New Thrill Parade
"An aggressively sharp mix of screechy noise and throwback ’80s British goth (you know, the stuff that was more about dark sound than dark makeup). Opening track “Ululations” is a vocal powerhouse that’s inappropriate for just about any social gathering except a total freakout, held in somebody’s black-painted basement with half-blown amps and copious amounts of hard liquor. While the overall ambiance is one of decades-old angst, there’s an underlying sense of humor that keeps the moaning vocals sounding approximately modern. “Who Let the Goths Out?” is a cattle stampede of sarcasm; “The Ostrich” playfully bends metaphors around the wailed word sand; “Peace Punch” features poetry slam vocals over a weirdly effective bed of horns before stumbling into gnashing rock. For all the ear-bleeding and distortion, the primal thrust of Universal Shame is not all that far removed from poppy experimenters like Talking Heads—David Byrne flunks math class and goes home to let his rage simmer in depression and acerbic breast-beating." - Good Times Santa Cruz

Al Qaeda (w/Mike Watt)
"Despite its name, San Francisco's al Qaeda is not a terrorist organization of extremists. The three-piece however has strategically rained destruction upon the music map over the last couple of years, spraying the rock landscape with a volley of bomb shrapnel scuzz and drone warfare. In its wake, the last crumbled remnants of the locale are consumed by a gauzy brume of ambient murk and fizzing dust. Bassist Mike Watt (the Minutemen) and drummer Jose Palafox (Swing Kids) join the group on this particular raid." - 96 Hours

Dalmacio Von Diamond and the Enochian Keys
Far from the noisy stuff usually associated with his familiar Smell scene, Von Diamond calls the work "simple pop songs in the vein of Scott Walker or the Divine Comedy."

Leopold & His Fiction
"It’s bluesy and filled with various vocal hooks and bar-room riffs. Leopold is more than tavern worthy; they’re downright gritty, filled with enough ferocity to rile up any dive and blow it clean out of the water. “ - Fensepost.com

Candy Apple
"Since their inception in late 2007, Chico, California's Candy Apple have already blazed a mighty trail up and down the West Coast with '60s garage rock and explosive soul as their guide. Candy Apple's endearment stems from both a tempered vintage addiction and a punk rock sneer. The band's adoration for groups like the Sonics and the Standells is palpable, but fresh turns of spit-in-the-eye swagger and the restless abandon of five small-town wanderlusts bursts through to implore your hipbones to sway and your fists to pump in staggered unison, a sentiment not to be slept on if you're someone with a pulse." - Portland Mercury

The Spyrals

Half Handed Cloud
"It's like an even more hyperactive Danielson, but with less reliance on metaphor and symbolism, less Beefheartian, more Elephant 6-ian. Also reminds me of the last couple of records by the Microphones, in the sense that, though anything could happen at any time, there's still a thread running through it all." - Pitchfork

Red Pony Clock
From the sun-kissed shores of San Diego, CA comes Red Pony Clock, an ever-shifting musical collective with a penchant for jubilant horn arrangements, effervescent vocal harmonies, and confessional song-writing. (bio)

Boat
"Initially armed with good friends/cheap guitars/cheap microphones/a half broken Wurlitzer/a squeaky drumset/a few melodicas/pizza/burritos/fragile egos/and diet soda. It has since blossomed into a reality of good friends/a brother in law/better guitars/more cheap microphones/calzone and pizza/burritos/a half fixed Wurlitzer/a half broken theremin/a non squeaking drumset/still relatively fragile egos/a few cheap keyboards/and ridiculous amounts of diet soda and hand claps. BOAT's current lineup is the epitome of sloppy/poppy three piece rock."

Peacock and Lebeau

Punk Rock Sideshow w/DJ Tragic & the Duchess of Hazard, every Monday

The Stone Foxes
Heavily influenced by the great rock, blues, folk and country stars of the 60s and 70s, the Stone Foxes play a unique brand of loose rock and roll and heavy, dirty blues

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
"Any punk band coming out of Texas has a high mark to hit, considering the drug-and-dust-coated pantheon that ranges from The Butthole Surfers to the homophobe-baiting blues-punk OGs The Dicks. While Dinosaurs doesn't work according to party lines stylistically, it's got scuz for days and sounds legitimately troubled/troubling. An astute friend of mine pointed out recently that "two drummers" is the new "no bass player," but you know what? I'll take it. Dinosaurs has the two drummers (nice and stoopid), the two vocalists (alternately lobotomy-blank and spittle-dripping manic); everything you need for your art-punk house party gone horribly awry. Armed with these tools, it's hard to go wrong, and Dinosaurs acquits itself admirably." - Flagpole.com

Tussle

Grass Widow
"The first thing we noticed is how nonchalant they were with their instruments: relaxed but precise, energetic without being too loud. These girls were good. Live their sound was a hypnotic, lulling combination of surfy-sweet singing with interesting, angular rhythm and edgy guitar work thrown in that perhaps reference obscure Portland girl punks Neo Boys, who are purportedly Hannah’s ‘favorite band ever.’ The songs had a lot of turn-on-a-dime melody and tempo changes with drummer Lillian always seemingly effortlessly pulling the band through the twists of Hannah’s intricate and to me, very Slint-y bass structures without losing a beat so to speak. The anchor to Lillian’s drums was the vocals, and the vox duties which were shared all around really completed the overall sensibility." - Tom Tom Magazine