Author: Travis Shosa
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Holistic Dynamics: On Brutus’ Unison Life
Brutus | Unison Life | Sargent House | October 2022 Every heavy band inevitably comes to a point, sooner or later, when they decide to tone things down. You can’t stay heavy forever, or so it seems. For some bands, like Pianos Become the Teeth or Thrice, who cast a shadow over much of Brutus’ third record, this involves delving…
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Chasing Sparks: On Billy Tibbals’ Nightlife Stories
Billy Tibbals | Nightlife Stories | Silver Arrow | April 2024 With his big, blown-out hair and stars-and-stripes pants, Billy Tibbals looks like he’s ripped from the pages of an early issue of BAM Magazine or the Disney XD version of Marc Bolan. And it is so easy to be cynical about this level of commitment to…
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Autopsy of a Clown: On Dim Wit’s Dim Sh!t
Dim Wit | Dim Sh!t | Self-released | November 2019 It’s an easy trap to fall into: taking the fool at face value. Not taking someone seriously because they don’t, at a glance, seem to take themselves seriously. Dim Wit’s Jeff Tuyay is a clown and this is not an insult, merely fact. When performing, Tuyay dons white makeup…
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Excellence of Execution: On Local Rabbits’ Basic Concept
Local Rabbits | Basic Concept | Murderecords | 1998 Formed out of Montreal in 1990 by 14-year-olds Peter Elkas (vocals, guitar, keys), Ben Gunning (vocals, guitar), Ryan Myshrall (bass), and later Brian Waters (drums), the Local Rabbits began life as a blues cover band before transitioning over to originals after a couple of years. Their style had…
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I Made a Ghost
People usually keep the dead in their minds or their hearts or their dreams, but I made a copy of my dead boyfriend before he passed away, and placed him in my computer, because I’d lost people before and I knew that minds and hearts and dreams can’t be trusted to keep the dead alive. …
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A Heady Brew: On Frog’s GROG
Frog | GROG | Audio Antihero | November 2023 GROG, the fourth album from Dan Bateman’s New York-based alt-country project Frog, begins with a brief instructional audio clip from the Townsends YouTube channel on making the historical sailor’s beverage. At first brush, it feels like little more than a cheeky rib, a Ween-ism, something in there simply…
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Filling the Empty Space: On Westelaken’s I am Steaming Mushrooms
Westelaken | I am Steaming Mushrooms | Self-released | May 2023 Ozzy’s Palace is dead and, outside of Toronto’s Westelaken and, optimistically, a couple hundred locals max, forgotten. Run a browser search on the former Ossington Avenue house venue where Jordan Seccareccia first discovered independent music: you’ll likely find nothing but entirely too many incomprehensive listicles on…
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Winking In the Face of Evil: On Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil
Zach Cregger | Resident Evil | Sony Pictures Releasing | September 2026 | 95 minutes The newest Resident Evil film is the best Resident Evil film, the best Zach Cregger film, and not very good. What begins as an appropriately bizarre and moody horror film with a strong but not overbearing sense of humor devolves into a…
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Two Poems by Mike Bagwell
Jimmy Two-Toes and Romance I think it will be okay, but I’ve beenwrong before. Bad news from upriver:the plastic surgeons are unitedin their efforts to remold Shelly,and will stop at nothing. It’s only fair to tell youI have a second circulatory system.I call it goodbyethankyoueven though it is mostly origami. Listen, I’m part sin-man part…
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Laughing Backwards: On Whitmer Thomas’ The Older I Get the Funnier I Was
Whitmer Thomas | The Older I Get the Funnier I Was | Hardly Art | October 2022 In an Instagram video announcing the release of The Older I Get The Funnier I Was, Whitmer Thomas says that the album contains “a lot of embarrassing stuff.” “If I feel like that, it usually means I’m on the right track,” he justifies. True to…