Inter Arma’s ‘New Heaven’: Two Cent Review

The Virginia sludge quintet’s fifth album, issued via Relapse Records, exhibits Inter Arma’s penchant for probing the innards of metal and reconstructing it into a seamless new visage. Read more on FLOOD.

METZ’s ‘Up on Gravity Hill’: Two Cent Review

The Toronto noise-punks’ fifth LP sees their familiarly angular guitars working through melodies that range from ear-sweetening to atonal, furthering the mystery that is the Sub Pop band METZ. Read more on FLOOD.

Orbit Culture Plan to ‘Come Back Big’ in 2025

The Swedish metal band is eager to proving they aren’t just another melodic death-metal band from the country that brought legendary status to the subgenre. Read more of my interview with them courtesy of Music Connection.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum ‘Got on Top of a Pile of Festering Rat Carcasses’

Don’t believe that headline? Check out my feature on the wild — and wildly unclassifiable — band in my Music Connection profile.

Flipside Fest’s Fall Festivities Fizzle for 2024

In another setback for the struggling music scene in Boise, Idaho, the promoter of Flipside Fest announced today that they have canceled this year’s installment of the event.

The promoters behind the festival, The Duck Club, said the multi-stage, multi-day event will happen again next year. Nevertheless, the cancellation of Flipside Fest 2024 is the latest black eye for concert organizers in Boise, following one of the most lackluster Treefort Fest events in recent memory.

“Don’t worry, Flipside friends: We will be back!” read a post on the website for promoter The Duck Club. “You may be asking, ‘Why is Flipside taking a year off?’ To put it simply: the Duck Club team needs a bit of a summer break.”

The excuse seems fair on the one hand because of the difficult logistical maneuvering required for a multi-venue festival. (technically, Flipside Fest takes place in neighboring Garden City). On the other hand, last year’s event ended on the first day of fall.

Flipside Fest is a kindred music event held roughly six months after Treefort, which is also managed by The Duck Club. An organizer involved with Duck Club told us earlier this year that the promoter is also angling to stage a winter music festival.

The Duck Club, in its announcement of Flipside Fest’s postponement, took a glass-half-full approach by rattling off the promoter’s achievements in recent years:

According to today’s announcement, “Over the last four years we have built and created a lot [sic]: navigated the pandemic, held two Treefort Music Fests in six months, moved the [Treefort] fest’s Main Stage to Julia Davis Park, introduced and produced two Flipside Fests, opened Treefort Music Hall and Hap Hap Lounge, [and] took over operations of the historic El Korah Shrine building and transformed it into the two venues that make up Shrine Social Club.”

Duck Club CEO Eric Gilbert said in the same statement: “We will miss partying in Garden City in September, we are looking forward to having a slower summer and focusing on hosting some really amazing shows at both our venues in Downtown Boise. We are forever grateful for the support of our community and can’t wait to bring Flipside Fest back in 2025.”

The Flipside Fest postponement isn’t the only problem for efforts by Duck Club and others to galvanize, energize and grow Boise’s music scene, which has not kept pace with the area’s rapid population growth in recent years. On a consistent basis, artists that would otherwise draw massive crowds in Boise find themselves competing with each other due to poor planning, logistical issues and/or possibly a lack of communication and/or collaboration between the city’s concert promoters.

Read more about Boise’s double-booking conundrum in this previous report.

Drahla’s ‘Angeltape’: Two Cent Review

Drahla’s sophomore album, released via Captured Tracks, sees the Leeds-based trio overcoming grief over instrumental flourishes that recall yesteryear while artfully resisting the lure of entering a time machine. Read more of my album review on FLOOD.

Congrats To Tim Heidecker For Joining Bloodshot

Rat’s off to ya too for the new record you’re putting out later this year. Best see a doctor first, though, Tim (not Dr. San)!

High On Fire’s ‘Cometh The Storm’: Two Cent Review

After a relatively long wait, Matt Pike’s sludge-metal outfit High on Fire return with their most adventurous, pigeonhole-smashing, and idiosyncratic release to date. Here is my FLOOD review.

Boise’s Music Scene Just Can’t Get It Together

Over roughly the past decade, the most popular conversational topic among music fans living in Boise is how the city’s live-music scene continues to build in size and strength, attracting more national acts to perform here than ever before. Locals begrudgingly admit the growth is due to the influx of fresh transplants and the economic boon those newcomers have bequeathed to a city, even if it might forever be referred to as a merely “up-and-coming” place.

Sleater-Kinney Talk ‘Recommitting’ To Band After Restful Hiatus

It’s been a minute since I spoke with two musicians less enthusiastic about participating in an interview, but Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein nevertheless shared some insights on their new record and the state of their band for my new FLOOD feature.