Brian Stout

Jan 15, 2025 | popmatters.com | Brian Stout

Caldera Transcending Obscurity Some records just sound like winter. Detroit’s Pillar of Light know a thing or two about the harshest season, as anyone who has time in the Mitten can attest. Released late last year, their debut, Caldera, is winter music through and through. Its seven songs are punishing, relentless, and heavy, and lead vocalist Aaron Whitfield sounds at the end of his rope. The record’s title suggests a deep depression, and the tone here is mournful.

Jan 14, 2025 | popmatters.com | Brian Stout

After Tonight, Everything Will Be Different Adam Gnade Across multiple novels and audio recordings of his writing backed by music, Adam Gnade has chronicled his life and simultaneously created a singular snapshot of American life in this century, chronicling a world of independent artists and the scenes that support them. His fiction is part of a larger piece titled We Live Nowhere and Know No One. Within that, he has recently completed a four-novel cycle called The Home and Away Quartet.

Dec 9, 2024 | popmatters.com | Brian Stout

This has been a notable year for hardcore and punk, with several up-and-coming bands continuing to build on the promise of their previous releases and reliably excellent records from more established artists. The scene is as far-ranging as ever, with musicians taking pages from late 1980s New York to Revolution Summer to the heyday of 1990s alternative and noise rock to create memorable hooks and breakdowns.

Nov 18, 2024 | popmatters.com | Brian Stout

Crimes V2 Twenty years ago, the United States was in the middle of a war, fanning the flames of a dubious type of patriotism, and the Christian Right were trying to impose their worldview on the rest of us. It’s a good thing we got past all that, right? The Blood Brothers released Crimes in an election year, and its unsettling vision is starting to feel evergreen 20 years after its release.

Nov 14, 2024 | popmatters.com | Brian Stout

Emergency & I DeSoto The Dismemberment Plan perfectly captured the feelings of 20-something uncertainty and anxiety on Emergency & I. It remains a touchstone for those who experienced it in real time because its images of trudging off to temporary work, trying to save relationships not worth saving, and feeling isolated resonated deeply for those trying to find their bearings after college.