There’s something elemental about Hogtied by @slowmassmusic.com It’s the kind of the song that feels like I’ve known it for years the first time I heard it. It’s a highlight of last years most slept on punk album. “Afraid of heights but not the fall…” music.apple.com/us/album/hog...

A sound track for the deeply stupid moment we’re all living through. “Fuck fuck fuuuuuck.”

Really love the production on the new Tigers Jaw. It’s just the right amount of grit for an album chock full of slow burn maudlin at 2 am anthems. The vocals in particular crush on this album. “The version of the person that you miss does not exist.” music.apple.com/us/album/lig...

Imajica, I was still in middle school and just plucked it off my parents shelf because the cover was interesting.

Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Isn’t this what we wanted? Some major rock and roll problems.

Screamy hardcore goes full on melodic isn’t a rarity, but I don’t know that it’s ever been executed at the level Piano Becomes the Teeth pulled off. Keep You is mournful, moving and evocative. Genuinely one of my favorites of the 10s. “It’s not the thought that counts, it’s the pulling through”

My top albums for 2025 #MusicSky

Weird Al has the opportunity to do the funniest thing right now.

It’s been an absolutely phenomenal month for guitar centric albums. Pile, Deftones, Pool Kids, The World is a Beautiful Place, La Dispute, Big Thief and Fleshwater have all put out good to great albums. It’s choice paralysis every time I want to put something on.

every day there are more reasons to leave spotify – ethical, political, sonic – and fewer reasons to stay. not gonna hound anyone about it, but if playlists are the thing you can't imagine life without, then it's worth considering a change

Arcarsenal Beware! Beware!

I think this is a really tough and honest blog about the frustration of the business of being a creative and the toll it can take on you. I think this is frequently just as true for musicians, or visual artists, or anyone who makes their living putting a piece of themselves out into the world.

This is excellent

Hard to overstate how big an impact this album had on me. It was the first album I discovered that wasn’t via the radio or MTV and lead to a complete shift in how I sought out music. And it holds up better than almost anything else I can think of from 00.

Good recommendation. I’ve always liked La Dispute, but their past albums have never hit me as hard as their 2025 output has. Consistently urgent, and some phenomenal vocal deliveries on the four songs I’ve heard this year.

For bands that mix the heavy and elegiac, a popular evolution is to “make the pretty parts prettier and the heavy parts heavier”. It’s seldom a move I love, but it sure as hell works for Holy Fawn. Everything is just so textured and pleasurable to listen to. “Shining quietly beneath the moon…”

I’ve got my money on Hey What by Low.

In honor of the Denver Nuggets

Now my most anticipated album for 2025

Checks out

I love this album so much. And I really enjoy IHOTV becoming a reliable place to find intersting music criticism.

This is just a really special piece. A personal essay on an album that is intensely personal for so many of us. Read it if you have a chance.

New Arms Length on its way? Pretty excited for this one

A topic near and dear to my heart. The recommendations I’ve see on how to most efficiently support artists you love: 1. If they’ve got a Patreon, donate. 2. Buy merch from a bands own website or bandcamp. 3. Buy presale tickets to their shows. 4. Buy Merch at their show.

A song for these times if ever there was one. “Give me snapping of the brain.”

“Holiday” by Turnstile IS a Christmas song

The new A Place for Owls is front to back beautiful, moving autumnal emo. But more often than not it starts on track 3 for me. It’s not that the opening tracks aren’t good. It’s because the second track, ‘hourglass’ is a lament centered on miscarriage whose specific details completely breaks me.

The best kind of dad rock. “I recorded your heartbeat/it’s 133….”

My Replay for the year. All great albums. #Foxing #LosCampesinos #StayInside #StateFaults #FourTer

I’ve never really had a hot temper, instead when I do get angry I get calm and cold. For a decade and a half, this has been my run through a wall anthem. TVOTR seethes with a disquieting menace on DLZ, determined to make some very bad choices. This is beginning to feel like the dog wants a bone…

One thing I’m interested in is how to best support the artists we love. My understanding is the best ways to do this are: 1. If they’ve got a Patreon, donate 2. Buy merch directly from a website they run. 3. Buy merch at one of their shows. What else am I missing? #musicsky #music

A great bit of euphoric criticism capturing the excitement of a great surprise release.

Alright, this Kendrick album goes down real easy

A dozen years in and How to Dress Well’s mission to deconstruct R&B and pop into weird shapes and alluring textures continues to result in sonically fascinating pop nuggets. No Light’s big hooky refrain is too sticky sweet to be completely buried by the distortion it’s drenched in.

Good Looks does heartland rock better than just about anyone around right now. A Day of Judgement is a languid fever dream of a song, a tale of religious hypocrisy and love and grace in spite of it. It’s beautiful and heavy, like a hot, humid day in high August. A day of judgement is coming…

As it turns out, Ben Quad can put out catchy, inervating, screamo just as adroitly as they dropped top tier pop-punk indebted Emo. A great zag and display of range by one of my favorite new Emo bands. My hearts run empty to a single drop….

Be Safe’s Unwell may have released earlier in the year, but it’s unquestionably a late fall/earlh winter album. Its slowcore laments have been hitting amidst the short days and growing cold for me in a way. A phenomenal way to feel a bit adrift in the world. I’m a replaceable man….

Give me snapping of the brain.