“Hey there y’all, Bob here, again, and uh, today we’re gonna see how to replace the blades in your lawnmower!” No face, no perceptible human appendage at the moment (the actual repair had not begun), just the gray and time-stained undercarriage of the bright red lawnmower that was a new and improved model of the […]
Author: Clayton Ambrose
The Best of Us

He was raised Catholic, but this was the only time in his life he ever truly felt close to God. Six foot six and six foot nine, respectively, seemed like miles and miles instead of feet, and they were here. A boom mic’s distance between Andy and two titans, the closest he’d ever come to […]

For the last couple weeks or so, my brain has been absolutely steeped in Deftones. A friend of mine and I decided to run through their entire discography, and as a result, I haven’t been able to listen to really anything else since that journey. Coming to this experience as a new Deftones fan allowed […]
“The Last Waltz” and Everlasting Joy

In all of the music that I have come to love in my life, there is usually some throughline of joy, and if not joy, at least some form of catharsis. Those that know me or have read some of my other stuff know about my affinity for the genre of emo, and that comes […]

Fear is an extremely difficult thing to evoke in a piece of art, in both the artist and the consumer. I don’t mean shock or disgust; those are relatively easy to grab from an audience. I’m talking about a palpable anxiety, or the abject terror of seeing inner dread materialized in the outer world. This […]

In the relatively short history of punk music, there are few bands that are more cataloged and mythologized than Fugazi. It’s nearly impossible to tell the story of the genre and its evolution without detailing the band’s monumental contributions, specifically the way they broke the mold and re-defined the way hardcore could present itself. While […]
About Michelle Branch

I had a realization recently that my love and preference for tender, energetic rock music did not come from nowhere. I had once thought it was a carryover of my emotional teenage days, but I’ve come to understand that these roots extend further than I once thought. For instance, I was 5 years old when […]

It’s hard to imagine a super-star act that has been more divisive in recent years than The 1975. On the other side of widespread critical acclaim and attention lies the numerous detractors, whose ire is split between the band’s actual music and the band’s contentious front man Matthew “Matty” Healy. Healy, in the band’s music […]

In reference to the concentrated artistic resistance to the Vietnam War, author Kurt Vonnegut once said, “The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.” Generally speaking, he was correct. Art of resistance has very little potential to affect material change in the […]
Number One Record: “Parking Lot” by Mineral

The allure of emo can often be an evasive topic with an evasive answer, depending on who you ask. The answer most will give, whether it be derisive or reverent, is that it taps in to one’s innermost feelings, the ones you might be a little ashamed of. Most of the time, emo will serve […]