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The Agit Reader Top 10 of 2023

January 19th, 2024  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

The Agit Reader Top 10 of 2023

It never ceases to surprise me when I come across someone with the notion that there isn’t new music worth hearing these days. As much as I can appreciate the cynicism, the idea that pop music, for lack of a better term, peaked years ago is ridiculous. I get it: the kids have it easy these days, whereas we had to walk several miles barefoot …

Sleaford Mods

March 20th, 2023  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Sleaford Mods

Sleaford Mods

Since teaming up in 2009, vocalist Jason Williamson and musical brain trust Andrew Fearn, a.k.a. Sleaford Mods, have carved out their own niche. Theirs is an idiosyncratic mix of grimy hip-hop and electronic post-punk minimalism laced with invective lyrics that touch on such subjects as class, politics, musical voyeurism, and personal relations. Recorded during the pandemic times of 2021, the band’s eighth album (if you …

ABC

July 10th, 2022  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

ABC

Martin Fry of ABC

Martin Fry, the voice and sole remaining member of ABC, is a man of no regrets. The affected schmaltz, the gold lamé suits, the saxophones, and the earnest odes to Motown were all parts of the grand design envisioned when the group evolved out of Vice Versa in 1981. While Vice Versa featured minimal electronics and obtuse lyrics in keeping with other Sheffield bands of …

Riki

April 15th, 2022  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Riki

Riki

Although she had been a member of goth-leaning Bay area outfit Crimson Scarlet and some even more obscure anarcho-punk bands, Riki (a.k.a. Niff Nawor) appeared virtually out of nowhere in 2020 with her self-titled debut on the esteemed Dais label. One of our favorites that year, it mixed a bevy of synth pioneer influences with a touch of the ethereal and Riki’s equally enigmatic …

Scientists

July 20th, 2021  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Scientists

Scientists

Forming in Perth, Australia in 1978 and operating for just shy of 10 years in a series of fits and starts accompanied by line-up and locale changes, the Scientists nevertheless carved out a distinct place for themselves in the punk pantheon. From the band’s initial slabs of garage pop to the primal swamp rock of the band’s primary line-up to the rock deconstruction of its …

Arab Strap

April 6th, 2021  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Arab Strap

Arab Strap

When Arab Strap disbanded in 2006 after playing a series of farewell shows, it appeared to be the last we would ever hear from the Scottish duo. Sure, singer Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton would resurface as solo artists making records under their birth names and other guises, but such endeavors seemed like only added nails to the coffin.

Moffat and Middleton had emerged as …

Close Lobsters

July 14th, 2020  |  by  |  published in Features | 5 Comments »

Close Lobsters

Though their jangly guitars and penchant for pop melodies bore some of the hallmarks of the so-called C86 sound, more than anything else what united the Close Lobsters with the other acts on the NME’s legendary cassette compilation was an ethos of self-made ingenuity. Born in the Scottish town of Paisley (about 10 miles east of Glasgow) in 1985 out of a surprisingly thriving punk …

Pere Ubu

June 9th, 2020  |  by  |  published in Features | 1 Comment »

Pere Ubu

David Thomas of Pere Ubu

We’ve interviewed dozens of artists here on The Agit Reader, some more than once, and there’s no one that we have spoken to more frequently than Pere Ubu’s David Thomas. While we no doubt have a soft spot for fellow Ohioans, this fact is more a reflection of Thomas’ unwavering ability to create music that is always challenging and enthralling, not only with Pere …

Operators

May 29th, 2019  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Operators

Operators

Born in 2014 as a continuation of sorts of the ideas singer Dan Boeckner was exploring in the Handsome Furs, Operators has developed its own set of aesthetics and a sound as distinctive as any of Boeckner’s other previous projects (Wolf Parade, Divine Fits). While Operators rely on a largely electronic palette, there is nevertheless no shortage of human emotion in what they create. As …

Blueprint

June 4th, 2018  |  by  |  published in Features | Leave A Comment »

Blueprint

Blueprint, a.k.a. Printmatic, a.k.a. Albert Shepard, wears more hats than he has names. He emerged from Columbus, Ohio in the late ‘90s to create some of the most enduring underground hip-hop albums of the first decade of the new millennium as a producer with Greenhouse Effect, as a rapper with Soul Position (a partnership with RJD2), and also as a solo artist with 10 albums …