(As the scrawl on the cover says, “There’s no glory in love, only the gore of our hearts,” once again we find Julien Baker turning the camera back at herself on Little Oblivions.) Six years ago Julien Baker dropped Sprained Ankle and then followed it up with Turn Out the Lights only two revolutions around the sun later. After a brief stint with Boygenius (the supergroup she co-founded with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus), Baker’s...

20 – Deftones – Ohms Ohms, the 9th Studio Album from Alternative Metal trailblazers the Deftones is aggressive, persistent, and polished. Ohms is their best album since their 2010 hit Diamond Eyes that came out after the death of long time bassist Chi Cheng. Lead Singer Chino Moreno is able to create vocals that can be so gentle yet so vicious presenting an album that you need to listen to more than once to fully...

Looking back at Pop Smokes short but legendary career feels like it was over before it really even started. In the posthumous release of his first commercial album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon Pop delivers a complete album from start to finish and is a showcase of the lost potential of one of rap’s quickest rising stars. The album is a meld of the grungy bangers of New York’s drill scene, slow...

Nothing good ever happens after 2am. The late night pursuit of please can often lead us into self inflicted wounds and irrevocable decisions but often makes the most memorable stories. The Weeknd’s latest album After Hours is a retrospective of his choices and the circumstances he now lives in. The album’s cover art is a bloody and beaten up version of Abel Tesfaye’s alter ego “The Weeknd” smiling looking down at the camera embracing what...

The new decade has already seen the release of Mac Miller’s posthumous album, Circles—an early candidate for best of the year. 2019 was seemingly one of the greatest years, in recent memory, for music. It was a year of explosive political chaos, revolutions, healing, and glamour. 2020 should be no different, having already begun with an extra goodbye given to us by Miller. Music’s heavyweights are set to drop new albums in 2020, some even...

It’s easy to judge a drug addict if you’ve never lived in the lifestyle of distorted reality. This confusion often can spiral into unimaginable self harm. I know because I myself  have been there and still fight a daily battle against addiction. Jarad A. Higgins A.K.A. Juice WRLD’s death hit me extra hard not because I’m an enormous fan of his music and not because I empathize with addicts but because now as I listen...

In the chorus of “God Is,” Kanye West proclaims: “this is a mission, not a show.” During the first half of 2019, Kanye was hosting performances, gatherings hell-bent on salvation, properly-titled Sunday Services. At these shows, Kanye, along with his choir and other musical collaborators, would perform gospel tunes in private—though miscellaneous photographs and recordings managed to get leaked. At Coachella, Kanye’s Sunday Service performance was live-streamed. With the release of Jesus Is King, Kanye...

As a self-proclaimed music addict, I’m always seeking out new events where I can get my melodic fix. To score, I scan through promotional emails and the various event organizers that I follow on Instagram. After doing so, I’m able to fill up my schedule with the diverse musical musings that San Diego offers. When I did my usual digging two weeks ago, I landed upon an event that piqued my interest – Brooklyn Emo...

Over the last few months I have networked over social media and email with many different people from separate communities to get my site ready for launch. Making connections is important in this industry and paramount to any form of growth. I have viewed @thesdcollective through the lens of Instagram, we have many mutual friends so they kept popping up on my explorer page, I eventually gave them the follow. Through word of mouth I had loosely heard that they threw amazing exclusive parties and were generally a great group of people. I reached out to the founder Stacie Daigle and asked to do a profile on one of their events. This was in August 2019 and she told me that they were taking a small break from their big events until Halloween. I made sure that I got some early bird tickets before they sold out.