Soil Compilation

Music
When We Were Young in Las Vegas, 2025 Festival Preview

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This weekend, Las Vegas will host the fourth edition of When We Were Young. A festival celebrating the scene out in the desert holds more than you’ve bargained for as 53 bands take on 4 stages in 1 day. A whirlwind for every pair of vans and fishnets in the pit, it’s Christmas in October for many. Here is your stage by stage preview of When We Were Young 2025.

Online Content
Ethical Gaming: Choices, God, and “How Fish Is Made”

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Developer Wrong Organ’s existential horror game “How Fish is Made” left me with some deeper questions about the nature of choice in the broader context of our existence. If the only way forward is death, does it matter what choices you make in the meantime?

Sports
Heartland Domination: All Iowa as the Hawkeyes shutout Wisconsin, 37-0

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Iowa silenced Camp Randall with a statement 37-0 shutout over Wisconsin, reclaiming the Heartland Trophy for a fourth straight year and notching their first road shutout against the Badgers since 1929. Behind Kamari Moulton’s breakout performance and a smothering defense that snagged two interceptions from defensive linemen, the Hawkeyes looked every bit like Big Ten contenders.

Music
Album Review

Review: A Place to Bury Strangers – Onwards To The Wall

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By Gabrielle Pawlikowski A Place To Bury Strangers’ eighth EP, Onwards To The Wall, is a fifteen minute maelstrom of industrial noise. Against a percussive backdrop of repetitive pummeling, distorted guitars ferociously wail and Oliver Ackermann croons of lost love in a manner so bleak it is almost deadpan. The result: a visceral unleashing of emotion that is both defiant and triumphant. The EP is drenched with the band’s characteristic use of feedback and reverb, stemming from effect petals custom made by Ackermann. The innovative effects are tightly coiled to create five nuggets of post-punk inspired melodies wrapped in an … Continued

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APTBS

Review: High Highs- High Highs EP

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By Keith Evanson If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. Lately, this has been the case in the indie world. Musical acts Rubblebucket, Cults, and Battles can all testify to this statement, as they have gone from dominating the New York City music scene to now conquering the rest of the country, as well as the blogosphere. High Highs have a lot to be happy about. The past couple of years they have taken over the New York underground music scene. At SXSW last year, they completely killed their set. Now they have just … Continued

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Review: Lana Del Rey – Born to Die

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By Keith Evanson Video Games. This one single song has started a whirlwind of buzz, praise, criticism, and controversy within the music blogosphere concerning an artist that, prior to its release, flew under the radar. The song itself is beautiful sounding to me—elegant harps and strings surrounded by an angelic vocal, and a fantastic chorus built on a lovely melody. To put it plainly, I think the song is great. The music video is perplexing, though. It features Lana’s ginormous lips mouthing the lyrics in a sultry, sexy manner, which isn’t too unusual to see in modern pop videos. What … Continued

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Review: Bright Giant – Kings & Queens of Air

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By Keith Evanson Straight outta Des Moines, Iowa, Bright Giant exists to fill your ears with fuzzy distortion and crunchy guitar licks. Front man Josh Davis, who founded The Josh Davis Band, an alt-country band active in the early 2000s, has now broken out of his country shell (mostly), and created a new monster: Bright Giant. The local band released a 5 track EP in the summer of 2010, and since then they have been writing new material for their breakout album, “Kings and Queens of Air.” I can’t really describe the LP more accurately then by simply stating the … Continued

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Bright Giant

Review: The Gimps – Bath Salts

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By Keith Evanson Methamphetamine, heartbreak, and crime. The second LP from the country/folk/southern rock-inspired band, The Gimps, invites you to the depressing world of the rural south. Band members Johnny Nova and Chris Matule don’t even live in the same region of the U.S (Nova lives in Atlanta, Matule lives in San Francisco.) They record music in their own home studios, and send each other mixes via FTP. The large distance between the two band mates can be easily heard within the mostly muddled mixes of ideas and sounds. The band has yet to find a distinguished sound. “If Had … Continued

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The Gimps Bath Salts

Review: Atlas Sound – Parallax

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By Nick Lovelace Bradford Cox is one of the most prolific artists in recent memory, having released a total of 14 full-length albums as the front-man of Deerhunter and as Atlas Sound, the moniker of his solo project, since 2005. This isn’t to mention the vast amount of music he’s recorded and shared on his blog. This guy has so many ideas when it comes to music, and it’s amazing that he’s consistently able to sift through his vast body of work to construct a cohesive and thoughtful album. Whether we’re talking about Atlas Sound or Deerhunter, not one of … Continued

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Review: Fool’s Gold – Leave No Trace

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By Alina Perez Gomez Fool’s Gold is back with their second studio album, Leave No Trace, from IAMSOUND Records.  It is a different style from their self-titled debut album released in 2009.  Luke Top and Lewis Pesacov formed this collective to explore their interest in African music styles, but their second album proves they have found their own style. Leave No Trace is a 10-track mini-vacation.  Many tracks have a tropical sound, with a mix of electronic styling.  I had the first three tracks on constant repeat, “Wild Window” being my favorite track of the album.  It is a dance … Continued

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Review: Wild Flag – Wild Flag

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By Riley Ubben Whenever anyone in the music blogosphere talks about Wild Flag, the band’s riot grrrl credentials almost always seem to be the primary focus. Sure, everyone loves to throw around the “supergroup” tag, but the success of these ladies’ past projects (Sleater-Kinney, Helium, The Minders) certainly isn’t the only reason for their success now. Plenty of supergroups make headlines every year, but rarely do these projects deliver. I mean, have you heard Loutallica? The reason Wild Flag’s debut is still relevant is because it’s one of the few releases of the year that rocks. And I mean really rocks—the … Continued

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Review: Peter Wolf Crier – Garden of Arms

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By Blake Carlson-Joshua Frontman Peter Pisano and drummer Brian Moen, Peter Wolf Crier, take the power of two musicians to a whole new level in their highly-anticipated second album, Garden of Arms. In a music scene riddled with alternative folk duos, Peter Wolf Crier have perfected one crucial element that sets them apart from others: the ability to sound complex. After the success of their debut album, Inter-Be, the Minneapolis based duo had a lot to live up to. They played 100 different shows around the country in a short six month time period. When they were done they sat … Continued

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Review: Blitzen Trapper – American Goldwing

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By Rob Rodriguez  Blitzen Trapper simply rocks. I don’t know of another band that can consistently pump out great albums without a disappointing change in style. American Goldwing picks up right where Destroyer of the Void and Furr leave off. As always, the album offers a bit of everything. There is a cornucopia of sound; banjos, 70’s style synthesizers, and blaring harmonicas. You will nod your head to the guitar licks and then close your eyes in appreciation of all the beautiful southern melody. The album doesn’t skip a beat, opening loudly with the riff-heavy “Mind Find It Cheap.” But if you’re like me, you stay … Continued

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