GAD! Zine

         Call it glitch goth, bedroom pop, or some form of slowed down hyper pop. Whatever genre this EP fits in, it should be viewed as something unique and special. This is Akikzza’s (Kikky Jackson) second or third release but the first in its style. Ranging from the melancholy opening track “hello” to the partially hip hop tracks “lost” and “mom i made it”, both of which feature phenomenal verses from local rappers ZENCII and Rain Swann respectively. The glitchy drums and almost 8-bit instrumentation at times gives the record an incredibly original sound, especially when compared to other musical projects coming out the southeast region. Instrumental tracks like “busy” and “shroomie” offer intermissions of sorts between the heavy hitting pitch-shifted vocal bits that have on some listens brought me to tears. Lyrically, the EP adopts a consistent idea filled with well-crafted personal concepts that only Akikkza could write. In the spirit of concept records, al...

              COOL SPLIT ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      Lighthouse ’s “It’s No Time To Care” is a very cool song that starts like an early New Order tune. Mostly a very “clean” sounding recording, but the music wraps around and envelops ya like the best shoegaze always does . Dreamy stuffs. Also, this may be some of Jesse N.’s best vocals to date. “A Closed Door” is almost a counterpoint to the tune before it. Chunky garage-iness. The drums just pound the floor and rattle the lights. Of the two LH songs, this one’s the rocker, not to say that the other is a recliner.     Comic Mischief ’s “Baked Ziti” is a dizzy little dash of indie poppiness. Somewhere between the Smiths, early New Order, and The Dead Milkmen. In other words, they don’t sound like any of those bands but I like those bands, too, and I’m sleepy, so I’ll lump them all together. Dig those harmonies! “That time I almost died at The Coffee Bar in Gadsden, AL on Janu...

I’ve been following these guys since before they even fully formed this group. I’ve performed with three of them in a couple of other longtime and one-off projects and they’re seriously among the best musicians the northeast Alabama region has to offer. In preparation for the release of their first full length “You Can Call Me Anything You Want” they’ve given us a taste of what’s ahead with “Fool’s Gold”. The single features lead vocals from guitarist Kody Martinez that really nail the 70’s rock sound the band regularly reinvents with a small hint of the folk rock that was big in that same era. He is, of course, backed by the rest of the band with noteworthy harmonies. The dueling guitar work from Kody and Zane Probus is always a highlight of seeing the band live, but it really comes to a front during the jam driven solo section of this single. On the bass, Sam Summerhill delivers a driving, but not too busy, bass line that catapults the song to something of a “summer anthem”, Simil...

    The year is 2025. The state of punk is in a weird place, reminiscent of some sort of inverted, Bizarro reality: every conservative ideal 2 allied so arduously against during the Reagan era has infected the country 10,000 fold, but many punks of that era have swallowed the MAGA Kool-Aid and have fallen victim to the same system they once decried. Despite this, there are some caveats to living in the mirror world. For one thing, Tiger Hellicide are good now.      The band's latest offering, The River Squid, feels like the culmination of decades of sprawling escapades into experimentation with the depths of dissonance cataclysmically coming to fruition, This record, quite simply, kicks ass. In the most cathartic, lived-in, gritty, real life, authentic way, portraying the suffering wrought by the mundanity of middle-of-nowhere existence that only the most daring, non-pretentious, working class post-punk can. Tiger Hellicide have transcended their mortal form and...

      Jesse Norris ’ latest (and strongest) from solo project Phantom Eye is a near-perfect blend of post-punky romanticism and basement diary. Album opener “The Horns In Your Heart May Stop You” immediately evokes the sonics of Joy Division and early New Order , but is craftily adapted to soundtrack the inner dramas and traumas of the artist. “Girl (2025 Version)” has the unenviable task of following "THIYHMSY" but it  kills at that assignment. It has just as much throb as its 2024 predecessor but with more nuance. And feeling. All songs here offer the listener varying degrees of wistful melancholia. Pieces like “Drowned Out” kinda lead one to hear the last 30-plus years of the Cure if it had been recorded in the first 10 (imaginary) years. Or vice versa? For Mr. Norris (who wrote and produced and played all the instruments), For Want Of is the culmination of 5 years of personal struggle, growth, and just working through shit. Kinda mad at myself for mentionin...

[Editor's Note: I wrote two reviews for one album (this time on purpose!). The first is my REAL review. The second is a "funny" one I wrote to show members of the band as a goof.] TOWU - Hometown R.I.P., TOWU (That's short for "Rest In Peace, The Old World Underground). Gadsden's own indie-proto-post-punky band of miscreants are calling it quits, or more like moving on to other racket(s). But first they have some last minute business to attend to, that being Hometown. And what a way to wrap it up! The record opens with "Broad", with its deceptive as hell intro. Jesse Norris is frantic and rambling and probably the most confident in his voice I've ever heard. I've previously complimented their use of saxophone. It doesn't just honk in Faux-No-Wave and it doesn't cheese up everything. Dude's a proper artist. The music is scatterbrained (in a good way). Jumping from style to style a million times in a tune is a trap that...

  Live documentation of what must've been an intense performance. Corinna Cybele conducts soundscapes that are equal parts beauty and violence. Raw and primal and dangerous and all-encompassing. I dig it. -Harmless Subhymnal on Bandcamp Subhymnal on Facebook This review originally appeared in GAD! Zine issue 27