The Poles The Merman/The Pest 7” Self-Released, 2013 Review by Kent Manthie A truly loud, fast and raw sound, The Poles, who come from Vancouver, B.C., Canada, are breaking in by busting through the front door, so to speak. This self-released seven-inch that has just been put out, 1). “The Merman 2). “The Pest”, is […]

INDEPENDENT REVIEW’s BEST of 2013 Year-In-Review, by Kent Manthie I know that every music mag has their “Best of…” issue or column, etc. at the end of each year. It’s just another tradition of the end-of-the-year holidays, like last-minute Christmas shopping, employee Christmas parties and – the best for last: after-holiday sales. At least one […]

Screambirds Screambirds Self-Released, 2013 Review by Kent Manthie This is the new, eponymous EP by the amalgamated Americana band, Screambirds. By “amalgamated”, I mean the members come from different points between the South and the Midwest. Johnny, guitarist and vocalist, hails from Huntsville, AL. To escape the stifling isolation and ennui, Johnny picked up the […]

Matthew Conley Help Yourself Review by Kent Manthie The latest CD from Matthew conley is just out and it is a 5-song EP entitled Help Yourself. What we got here is a flavorful instrumental electronica batch of silky, spaced-out textures. A sort of sonic spacewalk. It’s too bad that the CD ends after only 5 […]

Partner Artifact A Form Constant Self-Released Review by Kent Manthie Remember Jacob Sackett?  How ’bout The Finer Points of Sadism? Does that ring a bell? Well, that’s another of Sackett’s projects. …Sadism is a more experimental-sounding, noise-drone outfit, where Partner Artifact is a bit more “accessible” – that is, if you’re prone to squeamishness and […]

Lemur Lemur Enough Records, 2013 Review by Kent Manthie The first cut on Lemur’s newly released self-titled CD, “Chuck Norris” really says it all without having to say anything, really. What I mean is that at the start of the song there is a sample of a disembodied voice asking “Hey Norris, are you really […]

White Fence Live in San Francisco Castle Face Music, 2013 Review by Kent Manthie All I could say was “OMIGOD” when I started listening to this live recording of White Fence, playing a gig (or, possibly a composite of gigs, edited into one live collection from a series of shows around SF, but, I doubt […]

Gruf the Druid 2 Sense Squared Reviewed by Kent Manthie The new CD by Winnipeg-based rapper Gruf the Druid, 2 Sense Squared is out now, available as a free download through Marathon of Dope (www.ugsmag.com). It’s a half hour’s worth of old-school rapping: in other words, it’s not the over-stylized, overdone hip-hop, watered-down pop kind […]

Meesh Wall Carpet Self-Released Review by Kent Manthie Meesh is a band hailing from Ithaca, NY, originally started by Mitch Chisholm. While Mitch put together the first couple Meesh albums, pretty soon Adam Hachey joined with Mitch and started jamming together in college, with Adam finally officially joining sometime in between 2012 and 2013. What […]