The winningly minted L.A. experimental trio Sabrina Is Not In This Chat has supercharged, grandiose ambitions. And on its debut full-length LP – Not Recommended For Sensitive Skin, out late last month via Penniback Records – the group largely succeeds in reaching for and attaining them, producing an hour-long body of sometimes-arhythmic, occasionally herky-jerky math-punk…
Review: Disq – “Communication” b/w “Parallel”
Sad to have missed the initial boat on this one. Out now for nearly two weeks, the new single from the Madison, WI duo Disq still, after 10-ish days, has its hooks in my eardrums, a little 1-2 punch-punch as relevant and catchy as much of what Saddle Creek has put together through its Document…
Video Premiere: Curtis Eller’s American Circus – “Lenny Bruce”
DIRECT VIDEO LINK:https://youtu.be/w0vpzY8JMHw Curtis Eller, whose American Circus debuts its new song, “Lenny Bruce” here on MusicTAP today, is a banjo player, songwriter and rock & roll singer. A twenty-year show business veteran, Eller and his band have developed a devoted international following based on dynamic, highly physical stage performances and an extensive catalog of…
Review: Tunic – “Complexion”
There’s a problem with Complexion, the bombastic full-length debut outing from Canadian trio Tunic, out Feb. 8 via Self Sabotage/Super Secret, and it keeps the entire record from being a furious series of eruptions and, instead, pegs it as a hit-and-miss collection that simply goes a little off the rails. It’s David Schellenberg’s voice. Well,…
Review: Graham Costello’s STRATA – “Obelisk”
It’s a calculated and unbelievably addictive kind of descent into madness. Obelisk — the (wait for it) BRILLIANT debut full-length from Scottish sextet Graham Costello’s STRATA, out Feb. 1 – is a tightly wounded knot that finds itself at the intersection of jazz, fusion and math-rock. And it is wondrous to behold. Sounding, at times,…
Feature: Bat Zuppel (2019)
Zach Bronder, guitarist and vocalist for Pittsburgh’s Bat Zuppel, has simple motivations for pursuing the rock-band lifestyle in The Steel City. “We all love playing live – that’s probably my favorite part,” says Bronder. “They have this amazing drink you can buy at almost all of the bars: beer. And you can just buy as…
Review: Hawk and Dove – “Our Childhood Heroes”
I wanted to start this review with the following: Our Childhood Heroes, the sophomore outing by Brooklyn collective Hawk and Dove, can best be summarized by its closing track. At 10 minutes long, “For Jack” is plaintive and, at times, a bit overdrawn but you cannot helped being sucked into its vortex by the conceit…
Review: Spencer Kilpatrick – “You Feel Like Nevada To Me”
Spencer Kilpatrick might be his own best critic. The Reno, Nev.-based singer-songwriter, in releasing his latest single, “You Feel Like Nevada To Me,” on Christmas Day via Soundcloud, wrote the following: “I initially didn’t care for the predictability and kitschiness of the tune, but over the last month or so the melody has popped in…
Review: Perch- “No Step”
Call it math rock with more hooks than a tackle box. The new LP from the U.K. quartet Perch — No Step, self-released and out Jan. 12 — exhibits all the shimmering precision and post-punk angularism of a Polvo or a Pell Mell, but does so with a alt-rock band’s alarming attention to earworms. This isn’t…
Review: Mark Deutrom – “The Blue Bird”
If most of Mark Deutrom’s new LP — The Blue Bird, kicking off 2019 Friday via Seasons of Mist — is any indication, the titular bird is a blue of the moody variety. Deutrom, guitarist-turned-bassist-turned-guitarist, Texan, ex-Melvin, has always packed his solo outings with lots of texture, context and ambiance. Sequencing, in particular, always has…