how I use Bandcamp: Bandcamp, one of the few don't-call-it-a-streaming-services that actually cares about the well-being of the musicians who use...
Improvised Punk, Liberation Noise, Bummer Doom
April 21, 2020
Hi. If you’re getting this newsletter, it’s because I like you. (Not like you-like you, but you know.) You filled out an extremely informal survey on what...