INTERVIEW: MATTHEW SANTOS (CHICAGO)
From time to time we all experience those moments of synchronicity. My most recent experience with this was meeting Matthew Santos backstage at a show in Chicago. I knew of Santos, and his work with Lupe Fiasco, on songs like “American Terrorists” like the Grammy nominated “Superstar” to
REVIEW: A LULL – CONFETTI (2011)
Imagine hearing a new band for the first time, becoming glued to the sheer visual experience before your eyes that complements the sonic vibrations rattling away in your ears like the myriad of percussion (no cymbals) on the stage. Add to it, you’re not in the venue but standing behind the band, u
CONCERT REVIEW + PHOTOGRAPHY: DESSA AND HINDI ZAHRA AT LINCOLN HALL (CHICAGO)
Dessa (Minneapolis, MN) and Hindi Zahra (France/Morocco)October 11th, 2011Lincoln Hall in Chicago, Illinois Sometime during the late summer, not so far away from now actually and in a midst of that still growing curiosity of all that’s going on across the Atlantic, I happened upon the most vib
APP REVIEW: GROOVEBUG
Evanston is the near north suburb of Chicago. It’s far from the rush and drunkenly misplaced phone prototypes of Silicon Valley, preferring a more low-key lifestyle enhanced by Evanston Northshore and Northwestern University. From the latter is a crop of graduate and undergraduates behind a ne
Review: The Atlas Moth – An Ache for the Distance (2011)
Today we welcome Steven Coffman, a Southern Atlantic nomad now holed up on the cusp of the Colorado mountains to Mezzic! Out there, he spends the days and nights “pairing various beers with technical metal, indie rock, and post-metal, just so long as it’s emotionally heavy or actually heavy.”
Review: Paper Thick Walls – A Thousand Novels (2011)
There’s something nostalgic about Paper Thick Walls’ debut album, A Thousand Novels, but not in the sense that they’ve borrowed from their musical predecessors, as many bands do. Rather, in the Chicago-based group’s ability to capture reminiscence in song. They write songs tha
REVIEW: LUPE FIASCO – LASERS (2011)
Today we welcome our newest contributor, Christopher Stoppiello. Christopher currently resides in Boston where he works in an office by day and writes music and fiction by night. Music journalism just happened by accident. He hopes to drop the office out of the equation soon. This is a painful
REVIEW: HEMMINGBIRDS – DEATH WAVE (2010)
When I review a new album, I like to give it a couple listens before putting fingers to keyboard. I contend that the most important of these listens is what I refer to as the Morning Commute Test. Sure, the D.C. Metro has some things going for it: it’s clean, has blinky lights that flash […
REVIEW: L’ALTRA – TELEPATHIC (2011)
It was up until recent when I started to become curious about what this whole Nouvelle Vaguemovement was in film. I would not say I’m a film buff, but after undergrad I unexpectedly had too much free time and started to watch classics left and right. Up until recently, the 1950s and 1960s mov