June 14th, 2024 | by Kevin J. Ellliott | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
It’s telling that Horsegirl’s 2022 debut, Versions of Modern Performance (Matador Records), is still in my “new” pile. It’s a grower. It’s a legitimate piece of art. And in many ways, it stands as a harbinger of a new Chicago sound that has since brought about a wave of young bands (Friko, Lifeguard, Post Office Winter) in Horsegirl’s wake.
At the time of the album’s …
April 4th, 2024 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
It’s hard to think of a band in the last 40 years that has been more incendiary than The Jesus and Mary Chain. After making their way from East Kilbride (Scotland) to London, they became infamous for gigs that often ended in riots. However, it was their music that was truly arresting. After first putting out a single on the legendary Creation label, they released …
January 19th, 2024 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
March 20th, 2023 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
July 10th, 2022 | by Kevin J. Ellliott | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
April 15th, 2022 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
July 20th, 2021 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
April 6th, 2021 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | Leave A Comment »
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 …
July 14th, 2020 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | 5 Comments »
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 …
June 9th, 2020 | by Stephen Slaybaugh | published in Features | 1 Comment »
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 …