Where Is My Mind?

     Stephen Patrick Morrissey is no stranger to controversy. Whether it be notoriously cancelling performances over the smallest diva-like complaints or sharing insensitive commentary, the English crooner certainly knows how to make headlines. Recently during a televised performance on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk show, the former Smiths front man caused a big stir by sporting a pin from the far-right political party, For Britain. The backlash has had some negative effect for Morrissey and has shaken fans, but given his history of not so PC behaviour, are we really all that surprised? photo: nme.com            For Britain is a minor far-right political party in the United Kingdom formed in 2017 by anti-Muslim activist Anne Marie Waters and defected members of the UKIP (UK Independence Party). It runs on a platform of reducing Muslim immigration to the UK to near zero, to “bring the entire EU project down” and being the “voice f...

     It’s been ten years since the Germanic industrial-metal machine Rammstein released a new album, and their latest untitled work is proof that ten years in between releases hasn’t mellowed them one bit. Being the undisputed champions of Neue Deutsche Härte ("New German Hardness"), Rammstein have never faltered and have made consistently rock-solid music throughout their decades-long career. Known for blistering riffs, militant beats, epically executed synth lines, and bombastic (often anthemic) choruses, the “Matchstick Album”, as we’ll call it, is a continuation of the sound that made us fall in love with Rammstein.      Opening the album is lead single "Deutschland", and it’s a welcome return to their own spectacular fashion. It is a crisp and razor-sharp number, with lyrics expressing patriotic difficulties toward the band’s homeland, once a diplomatic powerhouse. The video for the single isn’t short of controversial, either: it is a concept v...

     Iconic goth-rock band The Cure are having a very big 2019. Not only were they inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by none other than industrial-goth symbol Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, their emblematic masterpiece, Disintegration , turned 30 years old and they are celebrating by touring the world and playing the album in its entirety. What a wow!      Disintegration is one of those albums that has grown bigger and better over time since its release. It is the pinnacle of the band’s growth over the previous decade, a milestone in their career, and, most importantly, the record that beautifully captures the band’s creative powers at its peak. It is inarguably THE quintessential goth-rock album of all time ( Pornography , another bleak Cure release, is number two). Characterized by a significant use of synthesizers and keyboards, slow and droning guitar progressions awash with chorus and flange effects (a signature sound for the band),...

     The Smashing Pumpkins have reunited and dropped a comeback album, except it’s not exactly a full reunion and it’s not quite the comeback we expected to hear. With ¾ of the original Pumpkins back in action (front man Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin being the only remnants of the band we all loved in the nineties) 18 years after they delivered their last original work together (2000’s Machina/The Machines of God is a hugely underrated album), their new deliverance, Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol.1/LP: No Past. No Future . No Sun. is an all too brief affair that has no direction and false promises. Clocking in at just 32 minutes, the eight tracks that make up Shiny and Oh So Bright offer almost nothing to be excited about, and while tracks like “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)”, “Solara” and “Marching On” are reminiscent of Pumpkins’ earlier grace and fiery angst and pretty much the album’s only true saviors, it all feels too vacant and life...

     Stephen Patrick Morrissey is good at many things, from the negatively notorious like canceling shows or entire tours without notice or spewing cringeworthy political and social commentary, and to the positive like giving us timeless music (solo or with The Smiths) that fill our personal soundtracks to releasing a damn good cover. Last Friday, the mercurial front man announced a vinyl reissue of 2017’s underperforming Low in High School , due December 7th, which will include a version of The Pretenders’s ageless classic “Back on the Chain Gang”, four unreleased original tracks, five live covers of some of his favorite artists, a limited-edition lithograph photo, and a portrait of the singer as a student. Optionally, the song will be released as a single on November 23rd and will feature Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “I Didn’t Know What to Do” on the flip side. Quite a cool deal for an otherwise sleeper of an album.      “Back on the Chain Gang” wa...

     When The Black Queen (Greg Puciato/The Dillinger Escape Plan, Josh Eustis/Telefon Tel Aviv, and Steven Young/Nine Inch Nails tech) emerged onto the scene in 2015 with their first single, the moody, dreamscape-esque "The End Where We Start", they were instantly on everyone's radar. The debut album that followed, Fever Daydream, propelled the Los Angeles-based synth-wave band to higher ground. They instantly sold out tickets to all their shows, released more than a handful of videos, and despite serious setbacks (discussed soon), they survived the first album "supergroup" curse and went on to triumphantly release their sophomore album, Infinite Games , last week to great acclaim. Their success, unsurprisingly, has grown even more. Tickets to their upcoming Australian tour with fellow gloom wavers Drab Majesty have all been snagged up by fervent fans and all recent stateside shows turned up the same results.      Blindsided by professional and persona...

      The Bay Area’s euphoric dream pop duo Them Are Us Too began in 2012 with schoolmates Kennedy Ashlyn and Cash Askew playing well balanced eighties inspired synth-pop shoegaze. In 2015, they released their debut album, Remain , a gloomy tour de force to incredible acclaim. They built up a dedicated cult following, and that success hyped the anticipation for the follow-up to their big debut. Tragically in 2016, a warehouse fire claimed Askew’s life at 22 years old, putting the band’s career in uncertainty. However, through the ashes of tragedy arose a new album, Amends , the band’s second and final as TAUT (as fans call them) and it is a beautifully haunting piece of work filled with ethereal elegance and atmospherics.      Amends , as Ashlyn describes, is “a collection of songs that would have been the second Them Are Us Too record, an amendment to our catalog cut short, a final gift to family, friends, and fans.” Amends is a celeb...