Amoeba Music

Awww, yeah. The Losers...SF's finest. After witnessing their singer roll around screaming on the sidewalk outside the 16th Street BART station, I was hooked. I love the meaning they bring-- punk as a mode of operation rather than an attitude, a music taste, or a fashion style. Read more

Admittedly I’ve had a bit of trouble lately keeping up with new music. What better excuse to talk about a recent reissue of an absolute classic from 1982, The Virgin Prunes’ “If I Die, I Die”? The album is a stunning masterpiece from beginning to end, an uncompromising amalgam of angular post punk, twisted pop, and tribal rhythms. It is also one of the greatest goth records, before people started using that term. An historical note that I’m still surprised a lot of people don’t know is that the members of the Virgin Prunes were childhood friends with U2, having all grown up in the same suburban Dublin neighborhood. Guggi was Bono’s best friend, and was actually responsible for giving him and most of the other kids their nicknames. In many ways the Prunes can be seen as the evil opposite of U2. At the time both bands’ music struggled with similar issues: becoming adults, faith and lack of faith, pop and noise. But whereas U2’s struggle was toward the light, The Virgin Prunes embraced the darkness. It’s definitely worth taking a trip down that road with them. Read more

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This is my favorite album of 2022. I knew I fell in love with this album the moment I listened to oh my love. This entire album rules. Read more

Sweet Leaf will never get old. Read more

I love Karen O and this album is awesome. Listen to it. Read more

This album has really spoken volumes to me. It is an amazing indie/alternative record with so many different innovative sounds that are so unique and pleasing to the ear. I'm a sucker for any type of smooth vocals that feel sort of like ear candy to me. For my life, I really spent a lot of time trying to figure out what my next steps were and this album really helped me find my sound. I implore every one to give this album a chance, you most definitely will not be disappointed. From the nice synth-style wavetables that he plays with. He creates and records all of his own material which just adds this layer of complexity to me. Absolutely becoming my favorite artist of all-time. Read more

I actually discovered this artist, Remi Wolf from listening to Still Woozy. There was a song that he created with her called "Pool" and I just loved the match of their voices and it made me seek her out. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised to find she had just dropped her debut album, "Juno". From the beginning of the album to the end, it is full of reggae style pop, with just an incredible dynamic range through and through. This is one album I find myself putting on my turntable more often than any other. If I'm feeling down or anything, I plop this vinyl in my player and before you know it, I'm dancing all around my apartment and my bad day becomes just a memory. Read more

So... obviously he is not really a new artist at all, but I felt like he needed to be noted on my list of music that I like. I can say confidently that I was so late to the Mac Demarco game. After being recommended him by multiple friends I decided to give his music a chance. I am thoroughly obsessed with this record. Each song sounds completely different from the last. From LoFi Synth melodic interchanges to an almost idyllic capture of raw emotions. It is honestly my favorite artist that I have discovered since moving to LA. I pretty much stream this anytime I need to feel like things will get better. Go stream "Salad Days" and more specifically chamber of reflection if you haven't already. Read more

Temporal Drift, a new label out of LA, have done the impossible: legitimize and finally reissue the works of this beyond legendary Japanese noise rock band."77 Live" is LRD at peak form, all shitgaze guitar squall, dubbed out rhythms, and misanthropic vocals. Strangely enough, once one acclimates to the overwhelming noise of it all, "77" Live becomes powerfully meditative. If anything, bring this to your next audiophile listening party to see the looks on your friends' faces! Read more

A strange and touching collection of tunes realized to their fullest by nigh-amateurs. But there's the rub - the naïvety of these performances sell every song's emotional power. A first listen may bring a chuckle or two, but a close listen thereafter blooms into a "this is what music is all about" revelation. MSHB helps us tune into our daily life and existence, where the mundane and profound cohabitate with little fuss. Read more

Braid's Frame And Canvas is a classic of 90s math-emo, from the same Champaign-Urbana scene that birthed American Football, Hum, and countless more. Polyvinyl Records is putting it back into print with a radical remix/remaster, sorely needed after the original's rushed recording-release turnaround. Finally the ornate guitar-drum-vocal interplay can be heard with the separation necessary. "Frame And Canvas" was a great album before, but this loving facelift can bring it deservedly back into public conscious given 20+ years of emo revivalism. Read more

A loving documentation of aimless youth set in Taipei's year 2000 techno scene. There's little concrete story to be told or summarized - Millennium Mambo is all pre-9/11, End of History vibes, baby! Currently touring a theatrical 4k restoration, here's hoping this time capsule masterpiece has a wider Blu-Ray release coming down the pipeline. Read more

Daisuke Tobari is a reclusive Japanese acid-folk guitarist who releases a record at a rate of once every decade or so. His output is a strangely satisfying mix of American Primitivist guitar with Osaka's punk and experimental scenes. I nearly fell out of my chair seeing his 1999 debut "Guitar" was reissued by Chicago's Eye Vybe Records on cassette. What a time to be alive. Read more

It needs no introduction, especially not from me, but what a joy that one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time is back on vinyl and finally, FINALLY available on streaming. Probably the most far-sighted album in hip hop and potentially any modern genre, and it's still listenable as hell to this day! RIP Trugoy/Plug 2/Dave. Read more

An utterly mystifying album. Pale Cocoon released a sole cassette in early 80s Toyama, Japan whose legacy has grown immensely beyond its tiny geographical constraints. It boggle the mind how some rural teens, devoid of known musical influence, created their own embryonic version of dream pop, shoegaze, and icy minimal wave, and long before many of those genres even existed. Read more