Adam Marsland
Go West
Karma Dog Records
8/10
Concept albums are a difficult tack. Double albums are even tougher. Either the tone’s off, or the lyrics are off, or the instruments are. Adam Marsland knows a thing or two about that. In the space of a few months, he has managed to assemble a collection of songs- the first he’s gathered since 2004. The result Go West is an earnest examination of a twenty-something’s journey through the heart of the country- and life- and it is anything but simple.
The …

Michael Jackson is still evidently the only thing anyone can talk about. There are tons of Michael Jackson articles, ranging from the secret behind his death to every single one of his family members. He’s dead! Just let him be. Jesus. He was popping pills like a crackwhore to stay exceptionally scary-looking, and one of those drugs killed him. There, I solved the mystery of his death. Just call me Nancy Drew Jr. I’m just glad Melissa Joan Rivers made the first Molestor Michael joke, it means the …

Wheat
White Ink Black Ink
The Rebel Group
8/10
Wheat definitely started out as a four piece – over a decade ago, I might add; however, their own bio refers to them as “3 guys in a basement.” Yet nearly all of the photos I could find, including those on the group’s official website and myspace, feature just two individuals- confusing, to say the least. Confusing, just like the album cover with its giraffes, rhinos and ostriches in a bed of flowers whose centerpiece is a Buddhist statue enjoying a milkshake while the …

Only For The Night, Pickaxe, and The Sleeping Sea King
Romano’s
July 18, 2009
Let me tell you about these new guys in town called Only For The Night. One of the guitar players and I used to date. Three of the five guys played together in a band called Fight To The Last. One of them is married. One of them is a drummer. Together, they are fucking brilliant.
I was excited when I heard their demos on www.myspace.com/oftn, but when I saw them live is when I fell in love. A lot …

Willie Nelson
American Classic
Blue Note
9/10
I don’t care if you’re a redneck with a Jeff Gordon tattoo, a 19 year old pot smoking wigger from Nebraska or Woody fuck Harrelson, you know, and I know, that Willie Nelson is a badass. He does what he wants, how he wants to and no one gives him shit for it. He wants to play a rock festival, he plays a rock festival. Garth Brooks tries that shit, he’s gonna get booed. Willie does it, and people are gonna light up a doobie and …

A week ago I joined my friends at the OC Epicrew to brave a deep fried expedition through the wonders of the Orange County Fair. Rather then attempt to describe this flavor adventure and the delicious horrors I was witness to with my eyes, and at times even with my mouth, I thought it might be fun to make a little game of it.
Play along at home and experience the the mystery and surprise for yourself, just as if you were actually there!

This issue marks part one of “Deck,” a five part series on the hipster lifestyle. In this installment, we explore the subculture’s impact on that perennial favorite of young people, the alternative comic through the eyes of a comic book artist and resident who has seized on the frustration of hipster gentrification to create something subversive: a work of humor.
When Michael Schliefke rode his bike through his neighborhood in East Austin several years ago, little did he know that the incident would serve as fodder for a multivolume comic, …