Los Angles band Split Moon has released a new “dark dream gaze” style album with lush production and a trilogy of music videos to go along with it. The album starts off with a nice little palate cleanser intro, “Speak the Sky.” The record has a few interludes like this providing a break between long conceptual songs, ending with “Everything Ends.” The album starts and ends with these “musical bookends.” The album explodes with the song, “More Clouds,” with accompanying video showing a bird’s eye view of frozen ice landscapes and water. The video reflects the dynamic changes heard in the music, and the simple concept captures the blurred sonic landscape…
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A Theremin and Psychedelic Space Rock: Stephen Hamm’s Live From Planet Earth Album Review
This week I was brought on a journey through the cosmos with Stephen Hamm – everyone’s favorite theremin man. When presented with this album, I was told to expect “space rock and psychedelic electronic music” and theremin. Going into the album, I was absolutely unsure of where it would take me, but I was so curious to find out! For those unfamiliar, the theremin is an incredibly unique instrument. Originally developed in 1920 by Russian inventor Leon Theremin, this electronic instrument sets itself apart from all others with one extremely unique characteristic: it is played without physical touch. Music is produced by controlling volume and pitch, which the instrumentalist does…
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Electric Violin and Evocative Lyrics – Everyone Is Dirty’s Caramels For Grandpa Album Review
Oakland-based Everyone Is Dirty is best described in their own words: “violin-driven post punk”. These words could not have been better exemplified than by their 2023 release, Caramels For Grandpa. I went into this album completely blind – I was unfamiliar with the band and their sound. Their name and the album title told me two different stories, and I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from Caramels For Grandpa, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the album. Everyone Is Dirty is comprised of Sivan Lioncub (vocals and violin), Chris Daddio (guitar), and Tyler English (bass). The writing credits on this album are primarily shared by Daddio and Lioncub.…
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THE ASTEROID No. 4 & ELEPHANT STONE | Bottom of the Hill 1.26.25
It’s hard to get people out to a rock concert on a Sunday night at 9 pm. It’s not necessarily a party night for everyone. However, often bands are on tour, and one plans their whole weekend around when they will be in town because they are just that good and can’t be missed. The Asteroid No. 4 and Elephant Stone show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco was one of those shows. No matter what was happening that weekend, one had to make it out to support a band like this when it was playing a local show. The third band slated to be on the bill,…
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Elephant Stone: Back Into The Garage – Demos and Unreleased Tracks
The Canadian psychedelic band Elephant Stone has released a follow-up of sorts to their 2024 album Back Into The Dream – an album of the remains of “what could have been”. Back Into The Garage is comprised of the home demos that frontman Rishi Dhir created during the writing process for Back Into The Dream during Christmas 2021. Dhir calls the album a “collection of charmingly imperfect songs” and a “sneak peek into [his] creative process”. This 10-track album is a delicious display of Dhir’s composition and creative abilities. Back Into the Garage is my first introduction to Rishi Dhir and Elephant Stone. Though listening to an album of demos…
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The Spiral Electric
A lot of bands get softer as their careers progress. Whether that’s due to the righteous anger of youth fading, record companies and producers “sanding off the rough edges” for commercial radio, or just the members getting old, it’s an annoyingly common career trajectory. The Replacements, Cheap Trick, pretty much every punk band that went “New Wave”…heck, even the mighty Led Zeppelin’s last album is pretty flaccid, if you’re willing to admit it. So it’s a pleasure to report that the San Francisco band The Spiral Electric have bucked this trend, and grown steadily heavier, in live and on record, since their earliest incarnation. While they were never exactly “soft” in their…
